Carl Lindner, part owner of the Cincinnati Reds, sits with is wife, Edyth behind the Reds dugout Friday. (Brandi Stafford photo) | ZOOM |

        Cincinnati might once have been the baseball capital of the world. It can claim professional baseball's first team in 1869 and arguably history's finest team in 1976. The city has produced countless professional players, plus numerous high school state champions and youth-league national champs. The game is still played en masse here, including nearly 5,000 kids in the Southwest Ohio League alone.

        Yet the sport's grip on the city's consciousness has slipped.

        Attendance at Reds games has fallen, even earlier this season when the team led its division for nearly two months. Baseball is no longer the No.1 topic on sports-talk radio. The 1994 strike and this year's labor strife left many fans bitter. And soccer has seemingly outpaced baseball as the participation sport of choice for youngsters.

        The new labor agreement Friday prevented a potentially mortal wound to the sport's standing here. But given a mere 16,213 fans showed up Friday at Cinergy Field to welcome baseball back, it's worth asking: Is Cincinnati still a baseball town?

        “I would call Cincinnati one of many dying baseball towns,” says Tom Gamble, co-anchor of the Two Angry Guys sports-talk show on WBOB-AM (1360). “It's not that people don't want to be Reds fans. It's just that the realistic observer is tired of the labor strife and tired of the system.”

        Studies show baseball is still king, though.

        According to a poll for WCPO-TV by SurveyUSA, 78 percent of Cincinnatians consider themselves at least casual baseball fans. Of local sporting events, 43 percent said they were most likely to attend a Reds game. (The Bengals were next, at 16 percent.) But 70 percent of respondents said they follow baseball less or had quit following it since the 1994 strike.

        In comparison to, say, St. Louis — the model for small-market baseball fanaticism — Cincinnati isn't obsessive about its summer sport.

        “I'm not saying it's the greatest baseball town,” Reds broadcaster Marty Brennaman says of Cincinnati. “But the Cincinnati Reds are now and will always be the biggest sports entity in this town. ... There are no more knowledgeable (baseball) fans on earth than in this town.”

        Yet Cincinnati baseball has had a string of setbacks. Thirteen years ago this week, Major League Baseball gave Pete Rose a lifetime suspension from the sport. Former owner Marge Schott was disciplined twice by MLB for comments that were considered racially or ethnically offensive and she was forced to sell the team. Strikes wiped out Reds playoff bids in 1981 and '94.

        “I think this city takes it a lot more personally than any other city,” WBOB talk-show host Lance McAlister says. “People think not only is the game screwed up, but the powers that be are taking it one step further and (burning) Cincinnati.

        “Since (the world championship in) 1990, nothing really good has happened to this franchise: the payroll being cut, labor problems, people not caring. It's just one big book people are tired of reading.”

        Cincinnati is one of the three smallest media markets in the 30-team majors, along with Milwaukee and Kansas City. Yet the Reds averaged 31,628 fans in 1994 before the strike — a strong figure, at that time ranking second in club history to the 32,466 average in 1976.

        But the next year, though the Reds won their division, they averaged only 25,882, and roughly 16,000 seats went unsold for Game 1 of the '95 National League Championship Series. In 1997, the season average was only 22,047.

        It took an exciting 96-victory campaign in 1999 and the February 2000 trade for Ken Griffey Jr. to bring attendance back, but it lagged last year (23,794 average, 23rd in the majors) and this summer (23,077 through Friday, ranking 22nd).

        “I don't think they ever lost fans,” says Duane Wiles, 35, a Reds fan from Withamsville. “Fans were just angry more than anything else.”

        Not just at the labor strife, apparently. Also at what baseball had become, as the sport became divided between the haves and have-nots. The Reds' $45 million payroll puts them in the latter group.

        From 1995-2001, there were 224 playoff games; 219 were won by teams in the top half of the payroll rankings. And every World Series game was won by a team in the top quarter.

        “A lot of those staunch baseball fans here know in the end the team's not going to be there (in the playoffs),” Mr. Gamble says. “So why bother? Why would you go? If you knew the lottery ticket you were buying was a losing one, would you buy it? Would you enroll in college if you knew you had no chance to graduate?”

        Mr. Brennaman says radio ratings suggest the fan base is holding steady: “For whatever reason, they don't come, but they'll still turn that radio on.”

        Darryl Parks, AM operations director for Clear Channel here, said WLW-AM (700) had a 16.2 share — the percentage of audience tuned to that station — for its 7 p.m.-to-midnight block in the spring Arbitron figures, nearly double the nearest competitor. Mr. Parks says this is the best share Reds broadcasts have had in the past two or three years. “I can't say it's the best in 10 years, but there's a heck of a lot more radio stations now,” Mr. Parks says.

        Steve Pawlowski, publicist for Fox Sports Ohio, would say only that ratings for Reds games are up about 25 percent from last year. “The ratings kind of fluctuate as the team's success does, but it's been pretty steady the past five, six years,” he said.

        The intangible is the intensity of fans' interest. Mr. Gamble says his Reds-related calls on his WLW Sunday show are from regional fans, not from Cincinnatians. He and Mr. McAlister say baseball and college basketball are callers' greater interests. Wayne “Box” Miller, who hosts a talk show on WDBZ-AM (1230), says the NBA and even high school sports would join that list of more popular topics.

        “(Thursday), my question of the day for callers was, "Do you think they'll strike?' ”Mr. Miller said.“Everyone was like, "Whatever. Let me talk about (Bengals quarterback) Akili Smith.' ”

        John Popovich, who has hosted WCPO-TV's weekly Sports of All Sorts show for 20 years, says he used make baseball the prime topic for at least four months each summer but now does only about four baseball shows each year.

        “Football could sustain itself every week, and basketball is almost continuous, but ... I think baseball has fallen out of favor,” he says.

        The area has long been known for its steady production of talented players. Pete

        Rose, Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Larkin and Dave Parker are among the most well-known. Saturday, 11 Greater Cincinnatians were on big-league rosters, a number that's held steady throughout much of the past decade.

        Yet, lately, there have been fewer prospects. This year, Anderson pitcher Jensen Lewis was drafted by Cleveland in the 33rd round of the June amateur draft, and Western Hills pitcher Shawn Aichele went to the Reds in the 37th round.

        Moeller coach Mike Cameron, whose 35 seasons have produced three state titles and nine major-leaguers, worries about the future of the game.

        “I've noticed a decline in the interest in baseball,” he says. “At one time we'd have 90 kids come out for our freshman team, and now we're down to 55.”

        Jerry Federle, who coached Elder from 1977-88 and won two state titles, recalls facing future big-leaguers Bill Long, Rickey Keeton, Richard Dotson and Scott Munninghoff ... in the same season. Years later, Mr. Federle asked a scout, “Where did all the pitching prospects go?” The scout's reply: “They're all sitting in their air-conditioned basements, playing Nintendo.”

        And this, Mr. Federle says, was in 1987 or '88.

        “Things are very different these days,” says Milford baseball coach Tom Kilgore, whose 2002 team was Ohio Division I state runner-up. “In high school alone you have sports that didn't used to be there, like lacrosse, bowling, rowing. There are a lot more choices.”

        Soccer is the giant. Greater Cincinnati is the second-biggest soccer market per capita in the nation — trailing only Kansas City — with 283,000 participants, or 14.6 out of 100 people.

        Most baseball-playing kids start in Knothole ball, many then switching to the Southwest Ohio League, which has 312 teams in 11 age levels (age 9 to college). It's the largest nationally affiliated league in the country, typically producing multiple national champions each year.

        “I can't say there's a decline in the number of kids playing baseball,” says Larry Redwine, the league's founder and president. “But we are missing some of our quality athletes who choose to participate in other sports. The growth of soccer, no question, has affected baseball.”

        Interestingly, soccer is the big participation sport in St. Louis, too, says St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Jeff Gordon.

        The Cardinals are averaging 37,684 fans — sixth most in baseball — in an outdated ballpark. Mr. Gordon says the team had a magical period that began when manager Whitey Herzog led it to the 1982 world championship, and Mark McGwire's home run feats fueled a recent frenzy.

        “I look at it as a 20-year phenomenon,” Mr. Gordon says. “This city is very provincial, and baseball became real key to the lifestyle and had a lasting power.”

        Sound like Cincinnati?

        “Why do people like it? The charismatic figures,” Mr. Gordon says. “(August) "Gussie' Bush used to ride his Clydesdales around the field. (Late broadcaster) Jack Buck was such an icon. Mike Shannon, the color commentator, played here and became a beloved figure in the booth. Guys like Lou Brock, Stan Musial and Ozzie (Smith) still live here.”

        The names of Mrs. Schott — with her dogs on the field — Mr. Brennaman, Joe Nuxhall and Johnny Bench could be substituted in that quote, and it'd be our city.

        Cincinnati can't be too far gone, can it?

        Perhaps the new ballpark and restructured labor contract will buoy the Reds, the team will win, and the fans will return.

        “People in town take great pride in the franchise,” Mr. Brennaman says. “They care. That will never change.”

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