Editor's Note: This is a weekly column from former sports reporter and editor Mike Bass. Bass will be contributing to The Enquirer by offering advice for sports fans, athletes and youth sports parents and coaches through a weekly Q&A. You can reach him at [email protected] or on Twitter @SportsFanCoach1. Some tweets have been edited.
You are a Reds fan.
You were supposed to be recovering from the Cincinnati Bengals’ Super Bowl loss by welcoming spring training and looking ahead to Opening Day and Cincinnati’s unofficial holiday.
Instead, you get a lockout.
You get Commissioner Rob Manfred canceling the first two series of the season.
You get ticked.
“My wife and I finally got Opening Day tickets this year for the first time ever,” @ABshibs tweeted to me Wednesday. “She is expecting our second child on April 12 so the March 31 opening day date was doable. Now it likely isn’t. Thank you Manfred.”
More:Bass column: I welcome all Bengals fans. I changed. I was wrong.
Whether this is your first or your latest work stoppage, it always feels unfair when you suffer because baseball owners and players can’t get along. You might feel angry, frustrated, dejected. It might stay with you. If you followed the Reds in 1981 and 1994, you still feel tormented.
If you follow the Reds lately, the lockout is one more reason to feel like a crash-test dummy.
“(Fed) up with the whole situation, and the Reds unwillingness to pay what it takes to put a competitive team on the field on a routine basis,” @slm32181 tweeted.
You could tell yourself that if the Bengals could win this season, maybe there was hope for the Reds. Except the Reds have no Joe Burrow returning. The Reds made no big additions. A few good young players were not enough to generate much hope, not from what you had seen.
Not after a late collapse in 2021 stretched the droughts to 26 (years without winning a playoff round) and 31 (without reaching/winning a World Series). Not after another salary purge since the 2020 run, this time Tucker Barnhart and Wade Miley, with Nick Castellanos sure to follow. You couldn’t even get an excitement bump from Redsfest, canceled months earlier because of COVID-19 – but at least you were spared the anger over a late scratch. The day before Redsfest was to start, MLB declared the lockout.
More:Daugherty: Really, owners and players, you call these negotiations?
And now Tuesday comes along, and Manfred announces that you will be losing games at the start of the season.
“Cancelled my opening day tickets & I am boycotting all things @MLB, specifically @Reds baseball including merch & TV until they commit to the fans the way the fans have committed to them,” @TFatbeard tweeted. “I have 2 boys 7 & under. This would have been their 1st opening day.Oldest has Bengals fever.”
“Love the Reds and love baseball but I honestly just don’t care,” @BengalTigersWin tweeted. “MLB is a joke anymore and has been for awhile.”
“Why should we care at all?” @ACarlto03367410 tweeted. “The Reds weren't going to be any good this season anyway.”
* * * * * * *
Many of you do care.
A lot.
“Mike, I feel a frustration & disappointment in #MLB today that I have never felt,” @NaughtonArt tweeted. “I was in the midst of creating my 9th Annual Opening Day Art Show @ a local BBQ Joint, I have since decided to cancel that & go with non sports art instead. Very sad day for the game & our city.”
“I'm not alright😭😭,” @lauracain32 tweeted.
I care, too. And I care about how this affects you. Which is why Wednesday, a day after MLB delayed the season,
I asked you how you are dealing with this.
“Having finally gotten Opening Day tickets, this is so disappointing and frustrating, but not surprising,” @rhondie274 tweeted. “Bring on football season!”
I also was not surprised. A little sad, a little disappointed, but my expectations for a deal were low, so it didn’t hit me as hard. (I am a bit of a nerd who follows this stuff).
Although baseball had avoided work stoppages since the 1994-95 strike, 2020 proved this one was coming. Countless games were lost during weeks of MLB-MLBPA haggling that further shortened a COVID-delayed season. Both sides worried more about Collective Bargaining Agreement leverage than looking distasteful in a pandemic. 2021 brought more of the same. Even with all that is going on in the world now, that wouldn’t change.
“I will be honest,” @crashn2dave tweeted, “it is hard to sympathize with either the players or owners after watching footage of the events in Ukraine. Baseball seems very insignificant in my opinion.”
“People fighting for their lives in Ukraine,” @markclydebobby tweeted, “and baseball greed showing America at its worst.”
Ideally, baseball can provide an escape. You can watch the game, cheer on the Reds and debate whom to blame for their issues. Now, if it feels cathartic to debate whom to blame for the lockout, or how it affects the Reds, why not?
What else would help you fill the void?
If you feel powerless because you have no control over the lockout or how long it lasts, remind yourself you can handle this. You proved it during baseball’s 2020 COVID shutdown. How did you get your baseball fix then?
Back then, all of baseball shut down. Not now.
“I was mad yesterday,” @bbar413 tweeted, “I live near Dayton, just planning on going to Dragons games!”
“Going to start following minor league ball,” @JMichaelShannon tweeted.
“Little League is fun to watch,” @bkb29JD tweeted. “Better to volunteer and coach!”
Back then, other sports shut down, too. Now you have more sports options for your Plan B.
“Still have March Madness & Masters week to keep my attention,” @BEMitch86. “Ask me again mid-April 😂.”
“College basketball and the NBA!” @lauracain32 tweeted. “I'm a Clippers fan and UK so I'm really excited for march madness!”
In Cincinnati, college basketball might not exactly be a shot of energy drink, what with UC and Xavier fading away from the NCAA Tournament field again – but maybe someone can go on a run. Or maybe FC Cincinnati can finally rise in the MLS this year. Or maybe you can relive the joy of the NFL’s biggest surprise of last season.
“I am rewatching Bengals games weekly,” @happyschaff tweeted. “That will hold me over until the draft, free agency, training camp, etc.”
* * * * * * *
Maybe the Reds will return before too long.
You can decide whether you want to return, too.
“Honestly have sort of drifted from the game the last 5 years; mostly just busy and the Reds being so bad for so long,” @benguthstew tweeted. “But I still usually watch a few games a month and go to some. A lockout that went more than a week or 2 would kill even that low interest for now.”
“To be honest until the Reds put a winning product and willing to put the effort in to win a championship I honestly don’t care about it,” @bengalsfanhicks tweeted, “baseball is on the verge of losing interest anyways!”
Tuesday still is fresh. You don’t know what to expect. The optimist might see the lockout as a necessary step toward baseball addressing its deeper issues and the Reds being better positioned to reign again. The pessimist might see little hope of baseball returning soon or the Reds being relevant when it does. The realist could look for opportunities either way and make the best of today.
More:MLB Opening Day canceled as Cincinnati Reds won't begin season on time
If those Opening Day tickets are out, how would you enjoy March 31 instead?
“Bourbon usually helps,” @ABshibs tweeted.
Which might help him, but what about his pregnant wife and his first child?
“Child No 1 will continue with Cocomelon,” he tweeted, “and the wifey I’m afraid of and afraid to speak for.”
A sense of humor doesn’t hurt, either.
Email Bass at [email protected] or reach out to him @SportsFanCoach1 on Twitter if you want to be included next week. His website is MikeBassCoaching.com.
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