Remembering The Big Red Machine

Junto a los Navegantes del Magallanes en Venezuela, fueron mi equipo favorito en la década de los ´70s, encarnaron mi pasión por el béisbol..."el rey de los deportes" para muchos.

Los Rojos de Cincinnati constituyeron un fenómeno en esa década y por su desempeño tanto en todos las series divisionales en que participaron, asi como en las series de campeonato de la Liga Nacional y en las Series Mundiales, consideradas dentro de las más espectaculares de todos los tiempos.

Cómo olvidar al gran campo-corto venezolano David Concepción, hall of famer y uno de los mejores short stop de la historia; al increíble Pete Rose (3B) bateando, robando bases, deslizándose de cúbito abdominal en tercera, corriendo y empujando al equipo; al inolvidable Johnny Bench, uno de los mejores catcher de todos los tiempos; a Joe Morgan, inelder (2B)hall of famer y hoy brillante comentarista deportivo de la cadena NBC; a Tony Perez (1B´); al jardinero central César Jerónimo, Ken Griffey (RF), George Foster (LF); al Manager Sparsky Anderson y tantos otros, que durante una década nos dieron tantas y tantas satisfacciones y lecciones inolvidables de cómo se juega al beisból.

A continuación les comparto algunos artículos de la red sobre los gloriosos "Rojos de Cincinnati"



There are only two options: the 1927 New York Yankees or the 1976 Cincinnati Reds. The Final Jeopardy question is, of course, “What is the greatest baseball team ever, Alex?” (That’s Trebek, not Rodriguez.) Without getting into statistical comparisons, it’s as hard to argue against a team that has Ruth, Gehrig, Hoyt, and Combs as it is to argue against a team that has Bench, Morgan, Rose, and Perez. The point is no other team even comes close to the dominance these two teams had over professional baseball in their respective years. And with free agency and the way baseball conducts itself today, we’re unlikely to ever again see a team dominate the sport for several seasons the way these teams did in their eras.

This past weekend saw the reunion of one of these great teams when the Big Red Machine was brought together again, much to the delight of thousands of fans. While it was in fact more of an autograph session than anything else, fans flocked to the reunion for the chance to mingle, chat, and basically just be in the presence of individual and collective greatness. Although it’s been over 30 years since that team dominated professional baseball, the Big Red Machine still draws a crowd and gives Reds fans the chance to relive the glory days of the franchise. They still hold a special place in the hearts of Cincinnati fans.


And why shouldn’t they? After appearing in the 1970 and 1972 World Series, the Big Red Machine won back-to-back World Series titles in 1975 and 1976, the first for the franchise since 1940. The Reds were the team of the decade in the 1970s, winning the NL West pennant in 1970, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976, and 1979; the NL Championship in 1970, 1972, 1975, and 1976; and the World Championship in 1975 and 1976. During that ten year time period the Reds had only one losing season, 1971, in which they went 79-83 and finished fourth in the NL West. Otherwise it was nine years of winning baseball in the Queen City.

These days, the terms “winning baseball” and “Queen City” aren’t used in the same sentence very often. Actually, the terms “winning ANYTHING” and “Queen City” aren’t used in the same sentence very often anymore, either. Thankfully Dusty, Mike Brown, and Nancy Z. can only take away our will to live but not our memories. And that in part explains why this group of now middle-aged baseball players still makes us feel good about being Reds fans.



Where do you start when you talk about the Big Red Machine? They were the rare example of a group of superstars who played together as a team, putting aside egos and jealousies that so often ruin the chemistry and cohesiveness that is usually found on a championship team. (The 1972-1974 Oakland A’s, who were notorious for their hatred of each other, may disagree with that statement.) Individually they were great; collectively they were unstoppable, as their 210-114 won-lost record for the 1975-1976 seasons indicates. The amazing thing about the 1976 Reds was that the eight starting position players - the Great Eight as they came to be known - only started in the same game together 49 times that season, and seven of those were in the playoffs and World Series! That’s right, the Reds won 102 games with their starting eight only starting together in 42 regular season games out of 162. So almost 75% of the time they were NOT starting the game as a unit. How’s THAT for dominance?

”It was just unfair,” Reds manager Sparky Anderson would later say. Indeed the talent of that team did make it unfair for opposing teams, and it was an embarrassment of riches for the Reds and their fans. Among the treasures on the team, one of the most valuable could be found behind home plate, gunning down would-be base stealers and guiding an adequate if unspectacular pitching staff to consecutive World Championship seasons.

Johnny Bench came to the Reds in 1967, making his debut in August of that year. The following year, in his first full season with the Reds, Bench hit .275 with 15 home runs and 82 RBIs, won the NL Gold Glove for catchers, was selected to the All-Star game, and won Rookie of the Year honors. Not a bad way to start a career. From there all he did was win nine more consecutive Gold Glove awards, was voted in as the starting catcher in ten more all-star games, won the NL Most Valuable Player award twice, and generally set the standard by which all catchers are judged today. He literally changed the way the position is played, by adopting a one-handed catching method, with his right hand tucked safely behind the back of his right knee. This allowed him to avoid taking foul tips off his meat hand, preventing needless injury. He was able to do this in part because of the new mitt he helped develop, one that was hinged, which was more like a fielder’s glove than it was the catcher’s mitts that preceded it.

Bench is widely regarded as the best overall catcher to ever play the game. There will be arguments for others, most notably Yogi Berra or Ivan Rodriquez, but while Berra was a slightly better offensive catcher, his defense does not compare to Bench’s. Likewise, Pudge’s offense does not quite stack up in the long run with Bench’s. Yet others are constantly compared to Bench, a comparison that some feel is unfair.

Reds manager Sparky Anderson caused quite a stir during the 1976 World Series when he told reporters it was unfair to Thurman Munson to compare him to Johnny Bench. He meant no disrespect to Munson, whom he thought was a tremendous player. What he meant was that Bench set such a high standard and had maintained that standard for so many years, it was not fair to compare anybody to him, because they would fall short and it may diminish how good a player they were. It’s like being Brad Pitt and comparing wives: Angelina Jolie is amazing; Jennifer Aniston ain’t bad, either. Of course the New York media had a field day spinning a compliment to Bench into an insult of Munson.

Bench’s success was not just because of his physical gifts. He was an extremely intelligent man both on and off the field. Having graduated first in his high school class, he carried that intelligence over to baseball. Many times Anderson would make rookies sit next to “Jonathan” (as Sparky called him) on the bench so they could learn the game by seeing it through his eyes.

An example of the Bench wit and intelligence is evident in a story told by Pete Rose several years ago. Rose said it was occurred in a game when he was playing for the Phillies, whom he had signed with in 1979. Bench was catching, and Eric Gregg was umpiring behind the plate. Apparently Bench and Gregg had been feuding with each other all day. So by the time Rose gets to the plate later in the game, the other two are continuously trading barbs back and forth. Rose gets the count to 2 and 0 on a couple of pitches that were border line. Now Bench and Gregg are really letting each other have it. The next pitch comes in and it’s even closer, but again Gregg calls it a ball, making the count 3 and 0. At this point Bench has had enough. He really starts in on Gregg, telling him how bad of a day he’s having and how he’s been missing pitches all day and that he needs to stop thinking about where he’s going to get dinner and start paying attention to the game. So Gregg, who was by no means a small man, tells Bench that if he says one more word he’s going to bite his head off. Bench, without hesitating, responds that if he does he’ll have more brains in his stomach than he does in his head. The next pitch is right down the heart of the plate. Ball four. Rose smiles and hustles down to first.

Critiquing the performances of umpires aside, Bench had a storybook career. He won two World Series titles and was the MVP of the Series in 1976. By the mid 1980s the years of catching had taken their toll on his knees. He made a sad attempt to move to third base, and then to first. But by this time, he was at the end of his career. On September 17, 1983 the Reds held Johnny Bench Night at Riverfront Stadium. Before a near-capacity crowd that included a young S.O.S. writer whose dad got him tickets for his 13th birthday (hint: me), Bench caught his last game and came to bat for one of the last times in front of the home crowd. As a farewell to the fans on Johnny Bench Night, the man of honor hit his 389th and final home run of his amazing career.

Bench was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1989, garnering 96% of the ballots, the third highest total up to that point. Only Hank Aaron and Ty Cobb had received a higher percentage. He is number 16 on The Sporting News’ 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All-Time, and is the highest-ranked catcher on that list. In 1999 he was named to the All-Century Team.