The Glaring Historical Disrespect: How SDS Treats the Reds (and Twins) vs. The "Favorites"
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I play this game to grind my theme team offline to P5, not to buy stubs or rip packs. But trying to build a competitive mission squad for the oldest franchise in professional baseball has become an exercise in frustration this year due to the blatant major-market and coastal bias at SDS.
Let’s look at the Conquest maps. If your team isn't the Dodgers, Yankees, Cubs, or Cardinals, you are essentially an afterthought. The Reds are practically confined to their mandatory stronghold on the USA - Central map. Meanwhile, the developer favorites get continuously recycled into every promo, historic, and event map released.
But the real insult is the Legends and Flashbacks distribution. This one is personal for me—my great-uncle is Harry Craft, a member of the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and the center fielder for the 1940 World Series championship team. When you have family ties to that kind of legacy, it’s infuriating to see how the developers treat the franchise. The Reds have the longest history of any baseball team, with roots going back to 1869. That history, let alone the Big Red Machine era, should guarantee a massive, top-tier roster of historical cards. Instead, if you look at the National League, the Reds have some of the fewest legends available. The ratio of Diamond Dynasty cards to actual years of franchise existence is abysmal. The Cubs and Cardinals get flooded with premium historical cards and juiced prospect ratings, while legitimate Reds talents like Sal Stewart and Chase Burns are chronically overlooked or stuck with lower-tier ratings.
And this blind spot isn't just an NL problem. Look at the American League with the Minnesota Twins. Here is a franchise with a deep, rich history stretching all the way back to 1901 as the original Washington Senators, yet they are routinely treated like a secondary expansion team in content drops while the coastal elites get endless attention.
Baseball is built on its history and fundamental mechanics. It’s well past time the developers started respecting the actual legacy of these historic franchises instead of just pandering to the same three or four major markets year after year.
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Yes, the Reds and the Twins have not had a ton of support this year. They are not the only ones though. The Rays are the ones who have gotten the biggest shaft. I do understand the disappointment.
Let's look back a little though.
- In 2025 the Reds had the 5th most Legends and Flashbacks in the game with 59.
- In 2024 the Reds had the 6th most Legends and Flashbacks in the game with 58.
- in 2023 they were 13th with 67 cards
- In 2022 they were 9th with 42
- In 2021 they were 2nd with 49 cards - The only team besides Yankees, Dodgers, Phillies, and Red Sox to be 2nd in the last 6 years.
So, while this year stinks as far as card releases for the Reds, it is not some yearly issue that you have had to deal with. From 2021-2025 only 4 teams have had an average placement higher than the Reds in the legend and flashback rankings. And surprise neither the Cardinals nor the Cubs are one of those 4 teams.
Nobody champions more parity among the teams here on the forum than I do. I used to post the Legends and Flashback counts often to illustrate the lack of parity. It does not seem people are that interested in my data driven posts anymore so I mostly have stopped them
oldest franchise in professional baseball
Technically they are not longest continuously running franchise. They had the first professional team The Cincinnati Red Stockings formed in 1869, but that team disbanded after the 1870 season and the modern-day Reds franchise began in 1882, which puts them tied for 3rd oldest continuous franchise, tied with the Pirates and Cardinals. The teams that are older are the Braves and the Cubs.
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We were talking about this year's game, and this year's game has been a major disappointment. Like many parts of the game it's recieved no attention from SDS. they could have released Griffey, Sr/ or Griffey Jr Reds card, a davey concepcion. The Rays are an expansion, I don't keep spreadsheet of cards released in whatever year. I just know what disrespect looks like. Without the 1869 Red Stockings and their barnstorming Baseball would look very different.
