99 losses of ball on the wall, 99 losses of ball...

Oct 3, 2022 - 6:51 PM

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1982 began with the Cincinnati Bengals defeating the Buffalo Bills in the AFC championship game, a win that sent them to the Superb Owl.

2022 began with the Cincinnati Bengals defeating all manner of clubs, including the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC championship game, a win that sent them back to the Superb Owl.

40 years has separated those two runs, but those same 40 years have separated perhaps the two most dismal seasons in Cincinnati Reds history.

The 1982 Reds followed in the footsteps of their cross-town athletic brethren by getting walloped 101 times, setting the mark for the single most losses in franchise history. Now, 40 years later, the Reds are threatening to repeat that feat - or surpass it - with 99 losses already on the ledger with a 3-game series against the Chicago Cubs left to play. Those same Cubs just swept the Reds, you’ll recall (assuming your baseball eyes haven’t rolled so far back into your skull just yet).

The final series of this dismal year kicks off when the puck drops this evening at 6:40 PM ET in Great American Ball Park, a stadium which will house literally dozens of humans in the stands to watch it. It will feature the dynamic right arm of one Hunter Greene on the mound to start, too, a player who deserves many more thousands to be around to see him, something that would surely happen if the team’s owners hadn’t treated the team, and its fans, like an old pennyloafer.

Anyway, loss 100 could be in the cards this evening and, if so, the elusive 102 loss season is still on the table, too. It sure would tie a bow around this season if they can finish by being swept, as that would mean they’d finish with a 4-22 record over their final 26 games after sporting a 3-22 record over the season’s first 25 games.

It’ll get better at some point, folks. It sure can’t get much worse.

Reds Lineup

Cubs Lineup