Pokey Reese didn't want to talk except to say he wished the season had ended a week ago. Reese was being conservative. Some of us could have shut down the Reds on Memorial Day and not missed them at all.

        “Ask the general manager,” Reese said, when questioned about his future, and the direction of the team.

        That would be Jim Bowden, whom Reese likes as much as a tax audit. Reese thinks Bowden is a liar. Pokey's not the only one. He thinks Bowden in April leaked false information about Reese's contract demands. On Friday, Bowden denied that.

Carl Lindner and Bob Boone watch the Reds set a club record for home losses Saturday. (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

        Not that it matters now. Bowden, until this year a GM who enjoyed mingling with players, now rarely ventures into the Reds clubhouse. The level of trust and support he enjoys from the players is at an all-time low. Reese is symbolic of that.

        He's also symbolic of how things have drifted here, in the sorriest season since 1989. Eighteen months ago, any 2003, new-ballpark plan that didn't include Reese would have been fraudulent.

        Pokey was young, enthusiastic and fresh to the point of naivete. Now he's bitter, angry and waiting for his get-out-of-jail-free card. He's as gone as July.

        He's not alone. “It'd be nice if guys were really proud to be a member of the Cincinnati Reds organization,” Barry Larkin decided Friday. “I don't think a lot of guys in here” are.

        It has taken the Reds less than two seasons to squander all the goodwill they won in 1999. It has taken them that long to raise premium blue-seat ticket prices from $17 to $28, yet become the lowest-payroll team in the NL Central.

        It has taken them that long to commit $150 million to Larkin and Junior Griffey and not a dime toward a visionary plan for 2003, when Great American Ball Park is supposed to open.

        After the '99 season, the plan was to sign long-term a core of young players — Reese, Sean Casey, Aaron Boone, Danny Graves, Dmitri Young — and build around their skills. Apparently that plan vanished with the signings of Larkin and Griffey.

        Now the plan is ... what, exactly?

        “Does ownership understand you're probably not going to contend for a championship at the current ($43 million) payroll?” I asked John Allen, the Reds chief operating officer.

        “I'm not going to respond to that,” Allen said.

        “Is there a plan for 2003 beyond balancing the budget?” I wondered.

        “Sure, we have long-term plans,” Allen said. “I'm not going to disclose them in the media, though.”

        There you go, fans and taxpayers. Thanks for your money. Now, run along. When we're ready to reward your faith in us with a plan for success, we'll let you know. Meanwhile, keep spending.

        If the promise of 2003 had come with a face, it would have looked like Pokey Reese. And Dmitri Young, another guy who makes too much money for Cincinnati to keep. If Young doesn't go this winter, there's a chance Casey will.

        And so on. If the Reds mean to get us excited about '03, it's not working.

        “Teams that want to be successful don't wait until the year they want to be successful” to find a vision, was how Larkin put it in the clubhouse Friday. Across the room, Reese was counting the hours to freedom.

        E-mail: pdaugherty@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/daugherty.

Reds management not giving us hope 2002 chances depend on starting pitching Reds expect more offense next season Latin America scouting pays off Reds set record for home losses LaRue handles 3B Game 1 box, runs Game 2 box, runs

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