History of the Cincinnati Reds
The second Red Stockings team was expelled from the league after the 1880 season, for 'violating' rules which had not yet gone into effect: namely, serving beer at games and allowing their park to be used on Sundays.
[3] One of the main reasons had absolutely nothing to do with the team directly—the upstart Player's League, an early, failed attempt to break the reserve clause in baseball.
In 1944, Joe Nuxhall, (who was later to become part of the radio broadcasting team), at age 15, pitching for the Reds on loan from a Hamilton, Ohio Junior High School, became the youngest person ever to play in a major league game—a record that still stands today.
The newly renamed Reds captured the 1961 National League pennant, holding off the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants, only to be defeated by the perennially powerful New York Yankees in the World Series.
After the 1965 season he executed what may be the most lopsided trade in baseball history, sending former Most-Valuable Player Frank Robinson to the Baltimore Orioles for pitchers Milt Pappas, Jack Baldschun, and outfielder Dick Simpson.
In a series of strategic moves, Howsam nurtured the homegrown talent and brought in key personnel, allowing the team to finally reach its potential during the 1970s.
Under Bob Howsam's administration starting in the late 1960s, the Reds instituted a strict rule barring the team's players from wearing mustaches, beards, and long hair.
[1] When Pete Rose became player-manager in the mid-1980s, he grew a "rat's tail", fashionable among the youth of the time, but the rule was not officially rescinded until 1999 when the Reds traded for slugger Greg Vaughn who had a goatee.
1971 was also the year a key component of the future world championships was acquired in George Foster from the San Francisco Giants in a trade for shortstop Frank Duffy.
The Reds trailed 9–3 and New York's manager, Yogi Berra, and legendary outfielder Willie Mays at the request of National League president Warren Giles appealed to fans in left field to restrain themselves.
The commissioner of baseball, Bowie Kuhn, ordered Braves management to play Aaron the next day, where he narrowly missed the historic home run in the fifth inning.
With 1975, the Big Red Machine lineup solidified with the starting team of Johnny Bench (c), Tony Pérez (1b), Joe Morgan (2b), Dave Concepción (ss), Pete Rose (3b), Ken Griffey (rf), César Gerónimo (cf), and George Foster (lf).
The starting pitchers included Don Gullett, Fred Norman, Gary Nolan, Jack Billingham, Pat Darcy, and Clay Kirby.
At that time, Rose still played in left field and Foster was not a starter, while John Vukovich, an off-season acquisition from the Milwaukee Brewers was the starting third baseman, replacing Dan Driessen, who was a decent hitter, but whose defensive skills were considered a weakness.
The remaining starters, Don Gullett, Jack Billingham, Pat Zachry, Santo Alcala, and Fred Norman comprised an underrated staff in which four of the six had ERAs below 3.10.
Pete Rose would add further fuel to The Big Red Machine being part of the rivalry when he signed with the Phillies in 1979 and helped them win their first ever World Series in 1980.
New York was heartbroken by the news that the Mets' franchise pitcher Tom Seaver was being traded to the Reds in a multiple-player deal for Pat Zachry, Doug Flynn, Steve Henderson, and Dan Norman.
In less successful deals, the Reds also traded Gary Nolan to the Angels for Craig Hendrickson, Rawly Eastwick to St. Louis for Doug Capilla and Mike Caldwell to Milwaukee for Dick O'Keefe and Garry Pyka, and got Rick Auerbach from Texas.
Tom Hume still led the bullpen, but he had no support from the dismal relieving of Ben Hayes, Brad "The Animal" Lesley, Joe Price, and Jim Kern.
After raising the franchise from the grave, Howsam gave way to the administration of Bill Bergesch, who was principally known for holding on tightly to perennial future stars such as Kurt Stillwell, Tracy Jones, Kal Daniels, and others, refusing to risk these "crown jewels" for pitching help.
Among the highlights, Rose became the all-time hits leader, Tom Browning threw a perfect game, and Chris Sabo was the 1988 National League Rookie of the Year.
With Barry Larkin now as full-time shortstop, the Reds traded Kurt Stillwell to the Kansas City Royals for pitcher Danny Jackson, who would respond by winning 23 games in 1988.
Led by a lineup of Chris Sabo, Barry Larkin, Eric Davis, Paul O'Neill, and Billy Hatcher; starting pitchers Danny Jackson, José Rijo, and Tom Browning; and a bullpen led by the "Nasty Boys" of Rob Dibble, Norm Charlton and Randy Myers, the Reds defeated the Pirates in the NLCS and swept the heavily favored Oakland Athletics in four straight games, which extended the franchise's World Series winning streak to nine consecutive games.
On the field, manager Lou Piniella wanted outfielder Paul O'Neill to be his premier power-hitter to fill the void left by Eric Davis after he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The long-term effects of the O'Neill/Kelly trade were even worse as Kelly would only be in a Reds uniform for a few years, while O'Neill wound up being a leader for the great New York Yankee teams from the mid-to-late 1990s.
Great American Ball Park opened in 2003, with high expectations for a team led by local favorites, including outfielder Ken Griffey Jr., shortstop Barry Larkin, reliever Danny Graves and first baseman Sean Casey.
Like many other small market clubs, the Reds dispatched some of their veteran players and began entrusting their future to a young nucleus that included Dunn, Ryan Freel, and Aaron Harang.
The first move Krivsky made was to trade young outfielder Wily Mo Peña to the Boston Red Sox for pitcher Bronson Arroyo.
This move was controversial, as not only did it seem as if the Reds did not receive much in return for two starting position players and a former first-round draft pick, but also it was later discovered that the Nationals may have hidden Majewski's health problems.
The bright spot on the team was ace pitcher Johnny Cueto, who led the National League with 242 strikeouts and finished second in NL Cy Young Award voting behind Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers.
