Bass column: Is Cincinnati a Reds or Bengals town? A football or baseball city?

Junior is here! Carl Lindner brought him in a freakin’ Rolls! All hail Junior! The powe rbrokers are here and pushing for face time. Everyone is here and pushing. I try to shield my friend, Robin Goldberg, who is married to Ken Griffey Jr.’s agent and who is out in public for the first time since losing her tonsils and her sea legs. Steady or not, she came to support Brian and Junior.

Wait! I mentally scroll back five years. Brian, Robin, Senior, Junior and I walked into Shoemaker Center for a Bearcats basketball game, and fans started rushing Junior. Robin was clearly pregnant, but fans saw only a Bumper Car between them and Junior. We stopped that fast. Junior just blinds people.

Back to 2000. This is the presser to welcome home The Cincinnati Kid. He is here to shatter Hank Aaron’s home run record, to elevate baseball in a baseball city and to carry the Reds back to World Series championships. Junior is blinding people again.

More: Bass column: Reds fans have choices, too. Are the Castellinis listening?

More: Bass: Bengals draft is ‘weird,’ ‘excitement,’ ‘happily exhausting’

When I turn on the radio to hear the reaction, callers are talking ... Bengals.

Bengals?

I am shocked anyone wants to talk about free agency or the disgruntled Carl Pickens or anything Bengals.

This is when I realize we are turning into a football town.

Perception or reality?

* * * * * * *

I see your comments accusing the Castellinis of ruining the Reds and turning the home of baseball’s first professional team into a football town. The Bengals had a lot to do with it, too, you say – the Super Bowl Bengals. And maybe the playoff Bearcats. And maybe football/soccer FC Cincinnati.

During NFL Schedule Release Week, I asked you when you realized Cincinnati was turning into a football town.

“When the Reds traded Tony Perez,” @TimAdamsCPA tweeted.

So you noticed it turning after December 1976.

“Early 1982,” @MaineBengals tweeted. “Big Red Machine had been dismantled by ownership, and the Bengals went to the Super Bowl that year. Football town ever since.”

So it was the combination of the Bengals going to their first Super Bowl, and the Reds going from baseball’s best record in 1981 to the National League’s worst in 1982.

“1988,” @OhioBrian tweeted.

So it was the Bengals’ second Super Bowl season.

“Cincinnati has been a football town for at least two decades if not longer [post-1994 MLB strike],” @uger_k tweeted. “Not always a Bengals town, but a football town.”

So it turned after the 1994-95 baseball strike.

“When the reds made the playoffs,” @drowningapostle tweeted, “and there was still unsold tickets on game day.”

So you realized it in the 1995 NLCS.

“Cincinnati hasn't been a baseball town since the 1994 strike, but it isn't a football town, either,” @adamapwire tweeted. “It's a ‘whatever's trendy’ town. FC Cincinnati was the most popular team in town for a minute. The Bengals were ‘it’ in 2005-06, then they faded. It's all cyclical.”

So Cincinnati has been a trendy town since the strike.

“This question has more to do with @GoBEARCATS success, than a bengals trip to another SB,” @curiousgardenmt tweeted.

So the focal point should be UC.

“When people would rather go to an Fc Cincinnati game than a Reds game and Paul Brown Stadium applying to host the World Cup,” @BengalsBabyYoda tweeted.

So the focal point should be FC Cincinnati.

“I'd rather jump in a tree branch shredder than go to an FC game,” @JungleRat7 tweeted.

So much for that.

“When burrow got drafted,” @colindavis27 tweeted.

So the focal point should be April 2020 and the Bengals picking Joe Burrow No. 1 overall.

“Its always been a baseball town, but football has been a close 2nd. Probably the last year or so,” @Cincy_Suave tweeted. “No one would have called it a football town in 2019-2020 with back-to-back winning seasons for the Reds and nothing for 30 years with the Bengals. But footballs always been there.”

So you saw a change in the last year or so.

“It was a Reds town [or both] until January 2nd,” @CincyBuckeye tweeted. “Then Reds fans lost their minds. Kansas City (Chiefs) game. If the Bengals had just been the Bengals again, Bob & Phil are not nearly in this spot. There was never the griping until the Super Bowl run.”

So the focal point should be the day the Bengals clinched the AFC North and a playoff berth.

“It was neck and neck last year but it definitely took a turn this year, @CharlieH0924 tweeted. “When ownership officially threw in the towel was the point of no return. The Castellini’s definitely realized on opening day when the loudest chant of the day was a Who Dey chant.”

So you realized it was turning this year.

“When the Bengals pro shop had lines out the door followed too closely by the lemon-juice-meet-paper-cut of the Geno-Wink ‘trade’ after already not bringing back Miley, Gray, Barnhart, Castellanos, Garrett, @ladykateblacket tweeted, “and that’s THIS off season,”

So it was this offseason.

“When Phil said ‘where you gonna go,’ ” @GimmeThatJbyrd tweeted. “Could not have been more tone deaf or more poorly timed [opening day after the Bengals reached a SB].”

So it was April 12.

“After seeing, and I (expletive) you not, TWENTY STRAIGHT TWEETS ABOUT HOW THE BENGALS HAVE MORE WINS IN 2022 THAN THE REDS!! @OriginalSingle tweeted. “I get it, the Reds suck, but give it a rest.”

So it was during the Reds’ 3-22 start.

“It’s still a baseball town but with the Reds being horrible and the Bengals darn near winning a Super Bowl, the Bengals naturally get the attention,” @OhioSportsAgony tweeted. “I’m sure most would take a Reds World Series win over a Bengals Super Bowl win. … and I forgot about UC football but even them included, most people of this city would go with the Reds winning it all if they had to choose. That’s not to say they don’t love football.”

So it still is a baseball town.

“I love both I have so many memories growing up around Cincinnati and I hate there’s a divide between the two fan bases,” @XXX_ULTIMATE_95 tweeted. “Ima always support both.”

So the town is split.

“Who says it can’t be both?” @notsocooljules tweeted.

So the town can unite for both.

“I hate this conversation,” @bengaljims_BTR tweeted, “because I love them both. The old guard in this town doesn’t like this conversation at all, the ‘baseball only’ guys. It can be both IMO.”

* * * * * * *

With all due respect to Bengal Jim Foster, I love this conversation. It can be smart, revealing and debatable. It is about perception and reality, and you and me.

I extended it to two people who have been on the air with you since I was there. Neither saw Junior’s arrival as The Day Cincinnati Was Turning into a Football Town or remember a flurry of Bengals talk. Fair enough.

OK, so when did Andy Furman realize this was turning into a football town?

“I still think Cincy is viewed by most as a river city baseball town like St. Looie,” he messaged me. “Bengals winning brings emotion and galvanizes the city -- but at the end of the day the baseball tradition rules!!”

Lance McAlister?

“I've sensed a gradual chipping away at the baseball foundation in this town for a while,” he texted. “Each day we get further removed from not just the BRM, but the Wire-to-Wire Reds.

“Four years ago the fans were done with Marvin and the Bengals. The Zac ‘buzz’ was gone after 2-14 three years ago. Eyes had turned to the stadium deal and the future.

But Joe Burrow galvanized this city with a swagger and confidence not seen since Boomer. Fans have rallied around him. I'm amazed how strong, passionate and even protective the fan base has become of the Bengals. The Bengals have secured even the casual and fringe fans.

“The Reds are watching a fan base dying off with a pipeline that lacks reinforcements. The Reds goodwill bank is empty. Statues, bobbleheads, retired numbers don’t cut it anymore. A trust was broken between fans and ownership.

“Elizabeth Blackburn has brought a youthful energy to the Bengals. What they have done to rally the fan base through social media is unlike anything I've ever seen. And from Katie to Duke to coaches and players, an era of fresh/new ways has been ushered in. Ring of Honor, new uniforms, Ruler of the Jungle, (etc.) are box checkers for the change.

“(And) Luke Fickell has reconnected the city to UC football from a performance and recruiting standpoint after the damage done by Tuberville.”

* * * * * * *

How could Cincinnati turn into a football town – at least to some degree ­– while the two dominant franchises shared three decades of misery? What if this says less about the Bengals and Reds than about their sports?

Baseball stagnates while the NFL appeals to bigger and more diverse audiences. Baseball once dominated the summer, but the NFL news cycle never seems to stop now; even the schedule release is an event. Today, kids who grew up playing soccer have kids playing soccer.

Now football talk is everywhere, the Bengals are fresh off a Super Bowl run, and Burrow is the guy lifting the town the way Junior was expected to lift it.

Remember?

We saw him joining a 96-win team and making Cincinnati the center of the baseball world. Junior blinded us.

Perception was reality but was it realistic? A center fielder is not a quarterback. Did Junior have the right supporting cast? A 30-year-old center fielder sounds young, but did years of running and diving on a hard Kingdome surface wear down a body trying to recover without PEDs? Our perception affected our view of Junior with the Reds.

Was I wrong in how I perceived what I heard on the radio? What if it was a brief respite from Junior talk? Our perception becomes our reality. I stand by what I felt back in 2000, but that was then, and I am always open.

Is Cincinnati a football town? What would convince you?

Is it a baseball town? What would change your mind?

What if Junior and the Reds had won a Series?

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Reds or Bengals? Which team rules city, according to fans