Church. Bengals projection

This post is for Churh. Because he is a believer.

Church has a talent and commands the room, when he wants it. His candid speak, which escapes when he reloads, carries longer than the movie scenes he reenacts. His energy forces you to reevaluate the most mundane of fool scenes from a forgettable movie, or at least pay attention. I try to keep up, but I am an amateur. Sometimes I understand, sometimes I spend our entire engagement catching up. But he has a depth of sorrow, or a ball of hollow, that I cannot relate to. I just wish I could keep up. He's fast. He's honest. He's a man you are proud to know. And, he's real decent.


Church. Extra talents. holla.

Cincinnati. It is hard when your teams take entire decades off. I just assume everyone else (all pro towns in the proper 50) deals with the same thing. I don't rue the day I squatted on South-Western Ohio. I was happy, and still am, with the decision. Reds. Bengals. Bearcats. I can breathe and touch and consume these clubs, in the flesh. I love living with my teams. It's not real, and a touch crazed, but my proximity makes me feel like I am a part of the build. I am staff.

But it is time for a title. A championship. The Bengals are the best bet, though they are in the toughest professional league ever built. The AFC is a layer of teams, angry and talented, tested and ready. The wins the Bengals would have to collect would be the finest of the franchise, a wall of respect built from winning box scores.

The Cincinnati Bengals have won in spots, in controlled moments of challenge. They have had times to rise, against the talented machines (Colts, Patriots, Chargers, Broncos), and they bowed. The Bengals found ways to defer greatness. They were not ready.

Damnit, I need the Bengals to ascend. I ask my friends, regularly, who would they like to win the next championship: Bengals, Reds, or Bearcats. I want the Bengals. I want it bad. In the spirit, it is time for a brief August scouting report:

OFFENSE: Carson Palmer is healthy, and spent the off-season perfecting his rhythm with the offense, not rehabbing his knee. The Offensive line has been building and eating and preparing for this year. They are all beasts. Massive men that can move. The TEs will be a non-factor, but the receivers are stars. The only question is the 3rd string WR. There are multiple candidates. Kenny Irons season-ending injury plain sucks. Now it is a rookie from BYU or Kenny Watson. Chris Perry may never play again. I think the O-Line is going to be great – if Levi Jones is healthy. Rudi is going to have a tough load, but there are a pile of receivers that can make plays and Chris Henry comes back week 9.

DEFENSE: Bengals were 30th in total defense last year. That is not good enough. Indianapolis survived and finished at 21, so that would be a goal. But the Bengals have not added anyone. Nevermind, they did add Leon Hall, who is a quality corner. The defensive line remains the same, and it does not inspire. I feel like we have been fooled that Jumpy Geathers and Justin Smith (he's a white guy) are quality, game-changing book ends. humph. The Bengals have made them RICH. Are they the truth? The word 'average' comes to mind.

The linebackers are essential. Ahmad Brooks has not been anointed, but NEEDS to be the beast. He is a 6' 3", 260 pound explosive that can create collisions. The 2007 Bengals cannot live on turnovers alone. At some point, they will have to complete a stop on their own. The secondary could rise up – veteran safety's and talented corner backs make the unit a strength. If Dexter Jackson resurfaces, and Madieu Williams becomes, the Bengals have one of the best secondary's in the league.


The Bengals have to beat the Ravens on Monday night, week 1. The game is at home. It is not 2000 anymore – the Ravens defense is old and McNair has one foot in the grave. Here is a crazy breakdown of the season:

The schedule seems easier than last year, but you never know which team is going to rise. It looks a little better, schedule wise, but I still smell the fear. Streaks of losses or streaks of wins.

September: 2-1

W - Ravens, Monday night 7pm – McNair is washed up and the Gals do not lose high profile games (night) at home
W - @Browns – has to be a win
L - @ Seahawks – I feel like the Bengals SHOULD win, but they will lose. And it will piss us off

October: 3-1 (5-2) – and this is a stretch… the Chiefs/Jets/Steelers games are toss ups. This stretch makes the season
L - Patriots, Monday night - until they prove it, the Bengals cannot handle the Pats. Especially on Monday night.
W - @Chiefs – this game is a pain in the ass, after the Pats. This could be a loss, but I call it a win. Tough stretch.
W - Jets – playoff team from 2006. At this point in the season, the Jets could be a joke or a respectable force. The Gals need and will get a win here.
W - Steelers – The Bengals have not beat the Steelers at home since 2001. It is time.

November: 3-1 (8-3)
· W - @Bills – scary game. You have to win this, if you want play in the late winter.
· L - @Ravens – I will give this to the shitty birds, even though I know that McNair is a joke. He has no arm left. WASHED UP. The Ravens are overrated.
· W - Cardinals – you have to beat Leinhart & CO. at home, if you want to be something.
· W - Titans – see above (Vince Young will be a problem)

December: 2-3 (10-6)
· L - @Steelers – they beat the Bengals here. It’s about time. Awful game.
· L - Rams – I still respect the Rams. The Bengals cannot handle Holt, S. Jackson
· W - @49ers – frightening, terrible game. Up and coming team. The doom of SF (see: Super Bowls). The Gals have to win. Marvin understands the history. The corpse of Walsh. Bengals win on a prayer.
· W - Browns – should be a lay up. It turns into a dogfight. Bengals escape.
· L - @ Dolphins – Bengals have wild card locked. Lose the last game at South Beach.

Playoffs. The Bengals could find themselves, and inflate like they should, and wake up on the road in a January game at New England or Indy. Big boy football. They lose. I hope they win. They won't. 2008 is the Super Bowl run.

The Griffey Apology Letter

It just has not worked out. That is the first thing that you have to come to terms with. The staunchest Griffey supporter would admit that. He was the name player, the star power, the difference that was going to take a 96-win team in 1999 to a perennial World Series factor.

8 years have gone by. 7 of those were losing. Almost a decade of Griffey? Is that true? I have lived in Cincinnati during that tenure, and the accrued years are a shock.

Can you name your favorite Griffey moment? Do you even have one? I know, through video, the inside-the-park-home run he finished to win a meaningless game. I remember his 500th home run on father's day, because I was standing next to mine own dad at the time. But that's about it. And that's the point.

Griffey was supposed to deliver transcendent sports moments to Reds fans. If a ball was hurtling towards the 5th row, Griffey would elevate and bring it back. If a runner dared break for home on a fly ball to center, Junior would dispatch him with a javelin to the catcher. And the 56 home runs he hit in 1997 and 1998? They would come, and at all the right times.

Majestic plays happened, but not remembered. And they just were not enough. The Reds won 85 games in 2000, and the tally was deemed a failure. Playoffs were scheduled and played and Cincinnati was a spectator, not a participant. Again. How does a team go from 96 wins to 85, after the addition of an all-century player named Ken Griffey Jr.? Doubt. Resent. The off season settled in and the balanced fan reviewed a statistic line of 40 home runs, 118 RBIs and 100 runs scored. Not a lot of Reds, in the 90s, could sniff those numbers. Maybe better days were to come for Griffey and the Reds.

6 losing seasons, and one in progress, followed. The Reds had a habit of winning early, then folding come mid-August. Their tune has changed in 2007, as the Reds lost relevance in late May when they dumped 6 in a row against the forgettable Nationals and Pirates. May 28, the season was over. It is safe to say that the Griffey acquisition has not worked.

Like any murder trial, or a losing baseball season, the goal is to assign blame. Who ruined a Cincinnati Reds World Series run? I guess you could blame the owner, or management, or the coach. But that is not fun (unless it is Jim Bowden). So you have to blame the big guy. The star with the salary. And he is a sweet target because he is aloof, distant and not like us.

Injuries did not help. From 2002-04, Griffey played in an average 69 game. The season runs 162, if you forgot. His injuries were an assortment of tears and rips and strains and ultimately, to a Reds fan, excuses. He was absent. And when he was playing, he was coming back from something. An injury. A layoff. Whatever. What were supposed to be gasps of wonder, as Griffey scaled a wall to erase a home run, became gasps of fear as we expected his legs to fail as he ran across manicured grass.

The criticism widened. The little things burn when losses outweigh the wins. Griffey would jog with disdain down to first when he dribbled ground balls. We knew, with all the certainty a fan has sitting on their couch, that Griffey caused double plays by his apathy. He was surly and short with the media. He did not engage. He did not connect.

Cincinnati is a town that worships Pete Rose because he played with an angry recklessness. Winning was essential. Ryan Freel is a town favorite, despite being an undisciplined hitter with an embarrassing steal-to-caught steel ratio. While he does possess an impressive collection of defensive classics, he does not start on any other major league team. Yet he is beloved. He hustles.

Griffey does not hustle. He does not charm the media. He seems bored. He is. Griffey's father was a major league player. He grew up in a professional locker room. He has always been the best player, on every field, in every situation. He's not impressed. If I got a microphone in my face from the local news I would blubber and fawn and try to be witty and call all my friends so they could see me at 6pm. Griffey is not me. A camera has been lurking near him his entire life. And he knows the more you give to the media the more they have to hang you with.

All the unreasonable (see: me) Reds fan sees is a fragile, spoiled, lazy player that is apathetic about the success of the team. This horrible man… how does he live with himself? Why would he drag down our beloved Red Stockings while pocketing a billion dollars?

The truth. It is so inconvenient. Ken Griffey Jr.'s 2007 salary is 8.5 million. In this era, for a man hitting .270 with 26 HRs and 71 RBI, that is a massive steal. Reds fans have wailed that his salary has hamstrung the team – forbidden them from making moves. This is false. His salary is not only manageable, it is laughable. 8.5? Eric Milton makes 9. (2007 line – 6 starts, 0-4, 5.17 ERA, 18 SOs – that is half a million per K)

Griffey, despite the losing that became common, despite a franchise in perpetual rebuild mode, has NEVER talked ill of his teammates or management. Not once. He has never demanded a trade. He never challenged the leadership of the team. He just showed up.

He is a pure player in a steroid tainted era. This FACT cannot be understated. He was and is brilliant on his own. He never pointed a finger at anyone. Griffey never discounted or dismissed the McGuire/Sosa/Bonds four-bag bonanza. He just played, while peers overindulged in synthetic drugs and glory. He kept playing. He even called Bonds to congratulate him on 755 & 6. And still his ropes to the outfield remain majestic, and stunning, and most of all clean.

It's a thing now when an athlete escapes the police blotter. Griffey did not have to adjust to avoid it. He is just a decent human. Decency eliminates the need to understand probation rules or court proceedings. He lives his life, and like most people, does not interact with law enforcement.

I am the quintessential Griffey hater. He is washed up. He is the problem. He mortgaged the Reds future. How dare he not hustle out those ground balls? If Cincy could just purge themselves of his presence, a championship would be imminent. It was Griffey, and his smug looks, that pushed the losses above wins on the scale.

I still do not like Griffey. I never will. But he is not to blame for the Reds apathetic existence. He is a pure pro. And in 2007, being a Ken Griffey Jr. is an anomaly. We will remember his grace and how blessed we were to have him. But he will be long gone with that happens. I'm just getting a jump on the apology letter.