A team so likeable a month ago has turned every night into one big groan. A team whose scoreboard keepers blasted Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down’’ after home Ws now needs to flip the record to “Freefallin,’’ as my colleague Bobby Nightengale suggested this AM.
(Someone you know and love requested in print a few months ago that the team use Won’t Back Down to honor victories. Just sayin’.)
After yet another L, this one to the 4-A Pirates, watching the Reds has become like oral surgery without drugs. Another possible theme song: What’s Going On?
I don’t like to say a team chokes. In fact, I don’t think I ever have, unless someone on the team cops to it. Tucker Barnhart came close after 5-6 on Tuesday night. "I think it's human nature when things aren't going the right way to, maybe, try to get a little more instead of maybe relaxing and playing. I can only speak for myself, but it's hard not to get wrapped up in it a little bit," Barnhart said.
Yup.
The Reds right now are a Psychology student’s dissertation. How does a group that for nearly five months played with such bravado suddenly go fetal?
Is pressing more of a reason than a lack of Winker?
Proving choking is like proving insanity. It’s not an objective take.
