KANSAS CITY, Mo. — America’s Team won again.
If you’re unfamiliar — and most were before Wednesday night’s 7-4 victory over the Royals — America’s Team is the Cincinnati Reds, winners of five straight games and just one game under .500 and 1 1/2 games out of first place in the National League Central.
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The moniker had been going around for a couple of weeks, started by Wil Myers and popularized in the clubhouse by Luke Maile. It’s become a clubhouse and dugout chant and an inside joke that was taken outside in Wednesday’s postgame interview on Bally Sports when Jonathan India started off his segment with Jim Day by simply saying, “That’s America’s Team, all the way.”
Day asked India about the name.
“It’s blatant, we’re America’s Team,” India said. “We’re playing really well. We’re firing on all cylinders.”
Matt McLain, by India’s side in the interview, added about his teammate, “He’s the captain of America’s Team.”
So, does that make India Captain America?
“I am not proclaiming myself Captain America. I just play the game,” India said later. “Proclaiming myself Captain America is a little too much. I’m a humble guy. I’m not going to say that.”
The were plenty of proclamations made Wednesday, said TJ Friedl, who had his first day off since coming off the injured list earlier this week.
“All game today, everything that happened — (Kevin) Newman makes a play at third with that runner at second and it’s, ‘that’s America’s third baseman right there,'” Friedl laughed.
Friedl noted that whoever was interviewed on the team had been challenged to drop references to America’s Team on the air. When told that both India and McLain did, Friedl was pumped up.
They weren’t the only ones, starter Ben Lively, threw it in his postgame interview at the end of an answer about the team’s four-homer performance on offense. “It’s pretty fun,” Lively said. “It’s America’s Team.”
Most of the players seem to think the moniker started gaining traction during the series in St. Louis. Regardless, it’s a full-on thing now. By Thursday morning, there will no doubt be T-shirts you can purchase with the phrase and maybe even India’s visage and his new nickname.
This team 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/KVMyPhOzZR
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) June 15, 2023
“Why not?” asked first baseman Spencer Steer, who hit one of the team’s four homers Wednesday. “Why can’t we be America’s Team?”
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Maile won’t take full credit, calling himself a co-creator with Myers, who is with Triple-A Louisville on a rehab assignment.
When asked, Maile, in full deadpan, explained the ethos of America’s Team thusly:
“It’s more of a process. It’s hard to put your finger on it,” said Maile, who grew up across the river in northern Kentucky. “But it takes place in a little sliver of heaven that is the Tri-State. It includes running out groundballs. It usually begins with showing up on time for the anthem. Throwing the ball to the right base and if you ‘America’s Team’ everybody over and over again, it doesn’t guarantee anything, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun.”
And that’s exactly what this Reds team is right now — fun.
Rookie shortstop sensation Elly De La Cruz is the one getting the headlines — and the one whom Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes asked to trade a De La Cruz signed bat for one of his signed jerseys — but it goes beyond that. There’s McLain, the 2021 first-rounder who had a bunt single and homer in consecutive innings Wednesday. There was Stuart Fairchild, who homered and also had an outfield assist to potentially save a run in the second. Rookie TJ Hopkins picked up his first career stolen base in the five-run fifth. Lively went 5 2/3 innings, giving up 10 hits, but just two runs. Buck Farmer came in for a big out and then Fernando Cruz pitched a scoreless eighth before Alexis Díaz got two outs for his 17th save in his fourth appearance in five days.
“I feel like we’re a fun team,” Fairchild said. “We’re almost like an underdog team, so people want to root for us and that’s pretty cool.”
Fairchild said the vibe on this team is different than any pro team he’s been on, comparing it more to the feeling of being on a college team.
“Everyone’s pulling for each other. It’s awesome,” said Fairchild, who played at Wake Forest. “You don’t really see that a whole lot. It’s just not like that (in pro ball).”
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But as many players sat in the clubhouse at Kauffman Stadium eating their postgame meals, reliever Lucas Sims just shouted out to no one and everyone, “I love this team!”
That’s America’s Team.
“It’s been brewing. It just makes too much sense,” Maile said. “Who doesn’t want to watch guys slide into bases for no apparent reason other than it’s fun sliding into a base in a major-league game? You play the game the right way, you play it hard. Pretty soon, you’re just America’s Team. Who doesn’t root for that?”
According to Maile, it’s bigger than just one person. India may be the elected captain, but captaining America’s Team is bigger than any one person.
“It’s hard to be a captain of a process,” he said. “It can be verbed. It’s a noun. It does all sorts of dances. You know it when you see it. Sometimes I’m captain. Sometimes he captains it. You might captain it one day. It travels. It fluctuates.
“Sometimes you throw strike one and the only thing I can think is, ‘that’s what America’s Team would do right there. Throw strike one.’
“Sometimes a guy beats out a double play, you think the inning’s over. I want to America’s Team with these guys. I want to get on board. America’s Team. You know what I mean?”
America’s Team stays in the dugout to cheer on Ricky Karcher during his postgame interview Monday after picking up a save in his big-league debut. America’s Team lines the long hallway from the tunnel that leads to the third-base dugout at Kauffman Stadium to the inside of the clubhouse for high-fives for every player after a win.
“We feel it. We’re America’s Team,” McLain said. “It’s a good feeling.”
Everyone got in on the action, Friedl said.
“It just started and it just spread man,” he said. “That’s what happens on this team. It starts with one guy and then it’s like that’s hilarious.”
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Of course, if Newman was America’s third baseman Wednesday, what was Friedl?
“Today,” he said, “I was America’s bench rider.”
(Photo of Stuart Fairchild, Jose Barrero and TJ Hopkins celebrating after Cincinnati’s win: Peter Aiken / USA Today)
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