To say the 1990 Cincinnati Reds entered the season with question marks would be an understatement The team endured a tumultuous 1989 surrounding the banishment of then-manager Pete Rose for gambling. Certainly no one expected 1990 would end with Cincinnati’s first World Series title since the Big Red Machine Days of 1975 and 1976. That’s […]
The 1986 Cincinnati Reds began the season with a lot of hope. The previous September, player-manager Pete Rose had broken Ty Cobbs’ career record for hits and the team played well down the stretch to take a surprising second-place finish. In ways both good and bad, the 1986 MLB season was a rerun. The Reds […]
Pete Rose had returned to the Cincinnati Reds with much fanfare, as player-manager late in 1984 season. Rose broke Ty Cobb’s all-time hit record on the field, and in the dugout, he turned out a struggling franchise. The Reds went from cellar-dwellers to three straight second-place finishes from 1985-87. The Cincinnati Reds continued that string—but by now, second place was a disappointment and a tumultuous year was the precursor to the eventual end of Rose in baseball
The Cincinnati Reds were in a period of significant transition in 1979. The Big Red Machine, that had won four pennants and two World Series titles from 1970-76, had started to break up in 1977, and two years later that process was accelerated.
The Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds were old “friends” when it came to hooking up in the National League Championship Series. They met in 1970, 1972 and 1975, with the Reds winning all three times. The Pirates finally got their revenge in the fourth meeting in the 1979 NLCS
The Reds were the Big Red Machine, the defending World Series champions, with three pennants and four NLCS appearances already under their belt from 1970-75. The Phillies were the up-and-comers, who had displaced the Pittsburgh Pirates in the NL East. While the Phils would become postseason regulars in the ensuing eight years, they were a fresh face in 1976.
One team was the powerful defending champions, already one of the dominant teams of the decade and looking to secure the legacy of a dynasty. Another was the team making its first World Series appearance in over a decade. It was the Cincinnati Reds and New York Yankees.
… the city’s first World Series title since 1940 was still missing. The 1975 Cincinnati Reds rectified the omission with an extraordinary regular season and then winning one of the greatest Fall Classics ever played.
The Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates were two teams that had already gotten familiar with each other in National League Championship Series play. The two teams met in 1970 and the Reds won in a sweep. They met in 1972 and the Reds won a thriller. Cincinnati and Pittsburgh got together one more time in the 1975 NLCS. And one more time, the Big Red Machine asserted themselves
What Cincinnati had—at long last, after 35 years of waiting—was a World Series trophy. Had they lost this Series, this group of players would have had the “Can’t Win The Big One” tag trailing them around. Instead, they were just getting started on a dynasty.
It was Cincinnati’s first time on top since the days of the Big Red Machine. As for Oakland, with three straight pennants and a 1989 World Series title, there was no question what they’d accomplished. But this stunning sweep in the 1990 World Series marked twice in three years that they’d folded up in the Fall Classic as a heavy favorite.
The 1976 Cincinnati Reds came to spring training having found redemption the previous October. After World Series losses in 1970 and 1972 and an upset loss in the 1973 National League Championship Series, the Reds had gotten over the top in an epic seven-game World Series against the Boston Red Sox, a Series that ranks high on the list of the best ever. The offensive juggernaut known as the Big Red Machine was looking to build on a championship legacy securely established