Reds manager Bryan Price went on an expletive-filled rant Monday in which he dropped the F-word 77 times in 5½ minutes during a pre-game diatribe aimed at what he felt was an overly intrusive media.
Price hopefully understands his job better than he does mine. He ultimately was critical of a particular reporter not for being wrong, but for being right in revealing players who were not available or were going to be promoted or demoted. He acted as if those who cover the team should be part of the team and have the best interest of the Reds in the forefront.
Price should understand: Being paid significantly to manage in the major leagues derives from voracious interest from fans who want to know why, say, All-Star catcher Devin Mesoraco is not being used. At best, reporters are informing their readership on what they want to know or should know, not serving as the 26th man for Bryan Price.
But this blow-up by Price underscores two other issues:
1. The tension is greater now than ever between teams and reporters. Organizations have never tried to control the message in a greater way by limiting access, training employees to be vanilla and using house organs to spin a story in their favor.
Thus, when questions or stories are not to their liking, they react like any authoritarian administration that does not have things go its way — with fury and petulance. The organizations also are unnerved by the relentlessness of the 24-hour news cycle, the pervasiveness of recording devices and the immediacy of Twitter.
2. Keep in mind this was Cincinnati, a market — with all due respect — with one of the smaller megaphones when it comes to the echo chamber of news. If Price can’t deal with this level of scrutiny and inquiry, it says something about him. It also might say something about his organization’s standing.
At the time Price delivered his rant, the Reds had lost four in a row and seven of eight. A dispassionate look at the division shows the Cardinals, Pirates and Cubs as having superior talent now and, because of their youth/skill combo, for years to come.
Price is not just feeling the seat hot beneath him, but is living within a culture with an ugly near future. The expectation was the Reds could be a July trading clearinghouse. That does not lessen now. Right-handers Johnny Cueto and Mike Leake are both in their walk years, and Jay Bruce and flame-throwing closer Aroldis Chapman both could be intriguing for contenders.