The era of free agency in Major League Baseball ensured that it would be difficult to keep star teams together year after year. The 1976 Cincinnati Reds were one of the last to be considered a “dynasty,” and this book documents the season of one of the greatest teams in baseball history. During the pursuit of a second-straight world championship in 1976, the “Big Red Machine” was fueled by all-time hits leader Pete Rose, slugger George Foster, and all-stars Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan, as well as a balanced pitching staff that had seven players notching double-digit win totals. The 102-win regular season ended with a World Series sweep of the New York Yankees.

Doug Feldmann is a professor in the College of Education at Northern Kentucky University and a former scout for the Cincinnati Reds, Seattle Mariners, and San Diego Padres.

Doug Feldmann
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 276
Bibliographic Info: 12 photos, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2009
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3854-9
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5272-9
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vii

Prologue      1

1. Recharging the Machine      3

2. An Array of Stars      22

3. Lockout      52

4. Opening Day and a Star-Spangled Monday      83

5. Battling the Boys in Blue      107

6. The Bird Takes Flight, and the Machine Rolls On      123

7. A Nation Celebrates, and a World Competes      139

8. An Historic Finish      157

9. “The Best There Is”      183

Epilogue      219

1976 Final Major League Baseball Standings      231

1976 Final Cincinnati Reds Statistics      233

Sources of Quotations      235

Bibliography      253

Index      255

“a winner…of interest to all Reds fans…excellent job”—Reds Report.