The Big Red Machine was at the peak of their power. Starting in 1970, they were on a run of six division titles, four National League pennants and were fresh off winning the World Series in both 1975 and 1976. The 1977 Cincinnati Reds were still a good team, but they were well off the […]
The Big Red Machine had emerged as the dominant team in the National League in the early part of the 1970s. They won pennants in 1970 and 1972. They reached the NLCS in 1973. But they hadn’t yet won the whole thing. The 1974 Cincinnati Reds season only served to add to the frustration. They […]
The 1973 Cincinnati Reds were looking to take that final step. In both 1970 and 1972 they had reached the World Series, only to come up short—by a single run in ’72. In 1973, the Reds won a hot race to return to the postseason, before again just missing out on October glory. This era […]
The 1972 Cincinnati Reds came into the season looking for a comeback. When the Reds won the National League pennant in 1970, with a core group of talented young players, they appeared poised to dominate for years to come. But a surprise collapse to a sub-.500 finish in 1971 had tempered those hopes. As it […]
The 1971 Cincinnati Reds came into the season with high hopes. A core group of young players had won a breakthrough pennant in 1970. From the perspective of history we know that this core group would do great things throughout the coming decade. But 1971 proved to be a year where nothing really clicked. The […]
The great baseball town of Cincinnati had waited a long time for a winner. The Reds had not won the World Series since 1940. They ended two decades of mostly losing baseball with a pennant in 1961. But despite fielding mostly winning teams the rest of the 1960s, they had not returned to the Fall […]
Second-place finishes in 1985 and 1986 had been welcome breaths of fresh air in Cincinnati, coming off a run of four bad years. It was looking like Pete Rose was going to be a success in his new gig as a manager. The 1987 Cincinnati Reds came into the season with high hopes. They had […]
The 1985 Cincinnati Reds opened the season with the focus on Pete Rose’s pursuit of history. The Reds ended the season with Rose firmly in the record books and new hope being given to a franchise that had been on some rough times. As recently as 1981, Cincinnati had been the best team in baseball. […]
The 1979 Cincinnati Reds said goodbye to Pete Rose via free agency and responded by winning a division title. The 1980 Cincinnati Reds said goodbye to another big part of the great Big Red Machine that had been dominant in the 1970s. Joe Morgan departed. The ’80 Reds were still a good team and still […]
The Big Red Machine was the National League’s pre-eminent team in the 1970s, including World Series titles in 1975 and 1976. In ’77, they took a step back and came up short of the postseason. The 1978 Cincinnati Reds were another good team, but when they too came up short, the organization changed course and […]
Major league baseball endured a strange year in 1981, a season that was torn apart by a strike that started in mid-June and lasted for two months. The result was any number of inequities and historical oddities. But none more so than the fact that the team who won more games than anyone—the 1981 Cincinnati […]
The Cincinnati Reds had run the gamut during Lou Piniella’s first two years as manager. In 1990, they won a surprise World Series title. In 1991, they collapsed to 74 wins a fifth-place finish. The 1992 Cincinnati Reds returned to contention. The organization made moves in the offseason. The Reds acquired lefthander starter Greg Swindell […]