Bafflement

I have always considered myself to be much more a fan of baseball in general then of any specific team. This is not the case for me in other professional sports. That is not to say I am not interested in NFL games that do not involve the Browns, but when the Browns were moved, my interest level in the NFL plummeted. I do not at all believe that this would be the case if the Indians were to dissipate.

I have always rooted for all Ohio teams, although since I have lived in the Cleveland and Columbus areas, I am more partial to those teams then to those from Cincinnati (of course, Columbus has just one pro franchise, and it's the only team from Ohio in the NHL, so there's really no conflict there at all. But if it comes down to Indians/Reds or Browns/Bengals, I definitely side with Cleveland).

Anyway, all of this personal rambling is to get the point that my dual status of 1) being a bigger fan of the sport in general then of any specific team and 2) the Reds' status as my second favorite, rather then favorite team is quite a fortunate thing today. Otherwise, I would be infuriated that the Reds traded away two everyday players, 26 years of age, and both rated as above average hitters for their position a year ago (Lopez by quite a bit, Kearns by the skin of his teeth), in exchange for a couple of relief pitchers, Royce Clayton, and Brendan Harris. It is simply unbelievable to me.

And what really makes it galling is that Jim Bowden, whose tenure to this point in Washington has been embarassingly bad, has completely stuck it to his old employers.