In this ultimate resource guide for true fans of baseball's first professional team, author Joel Luckhaupt has collected every essential piece of Cincinnati Reds trivia, as well as must-do activities, and ranked them from one to 100, providing an entertaining and easy-to-follow checklist for fans to complete in their lifetime. Most Reds fans have taken in a game or two at the Great American Ball Park, have seen highlights of the Big Red Machine, and remember the team's surprising triumph in the 1990 World Series. But only real fans know which 15-year-old took the mound for the Reds in 1944, can name the pitcher who gave up Pete Rose's 4,192nd hit, or remember how many dogs owner Marge Schott owned. 100 Things Reds Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die is the perfect book for any fan of Reds baseball, whether a die-hard booster from the days of Ted Kluszewski or a new supporter of Joey Votto, Johnny Cueto, and Aroldis Chapman.
The Big 50: Cincinnati Reds is an amazing, full-color look at the 50 men and moments that made the Reds the Reds. Experienced sportswriters Chad Dotson and Chris Garber recount the living history of the Reds, counting down from No. 50 to No. 1. Big 50: Reds brilliantly brings to life the Reds remarkable story, from Johnny Bench and Barry Larkin to the roller coaster that was Pete Rose to the team's 1990 World Series championship and Todd Frazier's 2015 Home Run Derby win.
First published in 1948, Lee Allen's history of the Reds, like Franklin Lewis's history of the Cleveland Indians, was originally published by G. P. Putnam's Sons. Allen narrates the historic organization's success, beginning shortly after the Civil War with baseball's rising popularity among Cincinnati's elite. Eventually, as interest increased, America's first professional baseball team was established in 1868 - Cincinnati's Red Stockings. The Cincinnati Reds chronicles each season from the organization's early years, most notably the 1882 American Association pennant and the 1919 and 1940 National League pennants, and World Series championships, including the infamous Chicago White Sox scandal. Allen retells many of the early Reds stories likely forgotten or unknown by today's fans. This book is as thorough as it is absorbing, and will be enjoyed by those interested in the early days of America's favourite passtime.
What does the number 67 mean to you? Do you associate it with a year? After all, 1967 was the year The Beatles released both Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour. It was also the year the first Super Bowl was held and in which Ernesto “Che” Guevara was executed. But maybe the year 1967 isn’t the first thing that comes to your mind. Maybe when you think about the number 67, you think of the . . . Age of George Washington at the time of his death, on December 14, 1799. Atomic number of the chemical element holmium, symbol Ho. Number of counties in each of the states of Alabama, Florida, and Pennsylvania. Most doubles hit in a season in Major League Baseball history (Earl Webb, Boston Red Sox, 1931). Number worn by partners Jane Fonda and Michael Sarrazin in the dance marathon scene in the 1969 film They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? Estimate number of miles, in millions, from Venus to the sun In Numberpedia, author Herb Reich examines all of the random, seemingly unrelated trivia related to numbers 1 to 100 in painstaking detail, revealing lore, myths, and every bizarre factoid you’d ever want to know about those numbers—except, of course, those concerning math.
In this ultimate resource guide for true fans of baseball s first professional team, author Joel Luckhaupt has collected every essential piece of Cincinnati Reds trivia, as well as must-do activities, and ranked them fromone to 100, providing an entertaining and easy-to-follow checklist for fans to complete in their lifetime. Most Reds fans have taken in a game or two at the Great American Ball Park, have seen highlights of the Big Red Machine, and remember the team s surprising triumph in the 1990 World Series. But only real fans know which 15-year-old took the mound for the Reds in 1944, can name the pitcher who gave up Pete Rose s 4,192nd hit, or remember how many dogs owner Marge Schott owned. 100 Things Reds Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die is the perfect book for any fan of Reds baseball, whether a die-hard booster from the days of Ted Kluszewski or a new supporter of Joey Votto, Johnny Cueto, and Aroldis Chapman."
The greatest players of all time Few Major League Baseball teams have a history as glorious and as interesting as the Cincinnati Reds. From the earliest days of baseball's first professional team, skillful and colorful players have worn the Cincinnati uniform. The greatest and most famous of these players have attained legendary status, and in this book they are given their due. Best-selling baseball author Mike Shannon brings to bear his expertise on the Reds in selecting and profiling the forty Reds who best fit the definition of "legend." From the Wright Brothers and Edd Roush to Johnny Vander Meer and Ted Kluszewski, from Frank Robinson and Pete Rose to Barry Larkin and Joey Votto--athletes who by their stellar play, unique personalities, and uncommon achievements have made themselves unforgettable--they are all here in Cincinnati Reds Legends. Shannon encapsulates the greatness of each player in deft vignettes that are remarkable as much for their insight as their interest. Even veteran Reds fans will get to know and appreciate these legends better through the book's lively and informative text. What truly sets this book apart is the stunning original artwork that supplements the text. Three of today's most gifted baseball artists provide full-color, full-page images of the forty Legends that are invariably beautiful, arresting, and joyful to behold. Chris Felix's exquisitely executed portraits have the dignified look and feel of an old master, capturing the essence of his subjects. With rigorous attention to detail, an ebullient palette, and his unerring sense of composition, Scott Hannig dramatizes a lifelong devotion to the Reds. The digitally created showstoppers of the brilliant Donnie Pollard simply mesmerize the eye. Here are the Reds' greatest players as they have never before been presented. The talented trio of Felix, Hannig, and Pollard is a diamond act that no self-respecting baseball fan can afford to miss. Miniature portraits, playing statistics, and stunning paintings of Palace of the Fans, Crosley Field, Riverfront Stadium, and Great American Ball Park round out this beautiful book that will be treasured by baseball fans everywhere.
Call it the forgotten rivalry. The Cincinnati Reds and the Los Angeles Dodgers may not share geographical boundaries, and today they don’t even play in the same division, but for a period of time in the 1970s Dodgers vs. Reds was the best rivalry in Major League Baseball. They boasted the biggest names of the game—Johnny Bench, Steve Garvey, Pete Rose, Don Sutton, and Ron Cey, to name a few—and appeared in the World Series seven out of nine years. In Cincinnati Red and Dodger Blue: Baseball's Greatest Forgotten Rivalry, Tom Van Riper provides a fresh look at these two powerhouse teams and the circumstances that made them so pivotal. Van Riper delves into the players, managers, executives, and broadcasters from the rivalry whose impact on baseball continued beyond the 1970s—including the first recipient of Tommy John surgery (Tommy John himself), the all-time hit king turned gambling pariah (Pete Rose), and two young announcers who would soon go on to national prominence (Al Michaels and Vin Scully). In addition, Van Riper recounts in detail the 1973 season when both teams were at or near their peak form, particularly the extra-inning nail-biter between the Reds and Dodgers that took place on September 21 and effectively decided the divisional race. Cincinnati Red and Dodger Blue includes never-before-published interviews with former players from the rivalry, providing a personal and in-depth look at this decade in baseball full of upheaval and change. Baseball’s realignment in 1994 may have rendered this great rivalry nearly forgotten, but its story is one that will be enjoyed by baseball fans and historians of all generations.
The Big Red Machine dominated major league baseball in the 1970s, but the Cincinnati franchise began its climb to that pinnacle in 1961, when an unlikely collection of cast-offs and wannabes stunned the baseball world by winning the National League pennant. Led by revered manager Fred Hutchinson, the team featured rising stars like Frank Robinson, Jim O’Toole, and Vada Pinson, fading stars like Gus Bell and Wally Post, and a few castoffs who suddenly came into their own, like Gene Freese and 20-game-winner Joey Jay. In time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their pennant-winning season, the amazing story of the “Ragamuffin Reds” is told from start to finish in Before the Machine. Written by long-time Reds Report editor Mark J. Schmetzer and featuring dozens of photos by award-winning photographer Jerry Klumpe of the Cincinnati Post & Times Star, this book surely will be a winner with every fan in Reds country and coincides with an anniversary exhibit at the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum. Through interviews and research, Before the Machine captures the excitement of a pennant race for a team that had suffered losing seasons in 14 of the past 16 years. Schmetzer also beautifully evokes the time and place—a muggy Midwestern summer during which, as the new song of the season boasts, “the whole town’s batty for that team in Cincinnati.” Led by regional talk-show star Ruth Lyons (the Midwest’s “Oprah”) fans rallied around the Reds as never before. The year didn’t begin well for the team. Budding superstar Frank Robinson was arrested right before spring training for carrying a concealed weapon, and long-time owner Powel Crosley Jr., died suddenly just days before the start of the season. Few experts—or fans—gave the Reds much of a chance at first place anyway. With powerhouse teams in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Milwaukee, the National League pennant was unlikely to fly over Cincinnati’s Crosley Field. But manager Hutchinson somehow galvanized his motley crew and led them to victory after victory. Joey Jay, who had languished with the Braves, mowed down hitters while his rotation mates O’Toole and knuckleballer Bob Purkey did the same. The team also featured a dynamic duo in the bullpen in Bill Henry and Jim Brosnan, whose book about the season, Pennant Race, became a national bestseller the following year. As the rest of the league kept waiting for the Reds to fade, Hutch’s boys kept winning—and finally grabbed the pennant. Though they couldn’t continue their magic in the World Series against the Yankees, the previously moribund Reds franchise did continue to their success throughout the decade, winning 98 games in 1962 and falling just short of another pennant in 1964. They established a recipe for success that would lead, a few years later, to the emergence of the Big Red Machine.
The 1936 Yankees, the 1963 Dodgers, the 1975 Reds, the 2010 Giants—why do some baseball teams win while others don’t? General managers and fans alike have pondered this most important of baseball questions. The Moneyball strategy is not the first example of how new ideas and innovative management have transformed the way teams are assembled. In Pursuit of Pennants examines and analyzes a number of compelling, winning baseball teams over the past hundred-plus years, focusing on their decision making and how they assembled their championship teams. Whether through scouting, integration, instruction, expansion, free agency, or modernizing their management structure, each winning team and each era had its own version of Moneyball, where front office decisions often made the difference. Mark L. Armour and Daniel R. Levitt show how these teams succeeded and how they relied on talent both on the field and in the front office. While there is no recipe for guaranteed success in a competitive, ever-changing environment, these teams demonstrate how creatively thinking about one’s circumstances can often lead to a competitive advantage.
