Today, I thought it would be inappropriate of me not to mention that the Cincinnati Reds, a Major League Baseball team, are headed to the playoffs for the first time since 1995.

I grew up falling asleep listening to the games on my dad’s old battery powered transistor radio. As a kid, beside my dad, my idols were Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Ken Griffey Sr., George Foster and Dave Concepción. I followed them all through grade school and most of high school, going to a few games but always listening on the radio to the announcers Marty Brenneman and Joe Nuxhall. As skateboarding began to take over my life, baseball faded and the last thing I remember paying attention to was them being in 1st place from the beginning of the season to the end of the season in 1990 and then sweeping the As in the World Series.

I totally forgot all about baseball until 2002. I had been living here in Portland, OR for a few years and my brother, a die-hard reds fan for all of his life who was living in Flagstaff AZ, mentioned that he had been listening to Reds games on-line. I “borrowed” his password and logged into MLB.com Gameday audio and was immediately taken back to my childhood and hometown of Dayton, OH. The audio I was listening to in real time was of the same two announcers, Marty Brenneman and Joe Nuxhall, and from the same radio station, 700 WLW that I had grown up listening to. I felt like I was a kid again. It really took me back.

Vintage Marty and Joe

Since then, I have been following the Reds and listening to almost all the Reds games religiously. Joe Nuxhall passed away a few years ago but Marty, the hall of famer, is still broadcasting and is hilarious to listen to. It is amazing the amount of work I can get done in 3 hours when I tune everything else out and just listen to the game.

Anyway, since I returned to following the Reds in 2002, they have not had a winning season. It was hard to be a Reds fan because they seemed to always lose and never finished the season over.500. That is until this year. It has been so exciting to follow them and listen to their come-from-behind, 2-out rallies and win most of their games. They clinched the National League Central Division last Tuesday and are now headed to the playoffs. I would love to see them go all the way and win the World Series but that is a long shot. But you never know. You honestly never know what you will see when you watch a baseball game.

Go Reds.