1975

The stakes could not have been higher for the Reds in 1975. After postseason disappointments in 1970, 1972 and 1973 and after finishing in second place behind the Dodgers in the NL West race in 1974, the Big Red Machine was starting to be seen by many observers as an extraordinarily talented team that simply did not have what it took to win it all. It was widely believed that anything short of a World Championship in 1975 would result in major changes to the club.

By the end of the 1975 season, all talk of the Big Red Machine being underachievers was forever silenced. The Machine won a franchise-record 108 games and clinched the NL West Division on September 7, the earliest clinching of first place in National League history. After sweeping the Pirates in the National League Championship Series, the Reds defeated the Boston Red Sox in an epic seven-game World Series that is considered one of the best ever played.

The Reds’ success in 1975 was largely the result of surprising lineup change the club incorporated in early May. In the midst of a slow start that found the Reds playing .500 baseball, manager Sparky Anderson made the bold move of shifting All-Star leftfielder Pete Rose to third base to create a regular position for George Foster. The move gave rise to the legendary Great Eight lineup that would be at the heart of the Reds’ dominance through the end of the 1976 season. Beginning on May 21, the re-tooled Reds went on a 41-9 tear that effectively decided the Western Division race. Up 12.5 games at the All-Star break, the Reds finished the regular season 20 games in front of the second place Dodgers.

The sweep of the Pirates in the playoffs marked the third time in the decade that the Reds bested Pittsburgh to claim the National League pennant. The World Series proved to be one of the most dramatic and exciting on record, highlighted by the epic Game 6 contest, won by Boston on a 12-inning home run by Carlton Fisk that remains arguably the most famous home run in postseason history. The Reds came back to win Game 7 on a Joe Morgan single in the ninth inning that gave the Reds a 4-3 lead. Will McEnaney retired the Red Sox in order in the bottom of the inning and the Reds were World Champions for the first time since 1940.