Wincinnati! How the Reds and Bengals Given New Vitality & Swagger to a Crowd Desperate for Happy News

Fans always wait for happy news for their favorite teams. For a brief time on Monday, the Cincinnati Reds fell short of expectations.

Elly De La Cruz, baseball’s most popular player right now, came to the plate to start the game against Milwaukee, lofting a ball to the deepest portion of American Family Field… and center fielder Joey Wiemer leapt up and snagged it for the game’s first out.

A few innings later, the scoreboard in Milwaukee indicated that de la Cruz “almost hit a home run in the first inning… but didn’t.”

Cincinnati, you’ve got a good player there. It’s a shame he didn’t show up. The same old Cincinnati narrative.

Only this time, the plot shifted. De La Cruz hit a ball so far that Wiemer would have needed an Uber to catch it two innings later:

From cannon-armed throws to epic home runs to simple ecstatic excitement at playing baseball, the homer was the latest in a succession of did-you-see-that moments in one of the most extraordinary career beginnings in decades.

That alone would be cause for optimism in the Queen City. However, a few hundred yards down the Ohio Riverfront, Joe Burrow is bringing both attitude and win — the crucial word here being “both” — to the Cincinnati Bengals.

In his first full season, the cigar-smoking, Heisman-winning national champion from LSU led the Bengals to the Super Bowl, establishing Cincinnati as one of the strongest bets to win it all this year.

To top it all off, the University of Cincinnati football club — a surprise College Football Playoff team just a year ago — is joining the Big 12, and FC Cincinnati is the greatest team in the MLS. To summarize, it’s an excellent moment to be a Cincinnati sports fan.

“This is the craziest era I’ve ever seen, and I’m 55 years old,” says Jim Moehring, owner of the Holy Grail Tavern & Grille, a sports bar approximately 100 yards from home plate at the Great American Ball Park. “The energy that these teams are bringing right now is unmatched.”

“Wincinnati” is no longer just a desperate marketing slogan; it’s an accurate description. Cincinnati, of all places, has swagger. A city whose national reputation is built, in part, on chili that looks like an industrial accident, a city that shares its “Queen City” moniker with Charlotte.

What the hell happened? How has this town changed its ways? Could titles be on their way to Cincinnati once more? Or, as some Cincinnati fans worry, will this all end in the most stunning heartbreak yet?

“With all three major sports teams being either good, cool, or having a legitimate chance to win a title, folks are enjoying it,” says Mo Egger, a longtime Cincinnati sports talk radio presenter. “I don’t hear quite the fatalistic tones that we usually do.”

Moehring says he’s had to hire hundreds more people to handle the influx of Reds fans who visit the Grail for both home and away games. “Weekend games are selling out, but we’ll still have 400 people inside the Grail watching every pitch, groaning and cheering,” he says.

“There will be 3,000 people outside the stadium watching the Jumbotron.” It reminds me of Bengals playoff games.”

‘Always Prepare for the Worst’

Once upon a time, Cincinnati was synonymous with baseball supremacy. The Big Red Machine — arguably one of the greatest club nicknames in sports history — wreaked havoc on baseball in the 1970s.

Every position was filled with All-Star talent, including Joe Morgan, Tom Seaver, Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Ken Griffey Sr., Tony Perez, George Foster, and others. No team since the 1985 Chicago Bears has cast as lengthy a shadow or had such a powerful hold on its fanbase.

Then… nothing. The Reds won again in 1990, an out-of-nowhere, back-to-back championship that even longtime Cincinnati supporters sometimes overlook.

“In those days,” Moehring adds, “we assumed that the Reds would be in the World Series every 10 years or so, and the Bengals would be in the Super Bowl every 10 years.”

“When the Reds were constantly bad, people would wax poetic about the past,” Egger adds. “It’s a source of annoyance for me.” I admire those 1970s teams, but I wish the present club would offer us something to talk about other than beating the Red Sox in seven games in 1975.”

Meanwhile, the Bengals made two Super Bowl appearances in the 1980s but were defeated by Joe Montana and the 49ers in each, including an instant classic comeback triumph with 34 seconds remaining in Super Bowl XXXIII. “Pessimism” does not begin to characterize Cincinnati fans’ thinking.

“Always expect the worst,” warns Egger. “Most fan bases romanticize how failure is always around the corner and how things never go their way. But consider our track record.”

Since 1990, the Reds have only made the postseason five times, winning one (1) series – the 1995 Division Series.

The Reds didn’t win a single game in three of their playoff games, and the Braves swept them out of the NLCS in 1995. The only time the Reds have even fought in October in the last 32 years was in 2012, when they lost 3-2 to the Giants.

What has become of Reds fans? This is bad: When the 2015 All-Star Game was hosted in Cincinnati, one of the team’s few 21st-century highlights was Todd Frazier winning the Home Run Derby — yeah, a meaningless exhibition batting practice game. That’s all there is to it.

Joe Burrow Comes to the Rescue

The Bengals have provided both hope and sadness. Prior to the arrival of Burrow, the squad had not won a single postseason game since 1990.

During that stretch, the Bengals made the playoffs seven times but never advanced past the wild card stage. The Bengals exited the first round five years in a row at one time, and yeah, there’s a healthy dosage of what-could-have-been there as well.

For example, in their most recent pre-Burrow playoff game, Cincinnati had the ball and a one-point lead over the Steelers with 1:45 remaining. But one turnover, two egregious penalties, and a field goal later, the astonished and shattered Bengals were out of the postseason yet again.

“That was the first time people started saying we’re never going to win,” Egger adds. “Some refer to it as the Bo Jackson curse.” The only time the Bengals won a postseason game before Burrow was when Bo Jackson fractured his hip.”

Egger can easily recall the greatest misses: the University of Cincinnati’s long-standing NCAA tournament futility, including blowing a 22-point lead to Nevada as a No. 2 seed in 2018; No. 1 overall pick Carson Palmer blowing out his knee in a 2006 playoff game, snuffing out any hope of victory; hometown hero Ken Griffey Jr. never rallying the Reds to a title; and disgraced owner Marge Schott and disgraced star

“It’s just been a nonstop barrage of heartbreak and failure,” Egger says.

Burrow began altering the dynamic even before he came in Cincinnati. When the Bengals held the No. 1 pick in the lockdown 2020 draft, the national media — homebound with little else to do but critique draftees’ living rooms and sling hot takes — wondered if Burow should pull an Eli Manning/John Elway and refuse to play for Cincinnati.

“People here got really defensive over that,” Egger recalls. “Many criticisms were leveled at the franchise, some justified, some ludicrous. But in the offseason, they began to unite around a Bengals squad that they had long criticized.”

Burrow led what appeared to be a game-winning drive against the Chargers in his first game, only to have it overturned by an offensive pass interference penalty.

Burrow’s knee was destroyed, ACL and MCL torn, and PCL damaged ten weeks later, with the Bengals plodding through a dreadful 2-9-1 season. He was out for the season, and Same Old Bengals’ woes reverberated throughout the tri-state area.

Burrow returned in 2021 and, miracle of miracles, guided the team to the AFC North title and its first postseason appearance since 2015. The Bengals were drawn against the Raiders in the wild-card round, and after the 26-19 victory, the city erupted in ways Egger never believed imaginable.

“The apprehension that hovered over that first playoff game — it was, ‘How are they going to blow it, how are they going to screw us this time?'” he recalls.

“When we won, you’d think we’d won a championship.” I’m not sure if winning a championship will cause more public joy than eventually winning a playoff game.”

The Bengals would go on to defeat No. 1 seed Tennessee, then withstand the legendary Kansas City Chiefs in overtime before pushing the Rams to the verge of defeat in Super Bowl LVI.

Cincinnati led late in the game until giving up the game-winning touchdown to the Rams with two minutes remaining, yet even that defeat did not bring on another wave of despair. Everything that season was chocolate-and-chili-tinged gravy after that first playoff triumph.

Cincinnati followed up their Super Bowl season with the type of season that says this club might be a power for a long time.

The Bengals won their second straight division title in 2022, beating the Ravens and Bills in the playoffs before falling to the eventual Super Bowl winner Chiefs in an AFC championship rematch. They are the +900 favorite to win the Super Bowl this season, trailing only the Chiefs, Eagles, and Bills.

They’re even feeling confident enough to go after the king. When told that Burrow feels Patrick Mahomes is the finest quarterback in the game, receiver Ja’Marr Chase said, “Pat who?”

That kind of trash talk would have been laughable in years past, but given that the teams have now gone 1-1 against each other in the last two conference championship games… well, it’s still laughable, but at least the Bengals are in the title hunt.

Big Red Machine Version 2.0

Meanwhile, the Reds are a couple years behind in terms of victories, but they’ve energized the entire game thanks to De La Cruz’s incredible rise.

De La Cruz, who is built more like an NBA swingman than a baseball player, has jolted an entire sport. Consider the following highlights in less than two months:

Hitting for the cycle, becoming the youngest player in half a century to do it.

Setting a new record for the fastest throw from third to first place.

Back-to-back steals of second, third, and home

claiming to be “the fastest man in the world,” then beating out an infield grounder; and

Blasting the kind of massive home runs that attendees will tell their grandchildren about.

Shohei Ohtani has demonstrated that one player cannot turn around the fortunes of an entire baseball team, but one guy can certainly make a day at the ballpark or a game on TV that much more entertaining.

The Reds are still in the playoff race, thanks to the emergence of youthful talents like De La Cruz — and the rejuvenating effect they’ve had on old-school veterans like Joey Votto.

“Cincinnati is a conservative town,” says Egger. “The Reds famously had a no-facial hair, black-shoes policy for years.” To see players flip bats and show personality — certainly, older fans want them to act as if they’ve been there before, but I think it’s nice and interesting to watch.”

The secret, according to Egger, is the manner the 2023 Reds play the game. Beyond the dreadlocks and bat-flipping, you’ll find a team that resembles the Big Red Machine in more ways than one.

Aggressive play at the plate and in the field, pushing the edge with base-stealing, prioritizing speed over the homer-or-strikeout mindset of analytically-driven clubs… this is the baseball style that rekindles old-school fans’ interest. So what if they put on a Viking helmet after a home run?

“This year has been like 1990,” says Hank Schmidt, a longtime Reds fan. “Winning games is unexpected, but when it happens, it’s like flipping a switch.” We’re all set to go. People are now talking about the Reds everywhere they go.”

The fact that the Bengals and Reds are winning on and off the field at the same time is a minor miracle for lifelong Cincinnati fans. For years, the criticism was that the Reds developed a good brand but a bad team, while the Bengals built a good team but a bad brand.

“Trust was not a given here between Bengals and Reds ownership [and the fans],” adds Moehring. Tone-deaf remarks, such as Reds president Phil Castellini’s offhanded “Where are you going to go?” answer to critical supporters last year, haven’t helped.

The Bengals, on the other hand, have modernized their approach to the game, increasing their social media presence and recognizing the past with a Ring of Honor. And the Reds now have a squad capable of producing the kind of ecstatic headlines and crazy talk-radio segments that the Big Red Machine once produced.

“The Bengals have solidified in a lot of people’s minds that they’re committed to winning,” adds Moehring. “People are finally trusting the Reds’ ownership group, too.”

Both teams have a lot of work to do if they want to win the championship. That game in which De La Cruz exacted his vengeance on Wiemer and the scoreboard operator in Milwaukee?

Yeah, the Reds dropped that one in a walkoff, and they’re battling it out with Milwaukee for the NL Central title. They’ll have to beat the tough Braves, Dodgers, and Diamondbacks to even get to the World Series.

Meanwhile, the Bengals play in one of the most crowded conferences in recent memory, with Patrick Mahomes’ Chiefs, Josh Allen’s Bills, Aaron Rodgers’ Jets, and a slew of other teams in their way.

Yes, they’ve done it before, but as Mahomes pointed out following Chase’s jibe, he already has two rings while Cincinnati has exactly zero.

Still, there is genuine hope in Cincinnati these days, not the flimsy, artificial “maybe we’ll win the lottery one day!” hope.

The hometown teams are winning games, and everyone is having a good time. Either of them would be a memorable era. They’re both together? To avoid jinxing anything, Cincinnati could be on the edge of something truly special.

“The future is so damn bright,” adds Moehring. “People are starting to have a lot of fun with this. It’s insanely great.”

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