BASEBALL Author: Reds' ad to explain moves like an 'apology'

A sports historian said the two-page newspaper ad was a precedent.
CINCINNATI (AP) -- A two-page newspaper ad that Cincinnati Reds management took out to explain the team's upheaval is unprecedented in its scope and scale, a sports historian says.
"It's sort of an after-the-fact apology. They're trying to spin it. I don't know how many people are buying," said Kevin Grace, author of "Cincinnati on Field and Court -- The Sports Legacy of the Queen City."
Reds chief operating officer John Allen said Monday that the ad was in response to last week's news coverage and fan reaction to the firings of general manager Jim Bowden and manager Bob Boone, and the trades of key players.
"We just felt we needed to communicate to our fans and to clarify what seemed to be a lot of misinformation and sensationalism with regard to our moves," Allen said.
Two of top hitters dealt
The Reds traded two of their top hitters, outfielder Jose Guillen and All-Star third baseman Aaron Boone, closer Scott Williamson, who was the 1999 National League Rookie of the Year, and reliever Gabe White. In return, the Reds got minor-league pitching prospects and cash.
"The recent addition of valuable pitching arms and other strategic moves will support one of the strongest batting orders in the National League and set us on a path back to the playoffs and ultimately on to a championship," owner Carl Lindner and Allen said in the ad published Sunday in The Cincinnati Enquirer.
The Enquirer declined to disclose the cost of the ad.
The Reds have rarely unloaded quality players to the extent they did last week, with the exception of the dismantling of the Big Red Machine after it won the World Series in 1975 and 1976, Grace said.
Even then, the Reds traded players like Tony Perez and Pete Rose because they were no longer affordable, he said.
Grace's view
"You don't trade two of your best position players when you say you're trying to build a winning team," Grace said. "They wouldn't have been spending that much anyway [on the players they traded]."
Reds fans interviewed a day after the ad ran weren't feeling much better about what many view as a fire sale of the team's talent.
Clete Baumer, who has followed the Reds since 1938, said he's tired of hearing the team tell fans they're rebuilding, especially after Hamilton County taxpayers contributed $290 million for Great American Ball Park.
"The future was supposed to be the current ball club as they moved into the new stadium," Baumer, 75, said Monday. "It's completely contrary to what we were told in regard to why the stadium was built."
Politicians
Even Cincinnati politicians tried to assuage fans. Hamilton County commissioners, who negotiated the ballpark lease with the Reds, faxed a statement to news organizations Monday.
"We are confident that Mr. Lindner and Mr. Allen will bring home a winner on the baseball field ... and we trust their judgment," the commissioners said.
Cincinnati politicians have met taxpayer wrath before due to another losing team in a new stadium.
After the county finished building Paul Brown Stadium and the Bengals continued their losing ways, voters ousted the county commissioner who led a campaign to raise the county's sales tax to build the stadium.