Reds’ World Series Hangover

Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

It is Super Bowl Sunday in our great nation.  Nothing represents the current American way of life more than today. 

Firstly, you have a majority of the population complaining and whining about tomorrow not being a “holiday,” just so that they have an excuse to get way too intoxicated to want to wake up for work in the morning. 

Secondly, football has become the mecca of American sport.  A game of gladiators in helmets, played by men that are too gigantic to hold a position in the “real world.”  For most playing, the game was a way out of poverty and despair that they were born into.  For those watching, it is a way to forget on Sundays for 21 weeks (and maybe more next season!) about how downtrodden life has gotten you. 

Thirdly, the food consumption is nauseating just to think of.  Understandably, the masses of the population could care less about the starving children on the entire continent of Africa, but while we wallow at our self-pity over a plate of chicken wings and the Seahawks zone-blocking run scheme, children the same age as yours are busy fighting off hunger pains and governmental dictatorship. 

Lastly, it represents the culture shift that our nation has taken.  The Super Bowl is fascinating because it is do or die.  There is no series when it comes to the Super Bowl, and there’s really not much strategy of hanging on for the next day.  Very rarely will baseball be lucky enough to get a Game 7 of the World Series where everything is at stake, and even at that, one team has a distinct advantage of the game being at their home ballpark.  On a neutral site, (usually in good weather, not counting this year) anything can happen.  The best team will not always rise to the top, but the team that executes will be victorious.  If these two played ten times, there’s a very real chance they’d each win five contests a piece.

 The Reds have not stiffed the World Series since 1990, making this upcoming season the 24^th anniversary of the last time they appeared on the grandest stage.  A majority of negative critics dismiss the team already, and the calendar has just struck February.  The fact of the matter is that, the Reds have a better chance at reaching the Fall Classic this year then they have in the past when Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn anchored the roster. 

Bryan Price and Billy Hamilton may prove to be the correct new formula for this team to get over their postseason snide they’ve been on since 2010.  The team returns two of the finest hitters in the game today in Joey Votto and Jay Bruce in the middle of the order, boasts one of the steadiest and most consistent starting rotations and has the most exciting relief pitcher in baseball at the back end.  Where the cameras are pointed in February, is not always where they’re pointed in late October. 

And surely, Reds fans everywhere would prefer them pointed on Cincinnati in late October with everyone in the clubhouse receiving a champagne shower with the World Series trophy glimmering in the background.