12-14-2022, 10:47 PM
History grants perspective both good and bad.
Marge Schott died as a reviled public figure. She was undeniably racist and ill-suited for generating good PR for a national brand. He style would age even more poorly given the current climate. She was also a notorious drunk, which sometimes amplified her repugnant opinions when she would blurt things out in a haze of bad judgement. She most definitely ranks as one of the most disliked owners in the history of major pro sports.
That makes this hard to argue, but Marge was 100x the owner that Bob Castellini is.
First and foremost, her teams, while not always great, were almost always competitive. She gave a shit about the team she put on the field and she gave a shit about the fans. She was cheap on the surface, but she generally had a legit GM to run the baseball side of things that would in some ways mitigate that. She won a title in 1990. She did not like losing, and she sold the team when it became obvious that she was no longer a viable steward of the team.
Bob and crew have made the Reds, once considered the unchallenged gem of Cincinnati sports, into a hopeless joke. Fans almost unanimously understand that the team will be bad for at least two more seasons, and the owners do not care. Yes, they have accumulated a wealth of prospects. The Pirates do the same, and they have sucked for a decade in an embarrassing fashion. No fan seems to trust Bob to make anything out of these young players except for more prospects and magic beans when the time to pay them comes along.
Fact is, the Reds are a glorified money-laundering operation for the ownership as things currently stand. They make money by slashing payroll, then they pocket it. MLB cut them a 118 million dollar revenue check, yet they slash and slash. That's what the team is now. it's here to make Bob money, nothing less, nothing more. Winning does not factor in. If they need to milk the cash machine, they just cut payroll, pocket saving, rinse, repeat.
Bob is not a better owner than Marge on his best day. He will cry poor and point to the realities of the market and collective bargaining, but he won't sell to unburden himself of these financial hazards. You know why? Because the team makes him a lot of money, and to him that matters a lot more than the city or the franchise.
The league should contract the clown franchises like Cincinnati, Oakland, and Pittsburgh. These half-stepping, grifting assbag owners are why the NFL destroys MLB in viewership. Nobody wants to watch teams with 300m payrolls wax team with 70m payrolls for 162 straight days. Unless you live in a major market or have an owner that has a heart and some testicles, baseball is a waste of a sport to watch.
Marge Schott died as a reviled public figure. She was undeniably racist and ill-suited for generating good PR for a national brand. He style would age even more poorly given the current climate. She was also a notorious drunk, which sometimes amplified her repugnant opinions when she would blurt things out in a haze of bad judgement. She most definitely ranks as one of the most disliked owners in the history of major pro sports.
That makes this hard to argue, but Marge was 100x the owner that Bob Castellini is.
First and foremost, her teams, while not always great, were almost always competitive. She gave a shit about the team she put on the field and she gave a shit about the fans. She was cheap on the surface, but she generally had a legit GM to run the baseball side of things that would in some ways mitigate that. She won a title in 1990. She did not like losing, and she sold the team when it became obvious that she was no longer a viable steward of the team.
Bob and crew have made the Reds, once considered the unchallenged gem of Cincinnati sports, into a hopeless joke. Fans almost unanimously understand that the team will be bad for at least two more seasons, and the owners do not care. Yes, they have accumulated a wealth of prospects. The Pirates do the same, and they have sucked for a decade in an embarrassing fashion. No fan seems to trust Bob to make anything out of these young players except for more prospects and magic beans when the time to pay them comes along.
Fact is, the Reds are a glorified money-laundering operation for the ownership as things currently stand. They make money by slashing payroll, then they pocket it. MLB cut them a 118 million dollar revenue check, yet they slash and slash. That's what the team is now. it's here to make Bob money, nothing less, nothing more. Winning does not factor in. If they need to milk the cash machine, they just cut payroll, pocket saving, rinse, repeat.
Bob is not a better owner than Marge on his best day. He will cry poor and point to the realities of the market and collective bargaining, but he won't sell to unburden himself of these financial hazards. You know why? Because the team makes him a lot of money, and to him that matters a lot more than the city or the franchise.
The league should contract the clown franchises like Cincinnati, Oakland, and Pittsburgh. These half-stepping, grifting assbag owners are why the NFL destroys MLB in viewership. Nobody wants to watch teams with 300m payrolls wax team with 70m payrolls for 162 straight days. Unless you live in a major market or have an owner that has a heart and some testicles, baseball is a waste of a sport to watch.
