Don't Let A Sportswriter Tell You How To Think

In a sense, this is a new series. One game, winner take all. The past two days don't matter, nor do the 8 more wins we need after today is done. All that matters is today.

CBS blowhard C. Trent Rosecrans doesn't feel that way. He wrote a column last night about how all of us have given up hope on our team. How the Reds believe, but we don't.

Don't let a columnist tell you how to think, Reds Nation.

It's easy to write this one off like any other article that plays to the lowest common denominator of Reds Nation. Billy Wayne in Cheviot calling in to WLW and taking Lance McAlister's incessant baiting about how Drew Stubbs strikes out too much. Those who question every decision Dusty Baker makes, even if it's the correct one. That's who will send the link to this to their friends, and say, "Somebody GETS us!" is who this article is for. Don't listen to him.

The sad thing about this, is that C. Trent should know better. He lives here. He should know that what he said isn't true, unless he stopped paying attention and only started following the team on WLW and Twitter. This city used to employ him before he grew out of this small pond (read: the paper nobody read went under and the local ESPN affiliate decided that their blog experiment totally didn't work). Yes, the former proprietor of The Lot D isn't the blogger on our side anymore.

He's now taken to lambasting a city he knows (and presumably likes… since, you know, he lives here), because the tickets are cheap online and easy to find. He may have forgotten that this is a working class town at its core, and that most people who bought NLDS packs weren't expecting a game today after how the weekend went. How that most people don't want to take a second (or third) day in a row off of work, after the past two days have been afternoon games. No, he's blaming us for the team playing badly, and saying that we shouldn't be disillusioned at this point.

Excuse me? I get that we should be supportive of the team in all instances, and agree with that premise, but can he not take a stroll in our shoes for a second there? I don't blame the disillusioned fans one bit for not wanting to come out for another game. After sitting through 19 innings of shit-sandwich baseball (in 40-50 degree weather), and watching our team play without the intensity that got them there, I can understand how some wouldn't want to keep putting themselves through that. The most human reaction you can think of is that after spending 8 hours watch something not work, that we shouldn't be chomping at the bit for more. Of course, the question this begs is if our expectations were too high.

Were they? I don't think it was too much to ask after a 97-win regular season and two gutty wins in San Francisco (where the team was firing on all cylinders), that they win a game. Not even disrespecting the team in the other dugout, because they've fought back as valiantly as we've seen a team do this year. If they go home to stay today, they'll know full well they've given us all we can handle.

That's not to say that our boys haven't tried hard, because it's obvious they have. Mike Leake didn't know he was pitching a playoff game when he woke up yesterday morning, and kept the team in the game for 5 innings. Drew Stubbs can't fix his long-standing tendency to strike out in between at-bats. Don't we know what we're getting with Stubbs already? He's a speedy baserunner, an above average defender, and a below average hitter who can poke the occasional long-ball. Why is he getting criticized for being what he is?

The frustration may have boiled over with some fans, but that seems like only the vocal minority. The majority of us will be there today, win or lose. Plenty of us have had to call off work for this, because we'll be there to support our team. We don't matter to C. Trent Rosecrans.

Get excited, folks. This is what baseball is all about. That elimination game, and we get it at home, with only the die-hards in attendance. There won't be as many people there as the past few days, but the people who will be there are the boldest of the bold. We believe in the team, regardless of what some sportswriter says we believe.

No, this fan base isn't going to be demanding 100 bucks a ticket on game day, regardless of situation., like a New York or Boston or L.A. This isn't the same city as any of those, and Trent should know better.