Kirk Herbstreit is absolutely fed up with the Cincinnati Reds, baseball in general

Kirk Herbstreit is best known for his discussions around the world of college football and the NFL, but the longtime Cincinnati Reds fan can throw down about baseball as well.

Herbie has been known to chop it up on social media about the state of his beloved Major League Baseball team, once getting into it with Ken Rosenthal and C. Trent Rosecrans over an article about the franchise’s future.

As they tend to be, things are not going well for the Reds. At 39-44, they find themselves in the NL Central basement. Games like the one they played against the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday night sum up how they got here.

After taking a 3-0 lead into the 6th inning, Cincinnati squandered all the goodwill they’d built up as the Brewers chipped away and eventually rode a two-out home run from Joey Ortiz in the eighth to a 5-3 victory.

After the game, Herbstreit responded to a fellow Red fan’s screed, saying that no amount of changes would make them feel better.

“Bro,” Herbstreit posted. “After 13 STRAIGHT years of this bullsh*t you need to realize you’re pissin into the wind. It will not change. The Reds baseball season is mid February to early to mid May. Thats it. This season was over weeks ago. I feel bad for you with all these tweets. Go watch some soccer. Get some preseason football magazines. Go on a summer trip. Anything but deal with this nonsense on a daily basis. It’s over. Time to move on.”

However, Herbstreit’s concerns go far beyond Cincinnati to the heart of baseball itself.

In response to an X post aggregating former New York Yankees catcher Jorge Posada’s thoughts that modern baseball “is garbage” and “robotic,” Herbstreit launched into a screed of his own about the state of the game.

“THANK YOU!!!!! Where did the athletic ability go?” he asked. “Clutch hitting in the 8th and 9th inning? Starting pitching that goes 8 or 9 innings? Base stealing-hell just good base running and SPEED?!? Sac bunts-moving runners over late in a game?

“Where’s Tony Gwynn? Rod Carew? Wade Boggs? Ichiro? Those guys wouldn’t exist in today’s ridiculous HR or K ‘launch angle’ game! The game has been dying with the youth of America for YEARS and now is losing the core fanbase as well with this ridiculous product we’ve had to digest for the last 7-10 years. Bring back Small Ball and athleticism…this s— dreadful!!!”

Is that true or just a lot of “the game was better in my day” yelling? Many were quick to poke holes in his summation of the state of baseball. Some noted that the 2024 season had the most total stolen bases since 1915 and that we’re in the midst of the greatest base-running era in decades. Other people pointed out that MLB ratings are on the rise. Others noted simply that Shohei Ohtani exists.

Herbstreit has a penchant for “things were better in my day” thinking, regardless of the sport, so it’s not too surprising that he’d be so ardent on this front. As for what will convince him otherwise, maybe the Reds have to get good again. So… probably not.