Some industrious Reds fan with editing equipment and a lot of time made a hype video to match the audio of the Avengers: Endgame trailer. There’s not a lot to mock here. It’s pretty good, although there’s a moment of perhaps inadvertent flippancy when the line “all these people are dying” is cued to a closeup of Joey Votto.
There’s an admirable sense of history here (“I know I said no more surprises” is paired with images of the 1990 World Series upstart sweep), as well as acknowledgement of present difficulties (“Sometimes the best we can do is start over” leads to images of—well, the Reds, and “Whatever it takes” is laid over footage of Lorenzen dual roleing and Senzel in a minor league uniform.)
As homemade hype goes, it’s quite well done, but this video wasn’t made for people like me, who are largely in a good place after the last Avengers movie, which ended with mostly of my favorites in place (My spoily reactions to such exquisite details are here). But in baseball, we don’t always get to hang on to our favorites. And sometimes a wonderful surprise arises from Louisville or the trade wire.
The video’s sweeping views of river and bridges suggest urgency, an all-hands effort, and perhaps that’s why this year’s horrific beginning felt so crushing: We’re running out of time. It’s Marty’s final season, the sands are rushing from Operation: Get Joey a Ring, and with a 150th anniversary hyped to bobbleheads and back, there’s a sense that the rebuild has gone on quite long enough. We’re extra disappointed because we didn’t expect to be disappointed at all.
The end of the previous Avengers film, Infinity War, is marked by various characters digitally disintegrating, some more satisfyingly than others. It felt like that’s what was happening three weeks ago, the season flitting off like embers before it even got started. With a sweep of the Marlins, a winout of the Braves series, and an even-steven record with the Cardinals, it’s tempting to believe that the corner has been turned.
But even multi-run leads aren’t safe from the bullpen, and the offense seems to have all the stability of a half-eaten Butterfinger knocking around the dryer. You expect it to all fall apart at any moment. Scooter Gennett is weeks away from starting, Votto with his weird choppy half-swing looks like he’s playing hurt, and now the Cardinals loom.
The Reds’ front office is emphasizing that they have started over, that they are doing whatever it takes, but when the same pitcher who last week startled himself with a hit to the point where he failed to run to first is a bigger RBI threat than the starting right fielder, perhaps it’s time to start asking some questions.
Maybe some surprises are in store. Maybe we’re not anywhere near the end of the beginning. But when the greatest moments of a team seem as if they consist of archival footage ensconced in a top of the tech museum, we can be excused if it feels like ash from time to time.
Agreed. So many parts of being a Reds fan (Marty, Joey, 150) lend themselves to a feeling of “wouldn’t it be great if we just win NOW?” …and when we don’t, there’s the inevitably-resulting feeling of “well, if we can’t win now, when CAN we win?”
Memo to Self:
New Skipper.
New Pitching Coach.
New Hitting Coach.
New (to the Reds) Players.
…Including New Pitchers.
We’re 24 games in. Fully 85% of the season is still in front of us.
So…why the sense of urgency? I’m not sure…but I feel it, too.
BEAT ST. LOUIS
Oooooh, 85% of the season left? Even that’s the kind of math I get. I like it.
As in life, our most precious commodity is TIME. In such a tough division the Reds have to linger around .500 for the next month or so in order to take full advantage of the return of Senzel/Gennett/Wood. If they don’t play well until then there won’t be time to stack up enough wins to make meaningful September baseball a reality.
That’s a great point, and ties in with what Lance M was talking about concerning rain delays this afternoon.
9-7 since the disastrous, and the start was not nearly as bad as last year. And this is without hitting. There is much to be optimistic about, at least for now.
You make a good point… it’s nice to want the championship, but also important to remember that just a winning season is an improvement at this point.
I think we can draw the line of prettiness at a Butterfinger in the dryer. But I’ll take it.
Many thanks Pete 🙂 I’m done for the month but will be back in May for the stupid Cubs TWICE, yo.
I really appreciate your reply and how we can express different opinions here without making the world a worse place. Let’s what happens tonight… I’d far prefer you to be right than I am on this one.
jries, thanks so much. This truly helps put it all in perspective… I was around for these seasons, but largely in it for the Topps stickers and the sad Riverfront hot dogs.