The Reds could have won last night. The spark they would have needed is something we have seen from time-to-time all throughout the season. There was a chance it would reappear last night–when better?–but it was clear after just a couple innings it just wasn’t there.

Oh well.

Oh well.

Oh well oh well oh well oh well oh well oh well oh well oh well oh well oh well oh well oh well oh well.

Starts to sound like “LOL” after a while, but we certainly haven’t been doing much of that. You know, when we started RHM back in 2005, I’d never seen a winning team. I quite gleefully tripped along enjoying year after year of really crummy baseball. There wasn’t much worth talking about on the field, so I talked about personalities and hair styles and never missed what I’d never seen.

In a way, I pity Pirates fans. Now that they, too, have tasted fruit from the tree of winning, goofing on the team’s choice of hats and mascots will never be the same.

To be clear, though, in most ways, I do not pity Pirates fans.

For the first time, I can maybe understand why people follow the Cubs. The glorious victories a Cub fan imagines are never muddied with the painful shortcomings of actually happening. Much easier to enjoy that baseball that comes after you’ve made the shift to “maybe next year” when that shift happens before October.

Still, I wish the Major League affiliate of the Indianapolis Indians the best of luck in their upcoming series. I’d rather see them take it than anyone else. May their spark continue to shine bright.

Not quite done mourning yet? The Reds actually made a video embeddable. It’s a little group therapy for us all.