Behind that name switch in 1953 -- and the switch back to "Reds" before the 1959 season -- is a story of politics, and American cultural values, and the sometimes odd things we do in the face of perceived foreign or domestic threats. It's a story both comical and serious, and it's probably safe to say that many sports fans today know nothing about it. The present-day Reds feature a whimsical mascot known as Mr. Redlegs, but the decidedly non-whimsical history has faded.  "I don't think the younger fans make the association between the name 'Reds' and the anti-communist Red Scare of the 1950s," said Greg Rhodes, the team's official historian. "But that was the reason, no question about it -- the team's management did not want anyone to mix the ball club up with anything that had to do with communism."  In those years, Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin had gained great influence by going after communists -- who were known in headlines, in speeches, in corner-tavern conversations and just about everywhere else as "Reds." And here was the Cincinnati baseball team, proudly bearing the name Reds. Could the team just ignore what was on the front pages and in the everyday American vernacular?  Evidently not. According to Rhodes, in April of 1953 the team decided that it would be not the Reds, but the Redlegs. Among other things, this would lessen the chance that, after a home-run barrage that defeated, say, the Pirates, there would be a banner headline declaring: "REDS BOMB PITTSBURGH."  Cincinnati, at the southern tip of Ohio, has always been a pretty traditional, nonflamboyant town. The citizens of the '50s loved their Reds. It is doubtful that any of the fans were worried that the P.A. announcer at Crosley Field would suddenly intone: "Now pinch-hitting for shortstop Roy McMillan ... Nikita Khrushchev."
"How'd the Redlegs do last night?"I asked the question out of habit. And, as sometimes happens, at least one person with whom I was talking shot a look of confusion at me. Redlegs? What was I