Daugherty: A few tips for the new men in charge

[missionhockey21]

Daugherty: A few tips for the new men in charge

Dear Messrs. Castellini, Williams and Williams:

Congratulations on your impending purchase of controlling interest in the Cincinnati Reds. We look forward to many years of huge payrolls, multiple world championships and frequent references to "Creeping Steinbrenner-ism" when describing your team.

Please do this while retaining the $5 Outer View Level seats and reviving the dollar hot dog. Get rid of Gapper while you're at it.

Beyond that, a few lesser things:

While tending to your stakes in the St. Louis Cardinals, you might not have noticed that the only thing the Reds and the Redbirds have in common is they both play baseball. St. Louis is the baseball town's baseball town, forever vibrant in its passion for its team. Cincinnati hasn't been a baseball town for 20 years.

While the Cardinals spend money, hire terrific people and let them work, the Reds don't spend money, hire loyal people and keep the door revolving. In recent years, the Cardinals have maintained a payroll in the $90 million range and have retained smart general manager Walt Jocketty and genius manager Tony La Russa. The Reds maintain a Have Not payroll (until this year, when it leaped to $62 million), bring managers in and out and have Dan O'Brien, who talks a lot about the future.

The Cardinals, from ownership down, work together. The Reds throw people against the wall and hope they stick. The Cardinals have a philosophy, a plan and a vision. The Reds have a cool new ballpark on the river.

The Reds are low on ideas, vision and excitement. And pitching. Having hired Mark Mulder to replace the departed Woody Williams in St. Louis, you can see the value of pitching.

What is happening to the Reds is worse than anger. Apathy is here, like July humidity over the Ohio River. No winning seasons since 2000, no bold moves to improve - Jerry Narron, sound baseball man, nice guy, never won, is still here - nothing to get the baseball faithful hopping.

We talk about the Reds still. But only to complain.

And oh by the way: Who-Dey.

Please note how Bengals coach Marvin Lewis has captivated the town. Lewis is a charismatic man who stated from the start he wouldn't accept losing or mediocrity or players who gave in to failure.

He had a plan, a vision and a will to see it all through. We can see how it's turning out. More than that, Lewis has returned to the Bengals something the Reds need desperately: hope. The sweet notion that, with this guy, at least we have a chance. The Reds haven't had that since Lou Piniella. He left 13 years ago.

For all kinds of reasons, the Reds of 2005 are the Bengals of the 1990s. You don't want to go there.

We understand total makeovers are easier in the socialist NFL, where every team is playing with the same pile of payroll cash. We also see how the two World Series teams this year didn't get there by throwing money. Houston and the Chicago White Sox had payrolls in the modest, $75 million range.

It doesn't take lots of dough to compete. Oakland does it. Minnesota does it. How? That's your charge.

So is this:

You need to make the moves to rid the Reds of their current inertia. You need to re-establish hope as part of the agenda. You need to show a vision, a daring and an enthusiasm unseen since the team signed Junior Griffey. Too many people are more worried about keeping their jobs than doing a good job.

Value excellence over loyalty. Prize what is bold over what is safe. Let your people fail, so long as they fail with intelligence and enthusiasm. Realize that local ownership is nice, but not necessary. Understand that few fans appreciated Carl Lindner, Reds CEO, the way they appreciated Carl Lindner, one-of-a-kind philanthropist. And that, fair or not, his image suffered.

Cincinnati deserves a baseball team worthy of its baseball heritage. We've been too often let down. I don't know if this will ever be a baseball town again. But I'd like to find out.

Sincerely ...

E-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com

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[love_that_reefer]

Nice article although I wouldn't call LaRussa a genius but yeah good article.

[CincyRedsFan30]

Great article by Daugherty!

Not that I'm surprised to see a good one from him.