Seth Coyle

[Mo Egger @MoEgger]

Three years ago tonight, the Reds beat the Brewers in Milwaukee, 8-5.

The win improved their record to 50-40. They had a two-game lead in the NL Central.

Since then they have played 486 regular season games, exactly three full seasons worth.

They are 233-253.

20 below for a.479 winning percentage.

Just a staggering organizational failure to build on something that not that long ago seemed so promising.

Buy. Sell. Trade some guys. Refuse to trade some other guys. Remind everyone about whichever prospect we're all supposed to be excited for. Whatever.

Very little of it matters when fans are simply exhausted and exasperated from never being rewarded for their patience.

[Steve Mancuso @spmancuso]

Charlie explains the clusterfuck the Reds roster and decision making have become. Player underperformance is a big factor. But the club has been in this situation every season under Nick Krall. Ownership won’t act. Likely make it worse if they did. Insanely frustrating for fans.

[James Martin, SJ @JamesMartinSJ]

It's hard to know what to make of the Vice President's bizarre, almost nonsensical, comments here. It sounds like he is equating the use of these "hideous signs" to an alternative version of the Nicene Creed.

A little background: The Nicene Creed, formulated by the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, is an essential profession of faith used by the Catholic Church (among other churches). It is also the familiar creedal formula spoken by Catholics during Sunday Masses: "I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth..." It's a statement of belief, mainly about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It obviously doesn't talk about "hideous signs" welcoming people.

However, the Nicene Creed does affirm belief in the church as "one, holy, catholic and apostolic." (These are the four traditional "marks" of the church.) This means, among other things, believing that the church comes to us directly from the apostles (it's "apostolic"). Thus, it derives its authority not only from Jesus Christ, but also through the "apostolic succession," an authority passed down from the apostles in the early church to the Pope and to the bishops today.

It's ironic, then, that the Vice President is mocking things like love and the church's teaching on migrants in the same breath that he is professing his faith through the words of the Creed, which includes belief in authority of the church. Because this "one, holy, catholic and apostolic" church has long proclaimed the Gospel message of love and care for the stranger, which Jesus himself preached during his public ministry.

So a butchering of the Creed would mean, in fact, not listening to the church's teaching on these matters and, even worse, not listening to Jesus's own teaching on love and loving the stranger.

Because, in the words of the Creed, we also believe in "one Lord, Jesus Christ."

[Matt Wilkes @_MattWilkes]

Worst win percentage against a single opponent since 2022 (min. 50 games played):

Rockies vs. Giants (.262)
Rockies vs. Dodgers (.277)
Reds vs. Brewers (.290)

This organization stinks.

[Jimmy Traina @JimmyTraina]

This clip just gets better and better and better as it keeps going.

[The Bulwark @BulwarkOnline]

Trump on the reflecting pool: "If you had a knife, you can't even cut it."

Also, Trump on the reflecting pool: "They cut it."

[Mo Egger @MoEgger]

Elly De La Cruz made his big league debut three years ago tonight.

That day - and the walkoff win that night over the Dodgers - felt significant. Elly's debut and what appeared to be a nice stockpile of young players made it seem like years of waiting for the Reds contend were finally going to payoff. Maybe not immediately, but sometime in the not-so distant future. Certainly by the middle of the decade.

Since then, the Reds are 246-243. A winning percentage of .503. The Reds don't seem dramatically better than they did 489 games ago. The familiar early-summer themes of "not sure if they're buyers or sellers" have become an annual thing. The number of foundational pieces and truly established players remains startingly small.

When the Reds chose to be really bad in 2022, there was lots of chatter from the front office about the desire to eliminate peaks and valleys moving forward.

It seems as if that mission has been accomplished.

[Jonathan Smith @DegenerateTBone]

Ohio gave these people $600 million public actual dollars.

[James Foster @NoFlagsFilm]

Geno Atkins appreciation post. Led DTs in total pressures from 2010-2020. Unfortunate he played in Aaron Donald's era and only finished with 2 AP 1st teams

[Rob Perez @WorldWideWob]

Game 7 rewatch thoughts:

1) The amount of high-difficulty heroball shots Shai made was crazy
2) The number of times OKC just kept dribbling past the rim without even looking at it
3) Dylan Harper would have been on AND1 Mixtape Tour
4) Chet’s lackadaisical rebounding inactivity worse than the two FGA. I would have had Derrick Lively PTSD if I was an OKC fan.
5) What happens when Wemby learns his own Sombor Shuffle/Kareem Sky Hook?
6) Cason Wallace probably just guaranteed that extension for every dollar he can get. Not just the shots, go look how many steals/deflections he had in the 4th
7) Mitch Johnson acts like someone who eats their steak medium well. This is not an insult, just an observation.
8) Daigneault using all of his timeouts to keep trying different shit (rotations/ATOs/polar opposite defensive sets) in the 4Q was so good. It didn’t work, but he clearly knew his team was out of gas and out of talent and had to swing for the fences.
9) If Wemby receives the entry pass in the middle of the floor OR so much as hard rolls from PnR through it, the defensive possession is over because of how many defenders have to leave their perimeter assignments to help.
10) Remember that Along Came Polly scene when Ben Stiller is playing pickup and the guy’s sweaty body rubs all over his face? Luke Kornet did that to Hartenstein during the block.
11) Is NBC going to make Melo wear a suit next year?

[The Sting @TheStingisBack]

Some classic Chevy Chase lines from Fletch, which is 41 today.
Under the laughs, it’s a tight, well-built detective story: drug trafficking, murder-for-hire, and a film-noir backbone; just brighter, with punchy one-liners.
Might rent it tonight. I’ll charge it to the Underhills.

[Trenton Jocz @TrentonJocz]

Plus/minus in this series:
Wembanyama: +55 on, -37 off
SGA: -28 on, +10 off
Caruso: +38 on, -56 off

[Keerthika Uthayakumar @keerthikau]

Some analytics: the Cavs have allowed 20+ points off turnovers in 10 games this postseason.

That's the most in one playoff run since at least 1997.

[Nick Friedell @NickFriedell]

Aside from the last few minutes of Game 1 — can’t remember a more boring series than this one. What a complete no show by the Cavs.

[Hollywood Gump @FirstNameJ0hn]

Will Sasso and Dan Soder are Macho Man Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, Andre The Giant, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rodney Dangerfield, and Robert Deniro reading Andy Rooney quotes. 😂😂😂😂

(🎥@ChrisVanVliet)

[Rob Perez @WorldWideWob]

?

[Rob Perez @WorldWideWob]

god DAMN

[ZIM @zimwhodey]

They don’t get on TV and tell you this about Lamar or Josh even after never appearing in a Super Bowl or being in the league longer than Joe.

[Darius Soriano @forumbluegold]

these middies okc are taking are much more open as the refs are allowing hartenstein to push, hold, and hook wemby off the ball in an attempt to just gortat screen him into hell.

[Mike Zavagno @MZavagno11]

The Cavs obviously don’t double often but so many mistakes here
-Merrill doesn’t make the initial pass difficult
- Mitchell doesn’t pre rotate to the top of the key (one pass away)
- Harden doesn’t peel switch directly to Shamet

It’s really bad technique on a “double team”