It Has Never been Better to be a Cincinnati Sports Fan
Photo from Dylan Buell of (Getty Images)
Cincinnati, Ohio (PSF)- Joe Burrow, Elly De La Cruz, Lucho Acosta. Has it ever been better to be a Cincinnati sports fan? The Bengals are coming off back-to-back seasons reaching the AFC title game, and a great offseason reload. While Cincinnati’s MLS team leads the entire league in points and has a budding star leading the way. And although De La Cruz just arrived with the Reds, his impact has been felt immediately.
Cincinnati sports has been used to mediocrity for a long time. The Reds haven’t won a playoff series since their last World Series Championship in 1990, and until the 2022 win over the Las Vegas Raiders in the wild card game, the Bengals had not won a playoff game since 1991, just 3 months after the Reds last playoff series win. Fc Cincinnati was a bit different, being a powerhouse in the USL, until being selected as an MLS expansion franchise in 2019, where they were horrendous for the first few seasons.
In 2023 a new chapter has begun in Cincinnati, sparked by Burrow and the Bengals. When Burrow led this team to an unexpected Super Bowl in 2022, the mood changed in this city. A franchise once looked at as cheap splurged in free agency to revamp a weak offensive line. Although the 2022-23 season ended to Patrick Mahomes in the AFC title game, this team looks poised to come back better than ever and finally win the first championship in franchise history.
Another Free Agency headlined by the signing of Orlando Brown Jr. followed by a great draft class has this city buzzing and hungry for the franchise’s first ring. Burrow coupled with his plethora of great wide receivers and lineman have an entire city excited, and expecting to win, something that hasn’t happened in this city in a decade.
Bengals biggest signing Orlando Brown Jr. taking questions from Cincinnati media. Photo from Sam Greene of USA Today. (Getty Images)
Of course, everyone knows about De La Cruz and how electric he is at any point in time when on a baseball field, but what the world doesn’t realize is the number of prospects the Reds have called up this year. Matt Mclain, Andrew Abbott, T.J. Hopkins, and Brandon Williamson to name a few, have made an immediate impact on this team, and suddenly has the Reds poised to make a playoff push that nobody saw coming.
Matt Mclain hitting a walk off single against the Dodgers after being down 8-3.
The hype around De La Cruz, one of the best prospects the Reds have ever had could be seen in his first Major League at bat. The crowd went silent during pitches, cheering for balls as if he had hit a home run, chanting his name as he stood in the batter’s box, and when he eventually drew a walk, the stadium went ballistic as if it had just won the World Series. A player who had never even stepped on a big-league field before drew excitement as if he had just saved the world.
Elly De La Cruz crushes his first home run in style.
De la Cruz’s energy has not just been felt in Cincinnati, but around the entire baseball world, with multiple big names commenting on his performance. Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman saying, “I don’t like playing first base when he’s hitting.” Even Jarred Carrabis, host of the Baseball is Dead podcast said, “Cincinnati is the center of the baseball universe right now.”
De La Cruz has excited the city of Cincinnati and beyond, with his Louisville teammate Christian Encarnacion Strand on the way soon, Cincinnati baseball will be very fun to watch, and could end up with another championship in a couple years.
Finally, Fc Cincinnati stand atop the entire MLS with 39 points, led by Lucho Acosta. Acosta leads the club with 7 goals, but his effect is so much bigger than that. Acosta is always playing with high intensity and setting his teammates up for success. His selfless attitude leads the way for this team to win more games than expected and has many fans throwing his name in the MVP conversation at this point in the season.
Lucho Acosta lining up a strike. Photo from (Joe Craven / Getty Images)
The city of Cincinnati has been yearning for championships for the last 33 years, the last time one of its teams won a championship (Reds). Cincinnati sports has never been in a better spot competitively and the buzz around the city can show this to the rest of the world.
Not only is Cincinnati in a unique position where it has three teams that have the potential to contend for championships, but all these teams also have stars who will be in the MVP conversation almost every season. Burrow, Acosta, and De La Cruz have changed the trajectory of sports in this city, and its fans couldn’t be any more grateful. Cincinnati has turned into one of the top sports cities in the world and will have a team to be aware of in three major sports.