By John Erardi and John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Four days of front-office firings and fire sales of players have transformed baseball's oldest franchise into a shell of itself, prompting local and national outrage, sadness and disbelief.

PHOTO GALLERY

Fans show displeasure

"It's a sad day," former baseball commissioner Fay Vincent said Thursday, upon learning of the Reds' latest trades - fan favorite Aaron Boone and dependable relief pitcher Gabe White to the big-market New York Yankees for pitching prospects.

"It shows what a very serious problem there is in baseball. What it says is that the hailing of the labor agreement of last (summer) as a victory for the owners was really overstated."

He said the Reds' only choice was to dismantle the team and rebuild for next year, or lose money.

The extent of baseball's disparate financial situation was exemplified Thursday as the Reds - playing their first season in the new Great American Ball Park - made the one final deal before the 4 p.m. trading deadline with the well-heeled Yankees.

There wasn't much weeping by fans Monday when manager Bob Boone and general manager Jim Bowden were fired, but the gnashing of teeth began Tuesday when closer Scott Williamson was sent to big-market Boston and continued Wednesday when Jose Guillen, the Reds most-productive hitter, was sent to the Oakland A's.

"I'm so disgusted," said fan Alfred Joseph, 47, of Oxford, who attended Thursday's game. "They take taxpayer money with the assumption that they are building a competitive team, and that doesn't seem to be the case."

The Reds players weren't any happier than the fans.

"It's a joke," Reds pitcher Ryan Dempster said. He said Reds chief operating officer John Allen "came down here (to the clubhouse after the firing of Boone and Bowden) and told us they were not going to throw in the towel. I guess the best way to do that is to go out and trade your two best players and your closer."

Said team captain Barry Larkin: "It's a salary dump. We've been told it's not, but they got rid of two salaries."

ALL IN A WEEK'S WORK

MONDAY • The Reds fired general manager Jim Bowden, manager Bob Boone, hitting coach Tom Robson and third-base coach Tim Foli. Dave Miley was named interim manager. Ray Knight became the third-base coach and hitting coach, and Mark Berry was tabbed as the bullpen coach. TUESDAY • Closer Scott Williamson was traded to the Boston Red Sox for left-handed pitcher Phillip Dumatrait, a player to be named and cash. WEDNESDAY • Outfielder Jose Guillen was traded to the Oakland A's for right-handeders Aaron Harang, Joe Valentine and Jeff Bruksch. THURSDAY • Third baseman Aaron Boone was traded to the New York Yankees for left-handers Brandon Claussen and Charlie Manning and cash. Reliever Gabe White was traded to the Yankees for a player to be named later.

Nationally, the vitriol was even worse.

"The taxpayers who paid for the ballpark have to be angry about this," ESPN baseball analyst Peter Gammons said. "They were making deals that had nothing to do with who they got. It was whoever had the most money."

The Reds have gotten only prospects in return for every player they have dealt, although those prospects are young starting pitchers, something the Reds have been unable to develop on their own.

"For Guillen, they at least got some players - nobody any good, but at least they got players," Gammons said. "I think it's outrageous for (Reds owner Carl Lindner) to be saying he has to cut payroll. They go into a new stadium, and he has to cut payroll?"

Allen said he was not ordered to dump payroll. He said his goal was to acquire pitching and improve the team's prospects next season.

"This is not a payroll dump," Allen said. "What we've done is certainly improve the team for the upcoming season. Obviously, anybody could see that one of our growing weaknesses was starting pitching and pitching depth."

Payroll dump or not, the Reds began the week with roughly a $60 million payroll. They unloaded Boone ($3.7 million), White ($3.3 million), Williamson ($1.6 million) and Guillen ($500,000). Because the season is two-thirds over, the team actually is saving about $3 million, and it received $2.25 million total in the transactions. That puts the Reds an estimated $5 million ahead.

This level of fan outrage has not been felt here since then-general manager Dick Wagner was hung in effigy after the 1978 season when then-manager Sparky Anderson was fired and favorite son Pete Rose was allowed to go to Philadelphia via free agency.

"I didn't see it coming apart this quickly," said Cincinnatian Dave Parker, who was a star with the Pirates and Reds.

"I thought they had a nucleus of talent to be successful, but it sure hasn't worked out. A lot of hard-earned taxpayers' dollars went into that stadium, with the idea that the Reds were going to be entertaining and were going to try to win something. And that hasn't worked out, either."

Doug Pappas, an attorney who writes about baseball on the national level, said Cincinnati's fire sale is worse than Pittsburgh's. The Pirates stripped their franchise a few weeks ago by trading some of their best players.

"They were dumping what were mostly a lot of bad contracts," Pappas said. "But Williamson's wasn't bad, and Guillen they could've kept. Boone is the kind of player you want to build a franchise around. He was going to be worth whatever he made next year.

"(Cincinnati) may not be a laughingstock yet, but you're getting there. The only thing keeping you off David Letterman and Jay Leno is the Detroit Tigers."

At the game Thursday night at Great American Ball Park, Chris Henschen, 20, of White Oak, was dressed as Moses, wearing a long red jersey, a white wig and matching white beard, and carrying a poster that read, "Cincinnati, let my players go!"

When a reporter pointed to the poster, he responded, "From the grips of Carl Lindner!"

Henschen said he's been coming to Reds games for 15 years.

"I'm a little upset," he said. "The Reds are unloading all their players right now for cash, and they're not getting anything in return, player-wise. I don't know if I'll stop coming to the games but if it weren't for the new ballpark, I wouldn't be coming at all. ... Carl Lindner is letting down all the fans and taking advantage of them."

"We came down here tonight for the first time, and we don't get to watch but a minor-league game," said Beth Smiley, 39, of White Oak. "I wish they hadn't traded half their team. I think they should just all quit - just close the park and give everyone their money back."

"I believed all the hype for building for 2003," said Alfred Joseph, who was at the game with his 9-year-old son, Paul Joseph. "Now it seems they have no direction and no commitment to the people that are here. It seems like there's no effort or leadership. ... If you pay $6 for a beer, apparently that's all they seem to care about."

Not everyone felt that way.

"My wife, Diane, and I are diehard fans and this all has been kind of disappointing, but I think the trading is going on for the right reasons," said Todd Zike, 42, of Selinsgrove, Pa.

"We need some good pitchers in here, and we may be making sacrifices for that right now, but I think the team is looking toward its future and what's to come down the road."

There were other fans - Jim Caruso, whose family has held season tickets for decades, and Corey Cunningham, who like Caruso is a 23-year-old from Delhi - who said they were sad to see the players go, but that they would always be Reds fans.

"I live and breathe for the Reds," Cunningham said. "We'll never give up on them."

Jennifer Edwards, Cliff Peale and Gail Koch of the Enquirer contributed to this report.