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<img src='https://adoptedwriter.dreamwidth.org/file/3906.jpg' alt='' title='Cincinnati Reds stuff' />
<a href='https://adoptedwriter.dreamwidth.org/file/3906.jpg'><img src='https://adoptedwriter.dreamwidth.org/file/200x200/3906.jpg' alt='' title='Cincinnati Reds stuff'/></a>
I grew up in the 1960s-80s in Cincinnati, Ohio. At the time it was practically every kid's dream, boy or girl, to watch he Reds, meet the Reds, acquire players' autographs, have a Reds shirt and play the game yourself....even if all you did was play with a whiffle ball or tennis ball in the back yard. Every kid loved the Big Red Machine. I remember dashing in from school, changing clothes and going out to someone's back yard to play ball every sunny afternoon. It's what all the kids on my street did.
This was before steroid drug abuse, hating on immigrants, (and many players were former Cubans and Venezuelans), denying the National Anthem and other scandalous behaviors that way too many athletes today are known for. Back then we just wanted to feel absorbed in the game and appreciate the magical way the Big Red Machine era players seemed in tune like a family. We learned about their lives outside of baseball: Who was married, who had kids, where they came from before Cincinnati, where they hung out in the off season, did they play other sports, etc.
I don't collect much fandom memorabilia, but I do have a few treasured souvenirs from the hey day of the Big Red Machine era, and I will never part with them:
a home run baseball that Johnny Bench hit...My uncle was in the stands and caught it...ticket stubs: one for play offs and one for a World Series game...buttons, mugs, high-ball glasses, a post card which is autographed by all the BRM players, If I go to a game now, I have my "super-fan" wear: My Bench 5 shirt, my red and white lei, my Reds logo headband and lanyard, a drawstring bag and earrings.
They don't play now like they used to, but I am still a fan at heart.
<a href='https://adoptedwriter.dreamwidth.org/file/3906.jpg'><img src='https://adoptedwriter.dreamwidth.org/file/200x200/3906.jpg' alt='' title='Cincinnati Reds stuff'/></a>
I grew up in the 1960s-80s in Cincinnati, Ohio. At the time it was practically every kid's dream, boy or girl, to watch he Reds, meet the Reds, acquire players' autographs, have a Reds shirt and play the game yourself....even if all you did was play with a whiffle ball or tennis ball in the back yard. Every kid loved the Big Red Machine. I remember dashing in from school, changing clothes and going out to someone's back yard to play ball every sunny afternoon. It's what all the kids on my street did.
This was before steroid drug abuse, hating on immigrants, (and many players were former Cubans and Venezuelans), denying the National Anthem and other scandalous behaviors that way too many athletes today are known for. Back then we just wanted to feel absorbed in the game and appreciate the magical way the Big Red Machine era players seemed in tune like a family. We learned about their lives outside of baseball: Who was married, who had kids, where they came from before Cincinnati, where they hung out in the off season, did they play other sports, etc.
I don't collect much fandom memorabilia, but I do have a few treasured souvenirs from the hey day of the Big Red Machine era, and I will never part with them:
a home run baseball that Johnny Bench hit...My uncle was in the stands and caught it...ticket stubs: one for play offs and one for a World Series game...buttons, mugs, high-ball glasses, a post card which is autographed by all the BRM players, If I go to a game now, I have my "super-fan" wear: My Bench 5 shirt, my red and white lei, my Reds logo headband and lanyard, a drawstring bag and earrings.
They don't play now like they used to, but I am still a fan at heart.
