I Wish

[Bigdaddy]

I wish:

• Doc Gooden could have laid off the white powder,
• Josh Hamilton could outrun his deamons,
• Bowie Kuhn wouldn't have voided Vida Blue going to the Reds,
• Teddy Ballgame could somehow make up those lost seasons,
• That we could have skipped the era of the astroturf, all purpose stadiums,
• Steve Dalkowski and Smokey Joe Wood hadn't hurt their arms,
• The Reds win a post-season series before I pass,
• Hitters could swallow their pride and learn to hit against the shift.

[egri]

I wish Howie Fox had called the police, instead of trying to evict the drunks on his own, and the statheads running the game now would quit trying to make it as much fun as an IRS audit.

Originally Posted by Bigdaddy

I wish:

• Teddy Ballgame could somehow make up those lost seasons,

The kicker is in between the wars, he had the chance to resign his commission and separate from the Reserves entirely; instead he re-upped, which left him open to being recalled for Korea.

[todeen]

Originally Posted by Bigdaddy

[*]The Reds win a post-season series before I pass

Amen.

I wish Billings, MT had renovated the old wooden stadium, Cobb Field, and helped maintain its glory and splendor, the creaking floors, the thunderous roar beneath the grandstand while buying snacks, and preserved the imagination of kids running wild and a booster club drunk and riotous by the 6th inning. Instead they built Dehler park, which reminds me of the Little League WS stadium.

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[RCMcKenzie]

Originally Posted by todeen

Amen.

You guys must be younger than me. You had the Big Red Machine, the current Houston Astros of the 1970's.

Also, isn't Baltimore 30 miles from DC? Go to the Orioles games.

I wish the Adams family would let the McNair family use the name, "Oilers".

[rjackson44]

I could find a complete darby chocolate box oh well

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by RCMcKenzie

Also, isn't Baltimore 30 miles from DC? Go to the Orioles games.

We did, but only because they had those great teams and players before the franchise fell apart in the mid-80s. I went to many "O's" (as they started calling them to market to Washingtonians) games, and enjoyed them, but it never came close to being my team because it wasn't my town. And it's always a good hour or so between Balmor and D.C. no matter how you cut it, not bad but not a hop, skip, and jump either.

[RCMcKenzie]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

We did, but only because they had those great teams and players before the franchise fell apart in the mid-80s. I went to many "O's" (as they started calling them to market to Washingtonians) games, and enjoyed them, but it never came close to being my team because it wasn't my town. And it's always a good hour or so between Balmor and D.C. no matter how you cut it, not bad but not a hop, skip, and jump either.

My cousin and his wife are Nationals and Ravens fans. Too bad, the Orioles were really good, but I guess that was a long time ago.

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by RCMcKenzie

My cousin and his wife are Nationals and Ravens fans. Too bad, the Orioles were really good, but I guess that was a long time ago.

40 years! I've known a lot of people in the D.C. orbit who gravitated toward Baltimore and became big fans of their teams, particularly those living in the Maryland suburbs. And before D.C. got the Nationals back, I went to many games in Baltimore, Frederick, Hagerstown, and Bowie, so I got very close to the franchise, but it just never captured my affections like the D.C. teams of my youth and since. I'm a D.C. guy, born and raised.

[Tabe]

Originally Posted by RCMcKenzie

You guys must be younger than me. You had the Big Red Machine, the current Houston Astros of the 1970's.

And a title in 1990, too.

[Tabe]

I wish:

- the Red Wings' limo driver had been sober
- the refs hadn't called that bogus foul on Laimbeer in the '88 Finals
- Mario Lemieux could have been healthy his entire career
- The '91 Redskins didn't exist so my '91 Lions could win a Super Bowl
- MLB hadn't jerked around the minor leagues and ruined the short-season Spokane Indians by making them full-season AA
- The last 2 minutes of the 2017 NCAA Basketball finals had been played on a dry floor
- I could have seen Mickey, Babe, Ty, Ted, Hank and Willie play

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by Bigdaddy

I wish:

• Doc Gooden could have laid off the white powder,
• Josh Hamilton could outrun his deamons,
• Bowie Kuhn wouldn't have voided Vida Blue going to the Reds,
• Teddy Ballgame could somehow make up those lost seasons,
• That we could have skipped the era of the astroturf, all purpose stadiums,
• Steve Dalkowski and Smokey Joe Wood hadn't hurt their arms,
• The Reds win a post-season series before I pass,
• Hitters could swallow their pride and learn to hit against the shift.

I strongly echo the sentiment in bold, though it seems like a mere pipe-dream at this point (and I'm not getting any younger).

To add a couple of my own...

* I wish the Reds never traded Tony Perez, as they probably had a 3rd consecutive championship in them.
* I wish Cincinnati was a big market city.

[55koufax]

If you are old like me, you had your moment in the sun.....and then some.

The Big Red Machine was such a dominant force in the '70s it was scary. My tremendous Dodger teams of the '70s were always in their shadow. I recall so many great Dodger-Red games from that period, it is scary. Forget the SF-LA thing, LA-CINN in the 70s was beyond compare IMO..

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by 55koufax

If you are old like me, you had your moment in the sun.....and then some.

The Big Red Machine was such a dominant force in the '70s it was scary. My tremendous Dodger teams of the '70s were always in their shadow. I recall so many great Dodger-Red games from that period, it is scary. Forget the SF-LA thing, LA-CINN in the 70s was beyond compare IMO..

Completely agree.... the most underrated rivalry in baseball, IMHO. We were Reds fans living in Orange County throughout the 1970s. We listened to the great Vin Scully every day on radio, and rooted for the Dodgers to lose every game.

But the Dodgers were always very good. When they won the division in 1974, we thought the Reds time had come and gone (with no world championship to show for it). They came very close in '70, '72 and '73, but took a big step back in '74.

Then the Reds finally figured things out, and were as dominant in '75-76 as any team in baseball history. It was such a shame when the league restructured and forever ended the rivalry by putting the teams in different divisions. Perhaps they saw the writing on the wall for small market teams, as it couldn't even be a rivalry today.

[perezfan]

.

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by perezfan

I strongly echo the sentiment in bold, though it seems like a mere pipe-dream at this point (and I'm not getting any younger).

To add a couple of my own...

* I wish the Reds never traded Tony Perez, as they probably had a 3rd consecutive championship in them.
* I wish Cincinnati was a big market city.

My mom was from Akron (grand dad worked for Firestone). She liked the Indians in the AL and despised the Yankees, that is, except Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio separately who she adored. She liked the Reds and Brooklyn Dodgers (despised the LA version because she lived and worked in Brooklyn for a while and went to Ebbets). Because of mom, I love the Reds, too. One of my most treasured memories is going with my sister, who at the time lived within walking distance, to Wrigley Field to a game in 1973 between the Reds and the Cubs. I saw Johnny Bench, Pete Rose and all the others in the flesh. I saw Joe Morgan hit a line drive home run. When I was a kid, my dad had a radio that picked up WLW 700 am out of Cincinnati at night in Memphis crystal clear. Listened to many Reds games. I vaguely remember Waite Hoyt, Joe Nuxhall, Marty Brennaman, and I'm pretty sure Pee Wee Reese did Reds games, too. Among my most treasured baseball cards are 9 team-issued 1938-39 Reds cards. I would love to go to Great American, which they say shares some similarities with Crosley Field, and I would LOVE it if the Reds got real good again. Frankly, I think it would be good for baseball.

[jimmer77]

I wish Pete Rose never bet on baseball...he could have been such a great ambassador to the game.

I feel he has suffered long enough and should be welcome back, especially since all sports have embraced gambling and the money it brings.

We will never see a player that played as hard as Rose or gave so much effort on the field to win.