Perspectator

Sports are an emotion thing. In fact, they're all emotion, because there is no rational or biological reason for a human being to follow a sports team. I'd venture to say that baseball is more emotional than other sports (at least when your team is in contention) because your team plays almost every day for six months, and one day you could feel invincible and the next you feel like your season is over.

It's one thing to comment about a player's playing time or to question why a non-performing player is repeatedly put into the same situation. Fans will get emotional and call for heads to roll on occasion. It's a whole other thing to declare:

"In all my years of watching Reds baseball, this is the most frustrating and disgusting series I have ever seen."

Unless the 2010 season is your first season of Reds baseball, that is just nonsense.

The Reds are in first place at the All Star break. They have four players going to the Midsummer Classic. One of their rookie pitchers took a brilliant game into the ninth inning and the next night another rookie took a perfect game into the ninth inning against one of the game's best pitchers. Another rookie pitcher gave up only one run in the next start. And this was a disgusting series? They lead the National League in several offensive categories, but a baseball season is long, and there will be hiccups along the way. It's called Baseball.

The ninth inning collapse on Friday was a horrific inning, but for 8.1 innings, the Reds played brilliantly. The other games were 4-3 and 1-0 in extras and 1-0 in regulation. Hardly disgusting.

Another gem:

"Reds are an embarrassment to the game of baseball."

Did I mention that the Reds are in first place at the All Star break? Or that they have four players going to the Midsummer Classic? Or that they lead the National League in several offensive categories? Or that their young pitchers kick ass?

Perspective. Seemingly as rare as common sense these days.