Reggie Sanders could do it all, but the 1995 playoffs may have done him in.

        Sanders struck out 19 times in 29 playoff at-bats that year, hitting a combined .138 vs. the Dodgers and Braves.

        “He never recovered from that,” Reds radio voice Marty Brennaman said Tuesday. “Those playoffs essentially changed his entire career.”

        Sanders cruised into those playoffs as one of the top players in baseball. He was named National League midseason Most Valuable Player by )Baseball America, and finished with a .306 average, 28 homers, 99 RBI and 36 steals.

        Then, the playoffs. He got by with a .154-hitting, nine-strikeout showing as the Reds beat the Dodgers in the division series. But he was worse as the Reds lost to Atlanta in the LCS, batting .125 with 10 strikeouts in 16 at-bats.

        Sanders does not agree that those playoffs ruined him, but he admittedly was not ready for stardom.

        “Granted, those playoffs were tough, but that was not the problem,” he said Tuesday. “I think the problem was they had gotten rid of Ronnie Gant and a couple other players, and that made me more into the person that had to carry the whole team. I think, at the time, I wasn't ready for that.” And by then, teams had the book on Sanders.

        “If anybody had a question about his weakness, which obviously was the high fastball, that was it,” Brennaman said. “He was just dominated by Atlanta pitching. He couldn't lay off that high one, and everybody figured it out.”

        Reds fans have since wearied of Sanders' frequent injuries (back, ankle, ribs, etc.) and underachievement. He appeared in only 81 games in 1996 and 86 games in 1997, batting just .252 over that span.

        He rallied somewhat in 1998, playing in 135 games and batting .268. But Sanders, whose resume includes two career red-seat homers at Cinergy Field, hit only 14 homers and struck out a career-high 137 times last year.

        “At one time,” Brennaman said, “he was pretty close to being a five-tool player. He had speed, a great arm in right field, could hit for power and average ... there wasn't anything he couldn't do.”

        Reds insiders sometimes questioned Sanders' desire. A genuinely nice, sensitive man, his demeanor was viewed by some as a drawback.

        “He's a very laid-back guy, and I don't know that he really had that inner drive to excel or become the player everybody thought he should be,” Brennaman said. “He was always happy. I can't ever recollect seeing him get upset. ... He just seemed able to accept mediocrity.”

        Sanders said he wishes he could have done more, but is “ecstatic” about the chance to play on a grass field in San Diego.

        “I felt a change was needed,” he said. “I'm so happy about the whole thing. The Reds are going in a different direction ... there's no bad blood or anything, but it (the trade) is just something I was glad that happened.”

        It has been an emotionally draining time for Sanders, whose father, Ernest, died last week.

        Sanders, who turned 31 in December, was unsuccessfully shopped at the winter meetings.

        “He has a world of ability,” Reds manager Jack McKeon said. “Maybe he got stagnant in Cincinnati. A change of scenery may be just the thing to jump-start his career.”

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