This newsletter is slowly traveling through the Best 50. That’s my list of history’s 50 greatest ballclubs, as ranked by my new book, Baseball’s Best (and Worst) Teams. Today’s story focuses on No. 5, the 1975 Cincinnati Reds.
Here’s a quick boilerplate explanation that I’m appending to every story in this series:
I compiled the Best 50 by analyzing 2,544 major-league teams from 1903 to 2024. Those clubs have been ranked by their team scores (TS), which are plotted on a 100-point scale. (A given club’s all-time percentile is the percentage of the other 2,543 teams that it outperformed.)
See my book for an explanation of my TS calculations. The book also offers separate breakdowns of the best and worst clubs for every decade and franchise, comprehensive profiles of the Best 50 (including position-by-position lineups and much more information than you’ll find in this newsletter), and similar summaries of the 10 worst teams of all time.
Now on to today’s profile.
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Team: 1975 Cincinnati Reds
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Team score: 92.234 points
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All-time rank: 5 of 2,544
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All-time percentile: 99.84%
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Season record: 108-54 (.667)
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Season position: First place in National League West
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Final status: World champion
The Reds had been playing excellent ball — and reaping few rewards — for several seasons. They reached the World Series in 1970 and 1972, but failed to win either trophy. They made the National League Championship Series in 1973, but lost to the vastly inferior New York Mets. They rang up a flashy 98-64 record in 1974, but didn’t even qualify for the playoffs.
It initially appeared that 1975 would add to Cincinnati’s annals of disappointment. The Reds split their first 40 games. They were floundering five games behind the Dodgers in the NL West on May 20, when manager Sparky Anderson shook things up. He moved left fielder Pete Rose to third base, with reserve George Foster filling the void in left. “I’ve decided that I’ll go with a set lineup,” Anderson announced. “No platooning.”
The change was instantaneous. The Reds won their next seven games — and 41 of their next 50. They built an imposing divisional lead of 12.5 games by July’s All-Star break. It expanded to 20 games by the season’s end.
Get the complete lowdown on the 50 greatest (and 10 weakest) clubs of all time
The Reds easily swept the National League Championship Series, trouncing the Pittsburgh Pirates by a collective score of 19-7.
The World Series was a much different matter, with a single run deciding five of the seven games. Heavily favored Cincinnati found it difficult to shake the spunky Boston Red Sox. That was especially true in Game Six, a back-and-forth affair finally settled by Carlton Fisk’s dramatic homer in the 12th inning. “That was the best game I ever played in,” Pete Rose said excitedly, even though his Reds were on the short end of the 7-6 score.
The following night was a happier occasion. Joe Morgan singled home the winning run in the ninth inning, capturing Cincinnati’s first world championship in 35 years.
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The great Cincinnati teams of the 1970s shared a nickname — the Big Red Machine — that would go down in baseball lore. The most important gear in that powerful mechanism was second baseman Joe Morgan, who had been acquired from Houston in November 1971.
“The Reds weren’t a winner until Joe came over to us,” said third baseman Pete Rose. “Now we’re champions, and I’d say you can give credit to him.” Morgan’s superlative .466 on-base percentage topped the National League by 60 points. He also ranked among the NL’s four leaders in batting average (.327) and stolen bases (67). “I have never seen anyone — and I mean anyone — play better than Joe has played this year,” said Sparky Anderson.
Morgan had plenty of help. Johnny Bench was one of four National Leaguers to generate at least 25 homers and 100 runs batted in. Bench had enormous hands — he could clutch seven baseballs with five fingers — and he was conceded to be the best catcher in either league. He would eventually win 10 consecutive Gold Gloves. First baseman Tony Perez produced 109 RBIs, one fewer than Bench. And Rose (.317), right fielder Ken Griffey (.305), and left fielder George Foster (.300) joined Morgan with batting averages in the .300 range.
Cincinnati’s pitching staff was good, though far from exceptional. Twenty-four-year-old Don Gullett was considered to be the ace. “Barring an injury, he is almost sure of making the Hall of Fame,” Anderson declared at the start of the season. Gullett blitzed to a 9-3 mark by mid-June, when he fractured his thumb. He finished at 15-4. Subsequent injuries would truncate his career in 1978.