On Saturday morning, your connection to the host timed out or the host network failed to respond or some damned thing. You ended up in a virtual waiting room, rolling your eyes in tangible anger, wanting to hurt someone. Thinking, "Can't we just go stand in line in the freezing cold?''

Meanwhile, some joker from two time zones over got his four seats and already put them up for auction on eBay.

That's the way it worked for lots of people wanting Opening Day tickets at Great American Ball Park. Whether their anger mirrored the total experience is anyone's guess. People only yell when they're mad.

The Reds didn't set out to tick off customers. You could argue most fans found their online and/or phone experience Saturday morning to be a little slice of heaven, though you won't get that version here.

"The bottom line is we sold 14,000 tickets. Somebody must have gotten them. What makes this any different from Springsteen or Phish?'' asked Reds PR man Rob Butcher.

Fans would say Bruce Springsteen didn't leverage taxpayers for a new place to play "Tenth Avenue Freeze-out." They'd suggest The Boss is global; the Reds are Cincinnati. Fans wonder why it was so important that everyone on earth with a credit card, computer and/or phone line have access to Opening Day tickets in Cincinnati, Ohio.

"From a marketing (standpoint), that would be really stupid for us to do,'' Butcher said of limiting sales to local fans. "Do we open it up just to people in Cincinnati? Ask them to show their driver's license? We understand (fans) are angry. We're not turning a blind eye to them. If you've got a better way, please let us know.''

There might not have been a better way, especially this year, when the new playpen is still in a construction zone. You could camp out in hardhat. But it might be hard to sleep.

The problem isn't that lots of people who wanted to attend Opening Day, won't. That happens every year. You have to assume that the Reds, in business only since 1876, have not succeeded by purposely alienating customers. Maybe the Reds decision-makers have never used a personal computer. Maybe their host never times out.

If you see the Opening Day sale as a mistake - and the Reds don't - it was an honest one. That's not the problem, this is:

People who usually bleed Red are seeing it instead. Five weeks before the new park opens, and the momentum is rolling backwards. The team's PR blunders are assuming Bengal-like proportions.

Refresh my memory: Where does Marge's suit against the team stand?

Are Hamilton County and/or the Reds for or against Marty Brennaman's signature line appearing at the new ballpark?

Did Joe Nuxhall really want to work an abbreviated schedule next season?

How happy is Junior Griffey to know his manager tried to facilitate his trade? How thrilled is Griffey to hear his general manager thinks he has been a flop?

The improvement in the roster that was to accompany the new ballpark - that's coming any day now, right?

What since Griffey's signing has made you smile about the Cincinnati Reds? A sprinkling of Adam Dunn, maybe. A dose of Austin Kearns. What else?

It could be all of this will be forgotten March 31, when Great American Ball Park opens for its first official game. For now, we have a jumbled mess of put-off people, from fans to Griffey. There ought to be someone associated with the team, forcefully out front, making (hopefully) good decisions and keeping the lid on bad ones.

At the moment, it looks like everyone is his own boss. They're not Reds. They're cowboys.

And they never had to stew online.

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