History of the World Series – 1976
Anderson presided over a talent-rich club that featured Johnny Bench behind the plate, George Foster, Cesar Geronimo and Ken Griffey in the outfield, Pete Rose at third base, Dave Concepcion at shortstop, Joe Morgan at second base and Tony Perez at first. On the bench, among others, were promising young hitter Dan Driessen, veteran Bob Bailey and handyman Doug Flynn. Gary Nolan headed the pitching staff with 15 victories, Pat Zachry won 14 times, and Fred Norman and Jack Billingham each won 12 games. Don Gullett, Santo Alcala and relief ace Rawly Eastwick won 11 games each and were a combined 33-12.
While the Reds’ standing as an outstanding team seemed secure — they had won 108 games in their World Series championship year of 1975 and posted 98 and 99 victories in the previous two seasons — Anderson and company knew that their greatness would be measured not by the quantity of their victories but by the magnitude of their accomplishments. A second straight Series crown would leave little doubt that these Cincinnati Reds deserved prominent mention on any list of baseball’s all-time best teams.
The Yankees, in their fourth season under the ownership of George Steinbrenner and in their first full year with Billy Martin as manager, had plugged numerous holes from their third-place team of ’75 with shrewd trading. They also had holdover talent in Thurman Munson, Chris Chambliss, Graig Nettles, Sparky Lyle and Jim (Catfish) Hunter, the latter having joined the club on December 31, 1974, after being declared a free agent because of a breach in his Oakland A’s contract.
Yes, the Yanks were back in the Series. But not for long.
Cincinnati won the Series opener at Riverfront Stadium, 5-1, as Morgan poled a first-inning home run, Perez banged out three hits, and Gullett and reliever Pedro Borbon combined on a five-hitter. In Game 2, Perez’s two-out single in the ninth scored Griffey and lifted the Reds to a 4-3 triumph over Hunter and the Yanks. Hunter had retired the Reds’ first two batters in the ninth, but New York shortstop Fred Stanley’s two-base throwing error on Griffey’s roller put the National League champions in business.
The Series then moved to more familiar territory — Yankee Stadium. Well, not totally familiar. While 27 Series had been played there from 1923 through 1964, the House that Ruth Built had a new look in 1976. The modernized stadium, in fact, had just reopened its gates in ’76 after a two-year renovation during which the Yankees played their home games at Shea Stadium.
Whatever the site, the Reds rolled merrily along. With the AL’s designated-hitter rule being used in the Series for the first time (it would be implemented in alternating years), Driessen had found a spot in the Cincinnati lineup. He cracked a homer and went 3-for-3 in the third game, helping the Reds to a 6-2 victory. Driessen wound up batting .357 as the Reds’ DH in the ’76 fall classic; New York’s designated hitters — the Yanks employed three — managed only one hit the entire Series.
One bright spot for the Yankees in Game 3 was shortstop Jim Mason, who entered the game defensively in the fifth inning and then poked a bases-empty homer in the seventh. The trip to the plate was Mason’s first and last in World Series competition, making him the only man to hit a home run in his lone career Series at-bat.
The Reds’ Bench then leveled the Yankees in Game 4, blasting two and three-run homers, and it was over. The 7-2 triumph made Cincinnati the National League’s first repeat winner of the World Series since the New York Giants of 1921 and 1922.
Seven of the Reds’ nine everyday players in this Series (including the designated hitter) batted above .300, led by Bench’s .533 and Foster’s .429. Amazingly, Anderson did not make a single change during the entire Series among his nine regulars, forsaking the use of a pinch-hitter or a pinch-runner and never making a switch in either his batting order or defensive alignment. Reds pitchers did their part, combining for a 2.00 earned-run average against the Yankees (who did get a marvelous performance from Munson, following up his .435 Championship Series batting mark against the Kansas City Royals with a .529 World Series effort against the Reds).
Cincinnati’s two-year booty now consisted of 210 regular-season victories, a 6-0 record in Championship Series play, and World Series triumphs over the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, the latter conquest achieved via a sweep. Truly resembling the Yanks of old, these Reds proved emphatically that they were worthy of the superteam label being bestowed upon them.
Morgan, who had batted .320 for the Reds in the regular season with 27 home runs and 111 RBIs, said it best: “How can you have a much better team than this one?”
