Cincinnati’s momentum wasn’t an accident. For Pittsburgh, the fix starts with a choice, not a checkbook.
Cincinnati didn’t stumble into relevance; it was built, brick by brick, while the Pittsburgh Pirates kept waiting for theirs to appear. The Reds spent 2025 doing something every small-market front office swears it wants to do: make baseball feel urgent again. They gave fans a reason to reorganize evenings around first pitch, and the proof showed up where it always does: on living room screens and at the turnstiles.