Q & A with Reds owner Bob Castellini

By the Dayton Daily News

QUESTION — What would you like to say to the fans of the Cincinnati Reds after five straight losing seasons?


ANSWER — We will offer no excuses. We're going to give this 110 percent. If people want to say Rome wasn't built in a day or you can't do it overnight, that's OK. But we're going after it and we're going after it until we have a winning ballclub, a contender on the field, day in and day out. This whole organization is dedicated to that. We're not here to run a popularity contest. We're here to build a winning franchise.


Q — What has spring training been like for you as owner of the Reds?

A — It has been fun, I'll tell you that. How can you not have fun? This is such a great challenge, a fun challenge, a great baseball history, a great baseball tradition. We're just trying to bring winning baseball back here. Who's the guy who said half the part of getting a job done is to show up?


Q — Times have been dismal for your Class A franchise in Dayton, the Dragons. Are you going to do anything about that?

A — I promise people in Dayton, I promise them, we are going to give them a better team this year than they've had. That's a great franchise that gives us great support and they deserve a good team and they are going to get it.


Q — What do you expect this season?

A — We've made some promises and we have high expectations. If we don't produce, they'll translate that into bull. If we don't produce, we'll hear it, and I expect that.


Q — You hire general manager Wayne Krivsky in February. What do you think?

A — This guy is a '10.' He won't back off anything. He is a 24/7 guy about baseball and I've noticed that all our baseball people are that way. And that's how you get it done.


Q — What is your baseball background? Did you play?

A — I played Knothole League and I played freshman in high school, a first baseman. I didn't make varsity and that was it. It was at a Jesuit school in Wisconsin. A Jesuit school in Cincinnati told my mother it probably would be good for me to make a lateral move.


Q — Have you always had a passion for the game?

A — Ah, yes. Baseball. Football. Basketball. Hey, I owned the old Cincinnati Stingers in the World Hockey Association. Baseball was it, though. I owned a piece of the Reds back in the early 1970s when the Williams brothers ran it.


Q — What have you liked about what you've seen in spring training?

A — The work ethic. I guess all baseball teams work, but these people really work. The administrative staff works 24/7 and 365 days a year. Much of the baseball staff does, too, and that's part of the game. I think manager Jerry Narron is a '10,' too.


Q — You brought in a lot of the players from the past to work with the team — Tom Browning, Mario Soto, Eric Davis, George Foster, Johnny Bench — and the players responded. Browning and Soto, in particular, worked hard with the pitchers, even though they are guest instructors. Your idea?

A — Yep, and isn't it fun? That was so apparent that we should do that. It just hits you right in the face. Browning has that winning attitude, that winning culture.


Q — You keep saying this team will be better than people think. Do you believe that?

A — Oh, yeah, and here's why: It's common sense. Eric Milton is going to have a great year and Paul Wilson is going to come back. Aaron Harang is going to have a career year, you watch. We helped ourselves with Bronson Arroyo. If Brandon Claussen and Dave Williams, or whoever else we throw in there, get us to the later innings, that's something we didn't have last year. We have enough talent for the cream to rise to the top.