Cautiously Optimistic - A Cincy pro sports fan story

Ever wonder what its like to cheer without apprehension? Feel the need to qualify the accomplishments of your favorite teams?How about given up? You ever just say "I can't take this anymore!" and quit watching for a while only to come back and throw your arms up when Pittsburgh gets sent home hanging their heads. 

You have? 

Me too fellow Reds and Bengals fans. You are welcome here and you are not alone. 

I have been struggling with this issue my entire adult life. I have these visions of Eric Davis, Jose Rijo, Boomer Esiason, and Ickey Woods bouncing around in my head reminding me of the good times but the memories are getting clouded. Fuzzy are the memories of my brother hanging out of our neighbors sunroof with a broom after the Reds Swept the A's in the World Series. Hazy would describe the pictures in my head of Ickey doing the shuffle and Boomer leading MY Bengals to the playoffs. 

Slowly but surely as I get older and the losing seasons continue to pile on top of each other I find that my head is stuffed with sub .500 seasons, favorite players that become malcontents after they realize this is the status quo in the Queen City. I actually don't have hard feelings towards Corey Dillon or Adam Dunn. Why would they want to be here? Hell I don't most of the time. 

The latest Bengals "resurgence" is what brought all this out. I'm not sure what to think right now. One part of me says "Hell yeah! The Jungle is back baby!" but the other side says "Put on the brakes dumbass. Mike Brown still owns this team". So here I am. 

Stuck. 

Cautiously optimistic once again. Biting my nails in between cheers. Oh well. 

Two weeks till basketball practice. GO CATS!!!!!!