My deja vu you’re my obsession
My deja vu it’s always you
My deja vu…
”I don’t think it’s over,” Knight said. ”It feels like everybody is giving up – although, not the team – saying this is the worst team they’ve ever been around. Everyone is critical of everybody . . . finger points all around . . . it’s me . . . it’s (general manager Jim) Bowden. It’s just been bad baseball.”
http://www.cincypost.com/sports/1997/reds051997.html
Two days prior Knight had uprooted 3rd base during a dispute and slammmed it to the ground in anger, drawing a 3 day suspension from the league and giggles from Reds fans all across the nation.
Nervous giggles… If you listen real hard you can hear a few now as well.
CENTRAL W L PCT GB RS RA St. Louis 25 15 .625 - 213 167 Milwaukee 19 21 .475 6 176 160 Chicago Cubs 18 20 .474 6 171 165 Pittsburgh 17 21 .447 7 141 167 Houston 15 24 .385 9.5 138 165 Cincinnati 14 26 .350 11 183 238 Team Name W L PCT GB RS RA Houston Astros 22 20 .523 - 170 156 Pittsburgh Pirates 21 20 .512 0.5 166 198 St. Louis Cardinals 17 23 .425 4.0 154 153 Chicago Cubs 13 27 .324 8.0 164 199 Cincinnati Reds 12 28 .300 9.0 139 220
Above you’ll see the current Reds and their 14-26 record, below it is the 1997 Season, coincidently the last season that the Reds started out this bad. A season that found the Reds switching managers mid stream a season fraught with long losing and winning streaks, poor play, stagnate offense and poor pitching.
Will the Reds be able to even match the final record of 76-86 that the 1997 team ended up with, can the Reds go 62-60 the rest of the way?
Eight years ago today this quote was in the Post.
The Reds have been fooling themselves – and trying to dupe their fans – for the past two years. Even as their payroll shrunk, they continued to view themselves as contenders who were just a key player or two away from remaining a power in their division. When they couldn’t afford the good ones who became available, they took rejects from other clubs and hoped for the best.
Their fantasy came crashing down around them this spring.
http://www.cincypost.com/sports/1997/reds052097.html
How bad was it? Local Sportswriter Bill Koch grabbed at another straw straight out of the future ain’t as bright as the past section and posted this quote a week before he stated it was all over.
The Reds are a lifeless bunch without much personality. Thirteen games under .500 and eight games out of first place in mid-May, neither the forgiving National League Central Division nor baseball’s wild-card playoff setup holds much promise of rescuing this team from a long, dull summer.
So we offer a modest proposal designed to at least make them more interesting: Bring up Pete Rose Jr.
http://www.cincypost.com/sports/1997/reds051297.html
Classic solution… the team is soooooooo bad let’s bring up a worse player because his name is familar.
Lord help us.
Other notes of familarity.
Previously discussed last month was the uncanny resembalence the Rich Aurilia situation had with the Terry Pendelton situation in 1997. To compound it is the fact that Rich now dwells on the DL, apparently against his wishes and Pendelton started and pretty much finished up on the Reds DL. Another uncanny reason for their presence is found in this gem of a quote from June of 1997
If the Reds are going to keep from collapsing until he gets back, they’ll have to play a different brand of baseball than the one they’ve demonstrated to this point, a smarter, crisper, more intense version. That’s where veteran third baseman Terry Pendleton comes in. Pendleton, a former NL Most Valuable Player and a 14-year veteran, was signed by the Reds as a free agent to provide insurance at third base in case Willie Greene didn’t pan out and to offer leadership for the Reds’ young players.
So far, there hasn’t been much leadership.
Knight wants to change that.
http://www.cincypost.com/sports/1997/reds052097.html
So leadership will take care of the run diffrential and the poor offense from the FA signings Sierra and Pendelton, it will fix Larkins heel too.
Of course not, it didn’t do anything did it?
More Crazy 1997 stuff.
Further reaching into the big bag of baseball metaphors is this quote from June of 1997
The Reds are going to bunt opponents into submission.
They’re going to dazzle them with pitching, play airtight defense and execute all the little nuances that produce victories. With all-star shortstop and cleanup hitter Barry Larkin expected to miss two to six weeks with a strained left calf, manager Ray Knight was searching for alternatives Tuesday.
What he came up with was a lot of brave talk and not much substance.
Not much substance there, some small ball and teamwork comments….sound familar?
Fast Forward to 2005 and Dan O’Briens quote in the Enquirer today.
Q: “How do you give fans hope if you don’t make substantial changes?”
A: “There are two elements to this. You can change certain components. But you’ve got individuals not performing up to
their norm. It’s about doing the best you can to get them to a certain level of productivity, which automatically makes the ballclub better.”
And in the managers office Dave Miley a man who has yet to be labeled “Bubbly” had this to say after the Mets loss on Wednesday (which he was tossed out of, but did NOT throw any bases to stir his club up.)
“It is ugly and embarrassing,” he said. “You don’t have the letters on your computers and typewriters to write what I want to say.
And that’s all I’ve got for you.”
If that’s the reaction to the play (and managing) of late I would bet they won’t be getting much in return from the locals come this weekend..
Better yet, who will be the next Pete Harnish?
And where can we get Danny Graves, circa 1999?
Can we find a Greg Vaughn type who abhors facial hair so the Reds recind the facial hair policy??
Bizzaro world again….