Independence from Losing

Reds have a legit chance to shock the world. They should feel free to do just that.

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Happy Independence Day, all you Founding Fans out there. That’d be you keepers of the Runnin’ Reds flame, who endured your own personal Valley Forge and stuck with a club others abandoned. Happy Day to all of youse who predicted the luminescence of Elly de la Cruz — aka, Run-DLC, copyright, me — when everyone else was buying soccer tickets.

You got “luminescence’’ in a sports column, Doc. That’s cool.

I love bandwagon fans, for the change they help inspire. I admire the diehards. If you could look at last summer and see this summer — and solidify your loyalty with conviction — well, pull up a folding chair by the inflatable pool, grab a dog and a diet beer and toast your character.

You’re a Minuteman, Mobster. You’re Davy at the Alamo.

In a second, we’ll discuss the significance of this day, and I’ll have an opinion I can pretty much guarantee you won’t like. I’ll offer a word or two about the Reds’ supposed All-Star snub and why it’s entirely correct and appropriate. For now, let’s talk the inspirational moment. On July 4, a holiday born for baseball, the Club is tied for 1st place in the NL Central. So. . .

Deals or no deals?

I’m perplexed this is even an issue. What am I missing?

Team is stunningly in 1st place more than half a season in. Team has obvious needs and obvious surpluses. Team is small-money and thus not in this position often.

Why would anyone clutch his pearls and talk about “not trading away our future’’?

The future is now. In sports, the future is always now. If Tom Hanks had played a GM instead of a manager of a women’s professional ball team, he’d have said, “Waiting? There’s no waiting in baseball.’’

Nick Krall, don’t be Wimpy

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You have a chance to win something, you take that chance. This isn’t Wimpy, begging burgers, promising payment Tuesday. This is a ballclub that in about a month has shocked everyone but itself, and lives in a condo that’s not exactly on the beach, with a bunch of other guys who can barely pay their rent.

We’re supposed to be, what, worried about the Milwaukee Brewers?

Deal, Nick Krall.

Deal with Jim Bowden abandon. Deal as much as ownership allows. The money shackles will be loosened, if not removed. Assuming you can assume a prodigious contract, do big things.

You need a vet starting pitcher, maybe two, who can pitch six innings and keep you in games. My 2012 Honda Civic for a Wade Miley or, I dunno, a Lucas Giolito. Shock the world. Seek Max Scherzer.

Be like James Holzhauer.

Who, Doc?

The biggest Jeopardy! winner, ever. The guy who, when he hit the Daily Double, thrust his arms outward, indicating he was All In with his wager. Be James Holzhauer, Nick. Look what happened for him.

You need a shutdown kinda 8th-inning guy, to be that 3rd racer in the relay. Get that baton to Mr. Diaz without losing a step of the lead. I’ve heard Daniel Hudson and Andrew Chafin.

The worst thing that could happen would be nothing. Teams come hoping to rip off the Reds, preying on the civic hope that builds here with every death-defying W. Doing nothing wouldn’t be catastrophic, just hugely disappointing.

Here’s James G. Bowden IV, recently in The Athletic:

“(Nick Krall) is the front-runner for MLB Executive of the Year. (Krall should) trad(e) for two veteran starting pitchers who can provide at least five or six quality innings per start.  It’s the strategy I used with the ’95 Reds when I traded for David Wells, Mark Portugal and Dave Burba.’’

Say what you will about Bowden. He wasn’t universally, um, liked around here. But he Went For It. The Reds teams he assembled were talented and fun to watch. Bowden’s trigger finger was always itchy.

The Brewers are nothing special. They will get Brandon Woodruff back, likely soon after the all-star break. He’s a top of the rotation guy. Woodruff and Corbin Byrnes are as good a 1-2 as it gets in the Central. Milwaukee has a primo closer. Christian Yelich is having an all-star caliber season. After that?

The Reds ran wild over the Crew earlier year. They stole nine (not a misprint) bases v. them in one game. . . then came back and stole six more the next day. The Reds rank in the 90th percentile in MLB, in something called “average sprint speed,’’ according to Statcast, a website that keeps an accounting of such things.

This Club can do this. Whatever This might be. Certainly win a division championship. It should be given the help it needs. Krall is the guy who last August got Spencer Steer and Christian Encarnacion-Strand from the Twins for Tyler Mahle. He’s up for the task of getting a pile of pitching help.

Do it and do it big. There’s no waiting in baseball.

Now, then. . .

Smart pick, Nick.

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LOTS OF BOOING around here Sunday, after the all-star rosters were announced. Dansby Swanson and not Matt McLain? No Steer? Only Alexis Diaz got the call.

The fans and the game got it right, unless you think the rookie Steer would’ve been a better choice than Pete Alonso. Let the Star Game serve as an apt tribute to what this team has become. A true team.

There’s not a hammer in the Everyday Eight or Nine There’s not a row of assassins. No starting pitcher looks at the Reds lineup and calls in sick. But there’s not much breathing room there. Almost every Reds hitter can run. They all give you something. There’s a reason the Club has been mashing for the past month. It’s not because they have great individual players.

HAPPY 4TH. AND OH, YEAH, STICK TO SPORTS. . . The Athletic asks, what’s better, potato salad or coleslaw?

Given that I wouldn’t feed coleslaw to Crazy Chester the dog, I’m going with potato salad. Nothing says culinary misfortune quite like cabbage and mayonnaise.

That resolved, there is this:

Do we celebrate the wrong stuff July 4?

I’m not talking about using one day a year to universally laud our own greatness. We do that every day, in some fashion. God Bless Us. I’m talking about the unseemly tendency among some of us to praise the wrong stuff.

You know: Love us or leave us.

When we stop welcoming worthy immigrants, we aren’t being American. We’re not acknowledging what made us great in the first place.

When we suppress voting in selected places, we aren’t being American. When we target groups of responsible, law-abiding people who don’t look like us, act like us or who practice lifestyles with which we don’t agree, we aren’t being American. In a land of free will and choices, denying people free will and choices is incompatible with the Dream.

Boo.

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I dislike flyovers at sporting events. I find them jingoistic. I can take or leave what has become a ritual honoring of veterans at ballgames. It’s an easy, feelgood gesture that doesn’t change anything. A few vets with whom I’ve spoken say that stuff makes them uncomfortable. If we want to honor our veterans, make sure they get meaningful jobs when their service is completed, and decent health care.

Today is a day to celebrate who we are, with good reason. We truly are the world’s best hope. It’s also a day to reflect on how we've betrayed our mission, and how we can change that.

Happy anniversary to the American Dream.

TUNE O’ THE DAY. . . I tried to think of a song that’s truly emblematic of the day. Everything I came up with was either obvious or trite.

So here’s John Mellencamp, putting to words what I think is important on the Fourth of July.

Always question your faith. Save some time to dream. Your dream may save us all.