It really is amazing that they didn’t win more than two championships. However when your dynasty is sandwiched between two other dynasties (Oakland & NY Yankees), it certainly wasn’t easy.
The Reds built their team through good old scouting, as well as shrewd trades, leading up to a team that had (at last count) three Hall of Famers in Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, as well as Pete Rose, whose a HOFer in my book anyway.
Throw in guys like George Foster, Ken Griffey Sr, Dave Concepcion, and it’s almost not even fair to the rest of the league at this point.
Though they didn’t have that top “Ace” that the era had with so many other teams, they had reliable, solid arms in guys like Gary Nolan, Don Gullett, Jack Billingham and Fred Norman, with a bullpen that was ahead of it’s time.
“Captain Hook” Sparky Anderson led the team, pretty much using a six-man rotation at time along with bringing in relievers at the drop of a hat, which was really not the norm at a time when pitchers still routinely reached 300-innings pitched.
An absolute steamrolling team that squashed THIS seven-year-old’s dreams when they swept my Yanks in the 1976 World Series, the very fist one I watched as a baseball fan.
It still amazes me that the team had SIX MVP’s during the decade: 2x Bench and Morgan, Pete Rose and George Foster! What a line-up!
