What owners really think

 Opening Day has been an unofficially official holiday in Cincinnati for more than 100 years. There's a parade. Everyone wears red. They play hooky from work, and adult beverages are consumed in mass quantities.

It's a grand celebration of the game, and of the Reds grand history in it.

Well. At least it was until Reds COO and president Phil Castellini showed up.

What Castellini did was let slip what MLB owners -- especially small market owners -- really think, and it's about as snotty and high-hatted as you'd expect. What he said in a radio interview, and doubled down on later, was if the fans don't like what the Reds are putting on the field, they can p*** off. Essentially, he channeled his inner Judge Smails: You'll get nothing and like it!

"Where are you going to go?" he asked.

And then intimated that if fans really wanted ownership to pay more to put a better product on the field, the only way the owners could do that would be to move elsewhere.

"And so be careful what you ask for," Castillini said, not making it sound like a threat or anything.

At issue was the Castillinis -- Phil and his dad Bob, the CEO and principal team owner -- selling off valuable pieces of last year's team, which won 83 games. The Reds narrowly missed the playoffs, which is hardly unusual; since the Castellinis bought the club in 2006, they've reached the postseason just four times, and put up a winning record just five times.

So of course fans were annoyed at the seeming prospect of starting over again just when the team was starting to get good. It's a cycle with which the Blob is well familiar, being a long-suffering fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates, a fake MLB team whose ownership operates it like a farm club -- i.e., develops prospects until they become good enough to command real money, then deals them away for more prospects.

Meanwhile ownership keeps raking in all that revenue-sharing money. Because, you know, a guy can never have enough ski lodges or private planes or yachts or whatever.

Meanwhile the fans get nothing like their money's worth, year after dreary year. And if, as they should, they complain ...

Well. I have zero doubt doubt my Cruds' owners feel the same way Castellini does about that. They've just never been dumb enough to say it out loud.

Or should I say, galactically dumb.

After all, Castellini was speaking yesterday in a city whose NFL team just went to the Super Bowl. A team with some major drawing cards. A team stuffed with exciting young players. 

Where is Cincinnti gonna go, Castellini asked?

It's gonna go watch Joe Burrow play. That's where it's gonna go. 

Look. You don't crap on your fans when those fans have other entertainment options. That's Marketing 101. And you especially don't do it when those options are far more attractive.

I'm sure Castellini's Pops laid all that out for him after yesterday. Which is why today his son profusely apologized, saying how they loved the city and the fans and blah-blah-blah.

Too little, too late. The truth, as they say, is already out there.