Take It Easy, RedsFan

Time for your baseball smarts to kick in

After the Weekend That Wasn’t (fun, productive, satisfying or hopeful) the only thing on trial is your perspective. Going 0-for-Milwaukee at the Small Park is nothing more than a big test of your sophistication as a baseball fan.

(Not that I’m Johnny Sophisticate. I was a Pirates fan for 50 years, until our divorce five seasons ago. As a baseball savant, I was hangin’ out at The Precinct in my BVDs.)

Seasons of 162 games are not lost over three games in mid-July. Teams don’t forget how to hit in three days. Young teams slump, often together. As with anything else, it’s not what happens to you that matters. It’s what you do about it.

After a weekend like that, smart fans don’t worry about ledges, bridges and high places. This should be obvious. . .

You mean trite, Doc?

. . . but Cincinnati sports fans, while fundamentally loyal, are sky-is-falling types. Can you blame you? It’s a learned response.

The best baseball teams slump, sometimes en masse. This isn’t a “best baseball team.’’ It’s an exciting and excitable cluster, learning on the run. If you’d projected Elly De La Cruz’s one-month numbers across six months, he’d have been ready for the Rickey Henderson suit. Run-DLC is not yet Rickey Henderson, and not just because he’s an infielder.

What the lost weekend said about the ‘23 Club was not much. What it asked of the team was everything, namely, can you hold it together these next few weeks? Are you mentally stout? If the Reds think they’ve been grinding already, well, they ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

The question has not been about their ability, at least not in the batter’s box. It’s been about their staying power. It’ll continue to be thus. Can they climb the mental Everest? They start three rookies every day, four if you count Will Benson. They have one guy, Joey Votto, with big-time bona fides, two if you count Jonathan India, which you probably shouldn’t.

Plus, India has played in every game, started all but two, and looks a little weary.

Slumps happen. The Reds are enduring a few impressive ones. Spencer Steer is 2-for-29 with one extra-base hit since June 30.

India: 4 for his last 30

Between June 27 and Saturday, Matt McLain lost 30 points on his BA

Run-DLC is 1 for his previous 16, with one walk since June 13. In his last 18 games, De La Cruz has struck out 25 times.

It happens, especially to kids.

TML’s First Law of Winning: It’s not just whom you’re playing. It’s when you play them. The Giants, in town for four games beginning tonight, should feel pretty good right now.

Since June 9, the Reds have played 13 games against St. Louis, KC, Colorado and Washington, four of the five worst teams by winning percentage in MLB. Entering those series. . .

Colorado had lost 5 in a row.

The Cards had lost 5 of 6

The Royals had lost 9 of 10.

The Nationals had lost 11 of their previous 12 at home. They lost 4 more home games to the Reds.

Cincinnati went 12-1 against those four teams.

The beauty, of course, is the ample time left to make things right. Sixty-six games to go, and not all will be like the last three. There’s a fundamental honesty to the game. Its six-month slow burn doesn’t allow for flukes. You get what you deserve. For better or worse.

JOE MIXON’S BACK. Mixon and his agent saw the RB landscape and noticed it was barren. They determined they’d get what they could. Smart move. Mike Brown loves leverage and there’s plenty of leverage to be had when the likes of Dalvin Cook (cut by the Vikings, still a free agent), Saquon Barkley and Josh Jacobs are unsigned.

No word on what Mixon’s redone deal is worth, only that it’s less lucrative than it was, and eats less cap space. Mixon is a good not great back entering his 7th season. His yards per carry in ‘22 was a mediocre 3.9, qnd he’s still an iffy blocker. But he did have 60 catches.

TML gives it a 9.8 on the Eh Meter.

JOHN BENCH APOLOGIZED for suggesting former Reds GM and new Reds HOFer Gabe Paul was cheap because “he was Jewish.’’ Props to Bench for the sorries, and it’s instructive to remember this: Bench’s longtime attorney and dear friend Reuven Katz was also Jewish.

Not the smartest thing John has ever said, but it certainly wasn’t malicious.

*

BECAUSE TV IS MY LIFE, I’m grateful for Hijack. When my wife suggested it, I rolled my eyes. I mean, another drama about an airplane being kidnapped? Did they run out of those Tom Selleck mystery movies?

But Hijack is very good, at least good enough to hold my interest. Props to the lead guy, Idris Elba, who is never less than cool in every role he plays. Loved me some Stringer Bell.

SPEAKING OF. . . Do youse watch seasons of shows over? My son has dined on The Wire and The Sopranos until there’s nothing left but marrow from their bones. Over and over.

I’ve never watched a great show twice. You? What show?

UPDATES THAT POSSIBLY ONLY I CARE ABOUT. . . Since you good people told me I needed the Kroger app to navigate the aisles, I’ve tried numerous times to install it. Every time, it tells me “Error.’’

I went with trepidation and a bag lunch to the social security office the other day, expecting a fun-filled day in a stiff chair. I was in and out in 20 minutes. A tip: Batavia.

AND FINALLY. . . Frequent Perusers might recall my 10-thumbs skills re anything mechanical. Asking me to repair/assemble anything more substantial than a Lincoln Logs structure is like asking a Bengals fan to go all Steeler. Remember my adventures with the IKEA barstools?

Well. . .

I needed two new tires for my very nice racing bicycle that I haven’t ridden in five years. I bought it in, I think, 2002, for the Tour de Tucson, a 109-mile, one-day ride to benefit the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society. Since, it’s been on permanent exhibit in my garage. I was fairly certain the (original) tires were rotting. I’d promised Jillian the Magnificent we’d resume what used to be frequent 20-mile hauls on the Little Miami trail.

I ordered two new tires. Miraculously, I managed to remove the old tires and slide on the new ones. I successfully reattached the front tire to the frame. The back tire. . . is still sitting in the garage. Soon, maybe, I will take the bike to a bike shop and have a smart person there navigate all those damned gears and reattach the back tire.

*

I was unfamiliar with the word “derailleur’’ because, well, because why the hell should I not be? The “derailleur’’ derailleured me from completing the fix.

I tried watching a couple tutorials. Naturally all they did was make me wanna see how far I could throw the bike. It’s pretty light, 15 pounds tops. I bet I could shot-put that piece of torture 10 yards, at least.

Instead, I’ll be mature for the first time in my life and take it to the shop. I’ll avoid embarrassment by saying something monumentally weak, such as, “My kid can’t figure out how to get this tire back on his bike. He asked me if I could help him out.’’

TUNE O’ THE DAY. . . I don’t especially like country music. I like country rock. I love Highway Call, Richard Betts’ first solo album, which is country influenced. I love the lap steel guitar and the tinkly piano associated with country music.

And, I’ve decided, I can listen to what I call country honk, which happens to be the original name of the Stones’ hit Honky Tonk Women. This guy is very good at country honk, as today’s tune illustrates.