Reds manager: 'I didn't lobby to get this job and I won't lobby ever to keep it'
Sparky Anderson ruined it for everyone.
The former Cincinnati Reds manager, who guided the Big Red Machine to back-to-back World Series titles in 1975-76, set the bar so high that no Reds manager has ever been able to duplicate it.
Fast forward to 2015, where manager Bryan Price is dealing with a sub-par ball club, speculation that Hall of Famer Barry Larkin is waiting in the wings to take his job, and a fan base that wants what once was.
At the midway mark of the season, only four teams have a worse record than the Reds: the Miami Marlins, Philadelphia Phillies, Milwaukee Brewers, and Colorado Rockies.
Miami's Mike Redmond and Milwaukee's Ron Roenicke were fired earlier this season, while Philadelphia's Ryne Sandberg resigned. Bruised and battered, Price is left barely standing.
It's easy to blame the guy in charge, it always has been. But Price, who succeeded Dusty Baker as the Reds' bench boss in 2013, is in the business of winning, not begging for respect.
"I didn't lobby to get this job and I won't lobby ever to keep it,'' Price told ESPN's Jerry Crasnick. "I think it comes down to the body of work and how this team responds. If I feel like we're moving in the right direction, then I'll stay.
"If it doesn't, then I won't. I don't get caught up in it."
The Reds haven't made the playoffs since dropping their wildcard matchup in 2013, and at 39-47 this season, 15 1/2 games behind first-place St. Louis, it's difficult to fathom Cincinnati staring at anything but anyone's behind this season.
So what is it that makes Price so confident in his abilities to shift the direction of the organization? It could be that he owns the league's fireballer and the Home Run Derby champ. Or it could just be because he knows what a manager's job entails, and he's up for it no matter what.
Price is a Reds man, a winning man in a losing organization. He's not trying to revive the Big Red Machine, nor is he trying to keep the thing moving.
He's just the latest Reds manager weathering the storm that Sparky Anderson's legacy left behind.
"I still feel like I am the right guy (for the job) here," Price said. "I just feel like I have an understanding of what we need to do to turn the corner and to be the type of team and organization we aspire to be.''