We ran out of gas. We, we had a flat tire. We didn’t have enough money for cab fare. Our tuxes didn’t come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole our cars. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. Locusts. IT WASN’T OUR FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD.

..reach out to the fans like that.

Reds should have been a whole lot better. And the front office feels a bit of shame that things turned out as they did.

Good for them and I hope they turn it around to give us a hard time in the years to come.

we start rebuilding next year… trust us… ?

New starting pitchers signed: Mark Prior, Matt Clement, & Julian Tavarez. For relief, Latroy Hawkins and Joe Borowski. At Catcher, Michael Barrett., 2b Grudz,

It reads more like, sorry, we screwed up, now we are rebuilding. Our bad.

would have been really interesting to see the Cubs explain some of the teams of my childhood.

Well of course the Rays are an example that this in fact can be done. And I guess the A’s and Twins do it consistently, but I can’t help but think Pirates and Royals and Reds fans have heard this for the past 20 years every freaking year.

And when Dusty Being Dusty leads to the demise of Volquez, Cueto, and Bailey, you fans will have the opportunity to see a new core of promising arms!

the Reds have done a good job of rebuilding over the past couple of seasons. Their farm system is strong and they made a great trade for both teams in Hamilton for Volquez. Griffey and Dunn should have been gone a year ago, but in fairness, word was the market for both of those players wasn’t very good.

Of course Dusty, while not as terrible a manager as some around here think, is an absolutely terrible fit for the Cincinnati Reds. That may keep them under .500 for years to come.

To answer your question, yes. P. K. Wrigley, then owner of the Cubs, wrote a letter to fans and published it in all the papers ( at least four papers back then). It was a full page ad actually. He did this in September of 1971. In it, he told the fans that Leo Durocher was his manager and would be for the future. The players, chief among them, Ron
Santo, were rebelling against Leo. Wrigley called them the “Dump Durocher clique.” He wrote they “might as well give up.” Santo spent one glorious year at Comiskey Park, being one of the first players to challenge a trade, which would eventually lead to no-trade clauses. It’s hard to find any information on line, but here’s a link.

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-8938066_ITM

Here’s a quote from another link:
http://www.nwherald.com/articles/2008/03/30/sports/sunday_special/doc47ef4f650691e938362825.txt

"ILL COMMUNICATION

Tempers flared in the summer of 1971, when a large schism developed between Durocher and his players. Durocher and his coaches sat on one end of the bench. The players huddled at the other.

On the morning of August 23, things came to a head. Durocher called out one of his pitchers. A number of players came to their teammate’s aid. Durocher responded with a profanity-laced tirade. Players called for the manager’s resignation. A brawl nearly ensued.

At the time, the Cubs were 4.5 games out of first place. Twenty-two days later, they were 15 games back.

Needless to say, any relationship between Durocher and his players was permanently damaged. Yet P.K. Wrigley stuck with his manager.

"Leo is the manager and the ‘dump Durocher clique’ might as well give up," Wrigley wrote in early September. "He is running the team, and if some of the players do not like it and lie down on the job, during the offseason, we will see what we can do to find them happier homes."

Durocher resigned in July of 1972. Upon his resignation, Wrigley said, "If the Cubs don’t win now, we’ll know the players are the ones who are really to blame.""

The SI vault also has a short piece on it.

Cincinnati is in good hands with Walt Jocketty as GM. Owner Bob Castellini also seems highly committed to restoring baseball excellence in Cincy. But it’s going to take some time. Former GM Wayne Krivsky laid some nice groundwork.

It will be interesting to see if Jocketty retains Dusty. I can’t for a nano-second belive that Jocketty is fan of Dusty. I’m not sure I’d want Dusty being the guy responsible for nurturing, developing and mentoring high grade talents like Jay Bruce, Joey Votto, Edison Volzquez, Johnny Cueto….and other young talent that will start to make it’s way onto the roster.

I would say that future is very much in doubt, especially when he was just quoted as saying that the players he has are “Wayne Krivsky’s team. It’s not my team.” That’s class all the way. It’s no wonder the 2006 Cubs almost accomplished the impossible: creating a fan base that hated the team.

You don’t have to go all the way back to the 1970’s. In the 1990’s, the Reds finished in first place three times (1990, 1994, 1995). Cincinnati won the World Series in 1990. They won 90 games in 1992 and lost a one-game wild card playoff to the Mets in 1999. Now, they are working on their eighth straight losing season.

Jocketty and Baker have been a part of pennant winning teams in the past. I thought the Reds would be a third place not a last place team this season. 2008 has had to be a disappointing season for Cincinnati fans. I don’t think the Reds have many fans any longer who live more than about 2 hours away from Great American Ball Park.

…I think the letter is a decent gesture by the front office. Trading Jr. was a no brainer, probably should have been done in prior seasons. I don’t agree with the Dunn deal. It’s not like you have to double his salary to keep him and he’s very productive, it’s hard to find production like that at that age. But Jockety made a many great moves with STL and now he has freed some money to re-build.

But back to my post tag, Dusty must be in shock right now, all of his horses gone and he’s got to skipper a horseless ship for the remainder of the season. Do you think he’ll walk away in the off season if the Reds decide to go with a youth movement ? I just don’t see Dusty enjoying himself without his horses.

…else for their last place finish? When they are 30 games out you can bet bullshit will on the other end of the line, relentless…

With all the rough years the Cubs have had it sure made me remember what it felt like during those years. I know how the Reds Fans feel right now, been there too many times. I wish the Reds all the best in rebuilding. Its not good for any baseball team, or for the league itself, if a team continues to be a perennial loser. As for Dusty, he did well in SF, not so well for the Cubs. But, I hope he does good in helping the Reds come back to beat everyone ELSE in the NL central. :)