More Cincinnati Reds wins than losses this season is enough for most of you

The 2022 Cincinnati Reds were positively absymal, and were positively abysmal as they actively tore down everything around them. Deals that sent away Sonny Gray, Wade Miley, and Tucker Barnhart before the season even began were backed up with deals jettisoning Luis Castillo and Tyler Mahle, and by the time the ink was dry on the record book, the club had lost an even 100 games.

Losing more games than they win has become commonplace for the Reds, sadly. Across 22 seasons dating back to 2001, they won more than they lost in just 5 seasons, with one of thsoe coming in the shortened 2020 season when they went 31-29 (and promptly lost the 2 games they played in the ‘postseason’ that year).

Winning is hard to come by. So, with the 2023 Cincinnati Reds clinging to a record just over the .500 mark at the moment with a month left to play, it prompted an important question.

Would merely posting a winning percentage over .500 this year be a success, in your mind?

As it turns out, 76% of you folks said yes.

Past failure is a key context clue here, but the collective we has allowed the Reds shame us into the point where simply being slightly better than mediocre is considered success anymore.

I say that having let them ground me down, too. I say that also knowing full well that this year, unlike last year, is a year where everything is happening on the up-and-up. Last year was the downward spiral towards rock bottom, where we were wholly unsure whether or not they’d ever get it back together. Now, we’ve seen some things, and the idea that they’ll be even better next year and the year after has begun to leak into the equation. Your collective satisfaction in finishing with more wins than losses this year isn’t just predicated on the past failures, it’s established under the context that next year will be even better.

Let’s just hope they win enough in the next four weeks to make this little exercise seem silly in the long run.

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