Bryan Price is dealing with some early adversity this year with the Cincinnati Reds. The Redlegs are 1-7 in their last 8 games after starting 4-0 in the NL Central. And while there’s still an eternity of time left in the season, Price’s frustration boiled over in a conversation with the local media on Monday in Milwaukee.
Correction: Price’s frustration didn’t just boil over. It exploded like Mount Vesuvius.
C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer documented the entire rant, which centered around the reporting of an injury to All-Star catcher Devin Mesoraco. Price was apparently furious with the media, and the Enquirer in particular, for reporting on Mesoraco’s lack of availability for Sunday’s game in St. Louis. While that seems innocuous enough, apparently Price is a disciple of the Bill Belichick school when it comes to dealing with the media and then some.
Here’s some of more of the highlights in print. (God bless Rosecrans for documenting this Hall-of-Fame worthy transcript and all the credit in the world to him for keeping his cool while Price was ranting like a lunatic.) This is truly a rant for the ages…
“So every f****** opponent we have has to know exactly what we have. Which f****** relievers are available, which guys are here and which guys aren’t here, when they can play, and what they can do. It’s nobody’s f****** business. It’s certainly not the opponent’s business. We have to deal with this f****** b*******.”
“I like to talk — and I have spoken as candidly as I can with you people, if that’s not good enough, I won’t say a f******thing. I’ll go, ‘yes sir, no sir.’ And I can do that. But f***, I’ve been as candid as I can f****** be about this team and our players, and we’ve got to deal with this s***, every f****** team that we f****** play has to know every f****** guy that’s here and what they can and can’t do? F*** me. It’s a f****** disgrace. I’m f****** sick of this s***. It’s f****** hard enough to f****** win here to have f****** every f****** opponent know exactly what the f*** we bring to the table every day. It’s f****** horse****. I don’t like it. It’s what I’m saying.”
“Your job is not to sniff out every f****** thing is about the Reds and f****** put it out there for every other f****** guy to hear. It’s not your job. You want me to be candid with you? I’ve been candid with you. I f****** talk to you guys like men, I tell you what the f***’s going on with the team, I tell you how I’m feeling as candidly as I can and then this s***? You’ve got to watch this f****** s***?”
“So, I’m f******, to be honest with you, I’m f****** sick of this s***. I’m sick of listening to this f****** s***, I’m sick of f****** the f****** second-guessing b*******, you guys can do whatever the f*** you want, but I’ll tell you this — I’m not going to f****** tell you everything about this f****** club, because you f****** guys are going to out there and sniff it out anyway. I don’t f****** like it one f****** bit. I bend over backwards to be honest and direct with you f****** guys and you stick it right up my f****** a** — and the f****** team’s a**. And I’m sick of it. What do you got? If you don’t got anything, get out and I’ll do this f****** interview with Marty. You don’t have anything? Just get out, please.”
Un-be-lie-va-ble.
Before we go any further, Rosecrans and the local media are absolutely 100% correct in reporting whatever information they can. They don’t work for the Reds organization – they’re serving their readers. And if that creates tension with the manager or the club, so be it. Price has to realize it’s 2015 and the free flow of information and sports reporting aren’t exactly going anywhere.
The rant includes an incomparable 77 f-bombs. 77! Eat your heart out, Barry Bonds! Now that’s a record we can all agree on that doesn’t need an asterisk. At the very least, Lee Elia may have finally met his match. Either way, the Reds just got a LOT more interesting this year! Apparently audio is coming soon, which we can’t wait to hear. We’ll get the popcorn ready for you.
UPDATE: Good news! The original audio from the Courier-Journal was taken down but now a version has appeared on BroBible. Hopefully whoever censored this video got paid by the beep.
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