These Are The Good Old Days

On the eve of the playoffs, Mobster Joe urges optimism. It can be a hard ask.

Please give a warm Morning Line greeting to longtime Mobster Joe Shaw. He feels your pain and offers antidotes. I’ll be back Saturday with the Men Pick. Consider yourselves warned.

Take it away, Joe.

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If you’re like me, you’re looking at this Sunday’s (second) showdown with the Ravens with equal parts excitement and trepidation. On paper, The Men should beat the Ravens like they stole something. 

But as any longtime Cincinnatian knows, no team in the history of sports has a more efficient track record of turning Sure Things into Woulda-Couldas than Our Cincinnati Bengals.

These Men seem different. But cynicism is a hard habit to break. If you’re still stuck in angry mode over the NFL’s decision to grant leniency in the playoffs to everyone BUT the Bengals, or if you find yourself expecting Lamar Jackson to storm out of the locker room in the second half and lead the Ravens to a victory, just know you’re not alone. 

I don’t want to be this way. I don’t want to fall into the nihilistic trap of never believing any more than I want to go all the way in the other direction and expect a championship every year like Buckeyes and Yankees fans do. 

I want to enjoy this, dang it. Why can’t I? 

I’m reminded of my friend, Jeff, from Chicago who’s been a Cubs fan his whole life. When the Cubbies made the world series in 2016 and it started to look like they had a real shot at winning, he kept saying, “I never thought I’d live to see this!” He’s had his issues with the Wrigleys ever since, and rightly so, but he still holds tight to that moment. 

That’s how I feel about The Men right now. If you’d have told me just two years ago the Bengals would make the Super Bowl and follow it up with (at least) an AFC North title, I’d have asked you to introduce me to share some of what you’re smoking. But here we are. But there is a large chance Our Team will be good for at least a few more seasons. 

Cincinnatians talk a lot about The Good Old Days. The Big Red Machine. The Bengals in ‘82 and ‘88. The Wire-to-Wire Reds of 1990. Moments that are real to fewer and fewer of us each year. 

(Carly Simon lyrics)

These Men. This Team. These are the Good Old Days. We are in them right now, and I never thought we’d live to see it. Win or lose this weekend, let’s enjoy The Good Old Days while they’re here.

Speaking of Numbers That Lie, all the numbers in the world are telling us Joey Votto is done.  He’s coming off of shoulder surgery. He’s the ripe, old age of thirty-nine. He’s coming off a year where he hit .205/.319/.370 with a -0.3bWAR, and the most generous stat machines out there are only granting him slightly improved numbers with a pedestrian wOBA and dWAR approaching negative double digits. 

Those numbers mean anything to you? 

bWAR is the number of wins a player can expect to add to a team compared to a league average player, using the baseball-reference.com calculations. wOBA is an on-base average where the means by which a player gets on base are carries different weight depending on the run-value of that method. And dWAR is the number of wins a player adds to (or, in Votto’s case, significantly detracts from) his team with his defensive prowess. 

This might all sound like Greek to you. Dig deep enough and some of it actually IS Greek.

The numbers tell us there is no way the Reds can compete economically against teams on the coasts, and that Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes will most certainly defeat Joe Cool if the Bengals make it past the Ravens. The numbers tell us the best we can hope for is sustained mediocrity. 

To a certain extent, that’s true. Over a long enough timeline, Doc’s adage that a player is who the numbers on the back of his card SAY he is, is true. I work in Data and Analytics professionally and I can attest to the truth of this. 

But here are some other, important numbers.

5 … The number of wins the Bengals were supposed to have last season. 

3.2 … The percentage chance the Bengals had of making the Super Bowl last season after they had made the playoffs. 

Or, if you want something closer to real life .. 

4-6 … the number of minutes after someone’s heart has stopped and CPR is being performed that brain damage starts happening. 

9 … the number of minutes the amazing emergency medical professionals performed CPR on Damar Hamlin before his heart started again. 

I can’t say with 100% assurance that Damar Hamlin’s recovery was a miracle. But it certainly seems that way from my uneducated perspective.

In any case, it’s clear the numbers are important, but they also lie sometimes. Numbers are a tool to make good decisions. They are not the arbiter of truth.

Even though the numbers say Joey Votto is done, and that the Bengals will lose far short of the Super Bowl, I’m choosing to have hope over cynicism. For now at least. 

Now, then. . .

My 7-year old son, Shaw Kid 4 (aka SK4), stood outside my office this afternoon for a good twenty minutes, waiting for me to finish working. 

“Are you done yet, Dad?” 

“Almost.” 

He stood outside my office with a soccer ball. The implication was clear. As soon as work was over, he wanted to go outside and kick the soccer ball with me. 

I am not a soccer fan. I was a baseball fanatic growing up. None of my five kids like baseball. A few play soccer, another is into martial arts, and a third does robotics. That ain't a sport, but it ain't a bad thing, either. Of all the sports in the world, though, soccer is one of my least favorite.

When I was a kid, my dad and I spent countless hours tossing baseball in the backyard, and listening to Marty & Joe call Reds games. Dad was always right there with me. It wasn’t until years later that I learned he prefers football to baseball. But he did what I wanted, because he wanted to be with me. 

I always thought I'd pass that love of baseball onto my kids. If not that, I figured I could at least pass along my Bengals cynicism.  Now, it seems, I don’t even have that anymore, 

That’s OK. Watching my kids grow up, I've learned that getting involved in their stuff passes on love & connection, regardless of the sport. Even with soccer. Those moments will, I hope, carry them through the dark seasons, much as the moments I spent with my father have carried me. 

That’s what hope does. Hope is a good thing. It’s one of the great things, and it should be passed on. 

Work ended, and we went out front to kick the ball.

“Hey Dad!” 

“Yeah?”
“You think the Bengals will win this weekend?” 

“I don’t know. Lamar Jackson is a premier QB.”
“He’s injured, Dad.” 

“I know, but if he comes back, we could be in trouble. The numbers say …” 

“The numbers lie, Dad. Remember?” 

“You’re right. They do.” 

“I’m excited. I can’t wait to watch them play!” 

He kicked the ball past me. I went into the neighbor’s yard to retrieve it. When I turned around, he was right next to me, his face flush from having sprinted across our yard, a smile full of hope.

We were in the Good Old Days again. 

“I’m excited, too,” I said. “GO BENGALS.”

AND NOW. . . Hey! Michelle gets you pumped for Sunday night.

Asian food Week ~ Now through Sunday over 40 restaurants are participating serving up $10 secret menu items. Check out Asianati for details! 

The time of year where Duke Energy has a convention every weekend ;) Friday -Sunday The O’Reilly’s Cavalcade of Customs. Hundreds of classic and hot rod vehicles on display. Friday 3-10, Saturday 10-10 & Sunday 10-6 Ticketed event 

Pep Rally at Moerlein Lager House Friday 5-8 ~ Get your picture with Who Dey, bring the family and make Good Luck cards for the Bengals and more 

Walk the Cincinnati Parks~ Friluftsliv Winter Hiking Challenge .. Let’s go! Saturday mornings at 10am take a guided stroll and get some fresh air. Go to Cincinnatiparksfoundation.org to sign up for the challenge. 

Art on Vine ~ Shop away and sip on some Cincy favorite craft beers at Rhinegeist Brewery Sunday Noon-7 over 80 local vendors. 

Music ~ Brian Newman Quintet coming to town and playing at Revel Wine Bar in OTR Saturday at 7:30 .. Lady Gaga’s bandleader !! Be there :) This is a ticketed event put on with Xavier Music Series .. This is going to be AMAZING 

Chili Fest at Findlay Market ~ Sunday from 10am-4pm. Sample so many kinds of chili and chili related items like Mac & Cheese chili, cornbread etc., hot drinks, local brews from Sonder Brewery and live music. Ticketed event 

Tour the Cincinnati Observatory ~ Sunday 1-2 take a tour of another favorite Cincy spot that features America’s oldest large telescope! Check out this fantastic landmark and look into some of their great stargazing events. 

Last but not least.. Whoooo Dey! Let’s do this :) Sunday 8:15

 Hey Michelle,
Do you want to know where to eat, drink and have fun in Cincinnati? Check out my page  . . . https://heymichelle-help.com

IMBIBER DAVE

Had a wonderfully straightforward get together with some friends at a favorite local brewery, Taft’s Ale House in OTR. Now it has been quite a while since I’ve ordered a nice sample lineup at a local microbrewery.

If you’ve never been, Taft’s is located inside a historic church, and is quite opulent. They serve excellent tri-tip, sliced thin and piled on amazing sandwiches. Their smoked wings are top notch.

For beer, start with a Kolsch me Ousside or It’s Called Soccer Kolsch. Then make your way over to the Gustav Vienna Lager, which is malty but not too sweet. I really enjoyed the Oktubberfest, and felt compelled to upgrade to a pint of this, since it was full bodied but easy drinking at 5.7% ABV. Before that pint, I did have a couple more tastes on the horizon. Son of a Nutcracker Stout had a subtle sweetness and was very tasty, and 25 Days of Haze IPA was solid too.

It’s strange that I don’t drink IPAs like I used to. I still love the taste, but still feel human the next day if I don’t tip the hop-o-meter too far in the wrong direction.

I made my first timer compadres try Nellie’s Key Lime Ale. It’s awesome poolside in the summer, but if you’ve never tried it you should check it out anytime. Unique and delicious, almost like a lime shandy.

Cheers!
cincybeerguydave@gmail.com

TUNE O’ THE DAY. . . Here’s a tune from one of a number of very good bands to emerge in the South in early 70s, in the footsteps of the Allman Brothers, IMO the greatest American rock-n-roll band.