I need to write more. I vow to write at least another one of these by April 28th. (Eh, we’ll see)

Baseball is dead for now. I’m confident we’ll have some sort of season. However, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced the cancellation of the first two series of the 2022 season. I never thought it would actually happen. I thought eventually one side would cave because of the money at stake. I was wrong. This is mostly the owner’s fault, but I won’t dive too deep into the weeds on that.

I’m writing this more from a fan perspective. I’m sad. I love baseball. Don’t get me wrong, I root for the Bengals and Joe B. I’d ride or die for Luke Fickell and UC football. I’m a card-carrying member of the Wes Wagon and fully believe he will bring UC hoops back to relevance, but baseball is my first love.

I went to twenty-something Reds games last summer. I went to the Wade Miley no-hitter in Cleveland. I watched Jonathan India terrorize the National League, Joey Votto bang (IYKYK), and Nick Castellanos captivate a city like I’ve never seen before. The Reds just hit different as the kids say. I’m married to the game and I hang on pretty much every pitch. I can’t even really explain why or how I love baseball so much but it’s pretty much always been that way.

I was a kindergartener in Mrs. Schwab’s class (Shoutout St. Antoninus) and she gave me a Sean Casey bobblehead because she knew how much I loved the Reds.

But 17 years later, I find myself watching the game that I love lose steam. It will never falter for me. That’s the worst part. The die-hards will always be here, but a six-year-old kid likely won’t stick around for this. The casual middle-aged man who occasionally watches a game here and there won’t care.

The fans lose. I lose. The casuals lose. The kids who don’t know what baseball really is lose.

We lose a real Opening Day. Sure there will still be a “first Reds home game,” but it won’t be the same. There won’t be the typical Opening Day celebration for the first team in professional baseball. There won’t be the same buzz or excitement for a full 162 slate.

“This is really pissing me off because there are few things I love more than going to games with you, Z.”

Me too, dad. Me too.

Maybe that’s how my love for this beautiful game started. I’ve been attending games with my dad since I was five. The Adam Dunn walk-off Grand Slam against Cleveland in 2006 (laugh it up, Elliot) is one of the first games I vividly remember. People were dancing in the aisles in a packed stadium in the midst of a division race. Very few moments will top that for me.

It turned into going to every Opening Day since 2010 (sans the last two years). The feeling of watching the clock in a 7th grade history class knowing you’d leave school early to go to the game was the best.

I wish more kids would get to have that feeling. Unfortunately, it’s three straight uneven seasons of baseball (two of the three due to COVID), but this one felt avoidable. For that reason, I’m sad.

So Baseball will be back and I will hang on every pitch of the Reds season, but many will stop caring all together and it won’t be the same. To be honest, It’s hard to really blame them.