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6 days ago
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10 things you didn't know about the Big Red Machine
By now everybody knows that Dan Driessen was the first designated hitter in World Series history (1976), that Will McEnaney recorded the final out of both the 1975 and 1976 World Series and that the Big Red Machine remains the last National League team to repeat as MLB champs. But in the aftermath of a four-day, 50th-anniversary reunion celebration of the Big Red Machine, here are 10 things you probably didn't know about one of the most storied dynasties in baseball history: Advertisement 1. Cesar Geronimo's right arm of God – and the Yankees Center fielder Cesar Geronimo studied in a seminary in the Dominican Republic to become a priest before he found the path that led him to professional baseball. When he eventually participated in a tryout camp for the Yankees at the urging of his father, the Yankees liked his powerful arm so much they signed him as a pitcher and outfielder. 'After I came out of the seminary when I was 18 years old, I started playing softball,' said Geronimo, who played mostly basketball during his four years studying religion, only playing baseball once or twice a month in that span. 'I never pitched. But the scout that got me knew I had a good arm.' 2. Ken Griffey's baby bonus Outfielder Ken Griffey, a three-time All-Star and career .296 hitter with 200 stolen bases, was the last player drafted by the Reds in 1969, in the 29th round. Advertisement His bonus? 'Jock strap and a pair of sanitary socks. That was it,' Griffey said. 'That was my bonus. And I never wore a jock.' 3. 20 teams passed on Johnny Bench in draft – including Reds Johnny Bench was the valedictorian at Binger High School in small-town Oklahoma, where he also starred on the basketball team in addition to baseball. Bernie Carbo, shown during the 1972 season, was selected in the draft before Johnny Bench. All 20 major league teams at the time passed on Bench, the high school catcher from Binger, Oklahoma. He was then drafted in MLB's first draft in 1965 — but was not the Reds first pick. That was Bernie Carbo (16th overall). Which means all 20 big-league teams at the time passed on Bench, including the Reds, before they made him their second-round pick. 4. Don Gullett was not a very good placekicker Don Gullett, a three-sport high school star who debuted for the Reds less than a year after being drafted 14th overall out of McKell High School in northeastern Kentucky, once struck out 20 of 21 he faced in a perfect game for McKell and another time scored 72 points in a football game. Advertisement The 11 rushing touchdowns and six extra-point kicks came after his coach unleashed him on a smack-talking rival had boasted about shutting him down. 'Of course, we razzed him about missing the other five kicks,' Bench said. 5. George Foster's head games George Foster was one of the first players to employ a sports psychologist early in his career to get past a fear resulting from twice getting hit in the head by pitches. 'I got the idea from Maury Wills because he had created some fear in sliding because he was constantly getting hurt,' Foster said. 'But it was more of being able to talk through it. It helps with your focus. I encourage kids today to use a sports psychologist, because sometimes if they're not playing well they get too much into their own head instead of focusing on their mechanics.' Advertisement It worked for Foster, who went on to earn five All-Star selections and the 1977 NL MVP award. 'They help you focus on the cause and not the result,' he said. 'Once you change the cause your results change.' Tony Perez said he never experimented with the types of bats he used. "Never changed my bat. I used it in the big-leagues, and I used it in the minor leagues. One bat,' he said. 6. Tony Perez had one very big thing in common with Babe Ruth Don't try to get Tony Perez to weigh in on the so-called torpedo bat — or any other flavor-of-the month style of bat that might be trending in the moment. 'Stupid,' he said. 'I used only one bat. Never changed my bat. I used it in the big-leagues, and I used it in the minor leagues. One bat.' That was Model R43, he said. 'That's the one Babe Ruth used to use,' Perez said. Advertisement In other words, a lathe-turned tree trunk. 7. Hey, Johnny Bench, how 'bout another lemonade over here! The Reds were such big stars on the field that popular TV shows took advantage. Bench, in particular, made several appearances on Hee Haw during his career in addition to his well-known gig hosting the Saturday morning kids show The Baseball Bunch with the famed San Diego Chicken. But did you know he also made a cameo as a waiter on a 1973 episode of The Partridge Family? Even the manager, Sparky Anderson, co-starred in a 1979 episode of WKRP in Cincinnati written around Anderson's terrible job at hosting a radio show, playing himself as the recently fired Reds manager. Advertisement When he eventually loses the radio job, too, he says, 'I must be nuts. Every time I come into this town, I get fired.' 8. Nepo baby Pete Rose? Five years before MLB's first draft, Pete Rose was signed out of Western Hills High School by his hometown Reds – but not as the result of any high-demand bidding war or extra effort by the local club. Mostly, it was a favor to local Reds bird-dog scout Buddy Bloebaum, who strongly urged the Reds to sign his nephew Pete. 9. The three-generation MLB Griffey family that might have been Speaking of important guys named Buddy, Griffey's father, Buddy Griffey, was a high school sports teammate of Stan Musial at Donora High School in western Pennsylvania. Advertisement The Hall of Famer more than once said the elder Griffey was good enough to play major-league baseball, and was even reputed to have said Buddy Griffey was better than himself. 'They said they were actually scouting him,' Ken Griffey said. 'But what happened was, the last name was Welsh-related, so they thought he was white.' Not much MLB future in the 1930s for a Black player, no matter how talented. 'He ended up going to Kentucky State on a football scholarship,' Griffey said. Imagine the comparisons Buddy, Ken and Ken Jr. might have been able to make to the three-generation likes of the Boones and Bells. Advertisement 10. Joe Morgan owned these guys Joe Morgan, the man Bill James determined was the greatest second baseman in history, owned trademark rights to the 'Big Red Machine' for specific merchandising after his playing days, securing the rights in 1997. The rights through J.L. Morgan Enterprises Inc., covered, among other things, board games, card games and athletic bags, backpacks and book bags. The rights have since lapsed. Morgan, who was the league MVP during both the BRM's World Series championship seasons, died in 2020. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: 10 things you didn't know about the Big Red Machine
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'We captured the imagination': Why Big Red Machine secured unique sports, cultural legacy
George Foster tensed when he heard the strange voice, and braced for the worst. 'You ruined my life,' the man said. Foster had his head down, putting baseballs and 8-by-10 photos on a table where he and other former baseball stars prepared for an autograph-signing fundraiser during a spring training game in Arizona a few years ago. Advertisement 'I thought, 'I better move back and remember my karate moves. Did I beat this guy up or something?' " said Foster, who learned hand-to-hand combat technique from his brother, who taught it in the military. No, the man said. 'You beat my Dodgers.' "Oh, that." That. The Big Red Machine. They still remember. They'll probably never forget. No matter where they grew up watching baseball. And 50 years later, as nearly all of the surviving members from that iconic team conclude a weekend-long celebration at Great American Ball Park, their legacy remains as unique and intact for its cultural impact on a sport and a city as it does for its staying power. Advertisement Never mind the historic dominance of perhaps the greatest lineup ever assembled. 'We captured the imagination,' said Johnny Bench, the Hall of Fame catcher. Bench recalled the last Big Red Machine reunion just a few years ago. The mural of the Big Red Machine mural inside the Great American Ball Pa 'You had grandfathers bringing the fathers and the fathers bringing the kids,' he said. 'So you had three generations of people coming to the park. And the people that lived our past, they were crying. Because it took them to their childhood and their memories. 'You saw the tears. You saw what it meant to so many people,' Bench said. 'We listen to music and we listen to the golden oldies. I guess we were the golden oldies in that way.' Advertisement Classic. Harmonic. Hit parade of all hit parades. The Big Red Machine that dominated much of 1970s baseball certainly hits all of those golden-oldies notes. But its legacy reaches far beyond that, then and now, for a unique confluence of time and place. Opportunity and vision. Sports and mainstream celebrity. More: Why greatest catcher in MLB history Johnny Bench 'didn't reach the level I could have' 'I cried': How Tony Perez defined rise and fall of Big Red Machine Original baseball cards of the 1975 Big Red Machine Big Red Machine legacy rivals any in MLB history General manager Bob Howsam put his roster together in the last era of true dynasties, the back-to-back championships of 1975 and '76 coming in the final two seasons before free agency. Advertisement They won their division five times from 1970 to 1976, finished second with 98 wins once, played in four World Series in that span, and had four players win six NL MVP awards from '70 to '77 (with 14 top-5 finishes overall in that stretch). And they did it in the place where baseball's professional roots run deepest, the only place that hosts an Opening Day parade for its baseball team and considers that day a city holiday. 'It's an amazing story. It's an amazing team,' Bench said. 'I mean, it's just, like, wow, why can't you make a story out of the greatness of our team? And if we don't pass somebody's muster test, that's fine. That's what opinions are for.' The greatness of the Big Red Machine tells only a fraction of the story of why its legacy resonates with Reds fans, rival fans and even non-fans five decades later. Advertisement 'It doesn't just resonate with people that are fans of baseball. It resonates with big leaguers,' said Reds broadcaster Jeff Brantley, the former All-Star closer who led the league with 44 saves for the 1996 Reds. 'That's a whole different kind of 'resonate.' ' The stars of the Big Red Machine were known by more than only the hard-core baseball fans, as seen here with Johnny Bench signing autographs for fans during the Republic Airlines Floyd Cramer Celebrity Golf tournament in 1984. It's a legacy amplified by the all-time scandal that followed the all-time greatness of that team: the 36-year saga of hometown hero Pete Rose's lifetime ban from baseball for gambling on baseball and his posthumous reinstatement last month. It's a legacy that includes an all-time actual MLB legacy in Ken Griffey Jr. growing up in the Riverfront Stadium shadows of that team with his brother, Craig, and All-Star dad, and then growing into an inner-circle Hall of Fame centerfielder. Advertisement It's a legacy that 50 years later rivals any team in MLB history, any sports story in local history, and any cultural phenomenon in the region since Skyline Chili or the Roebling Bridge – the names Johnny Bench and Pete Rose becoming so ubiquitous in the national baseball scene that they transcended sports into mainstream American consciousness the way Joe Namath and Willie Mays did before them. Lasting cultural impact transcends baseball In Cincinnati, few names in or out of sports carry the same weight all these years later. 'I would say Joe Burrow is probably there,' said Reds reliever Brent Suter, an Archbishop Moeller grad whose grandfather was a police officer in Blue Ash. 'Sarah Jessica Parker, Carmen Electra maybe, just in terms of notoriety. They're right up there with the biggest celebrities.' Advertisement Johnny Bench. Carmen Electra. Pete Rose. Sarah Jessica Parker. Joe Morgan, Joe Burrow. Tony Perez, Jerry Springer, George Foster, Dave Concepcion, Doris Day, Sparky Anderson, Steven Spielberg. It was baseball culture that spilled into popular culture because of the celebrity that spilled into local and regional culture because they played everyday all summer and lived in the community. It was impact. 'Impact on a city, impact on the game of baseball,' Suter said. 'Not to mention Ken Griffey Sr., who was a great player in his own right and had a son who's maybe the best centerfielder of all-time.' Advertisement Legacy. The Big Red Machine is still the last National League team to win back-to-back World Series, with the Dodgers spending more than $300 million on payroll this year to try to end that reign. Those Reds had three Hall of Fame players, a Hall of Fame manager, baseball's Hit King (who may one day join the others in the Hall), four league MVPs, seven All-Stars in their eight-man lineup and five guys with a combined 26 Gold Gloves. Their heavyweight greatness in their moment was undisputed. 'There were so many different ways that we could beat you,' Foster said. 'With our legs, with our gloves, with our bats, with our speed,' Foster said. 'Whatever you needed we had on that team. Whatever you needed to be done, we had a guy that could do it.' Advertisement Bench said they drew big crowds just for the magnitude of batting were baseball rock stars wherever went. 'We were intimidating,' Foster said. 'We'd go to Dodger Stadium and fans would talk, and then they'd see us come out for (batting practice), and it was like E.F. Hutton. Everybody listens. We go out there, and it would get quiet.' Until they started taking BP. 'I remember in San Diego, Gaylord Perry told his pitchers not to watch us take batting practice,' Foster said. 'We noticed them watching so we started launching. Rose. Bench. Morgan. So now the pitchers were intimidated.' Yes, that Gaylord Perry. The two-time Cy Young winner and Hall of Fame spitballer. The veteran who in 1971 helped precipitate Foster's trade to Cincinnati when he confronted the young slugger for taking extra BP with the pitchers. Advertisement 'Somehow my bat got underneath his chin,' Foster said. 'I didn't know how it got there.' He was traded quickly after the incident in one of the best trades in Reds history. Or, as Foster heard it from a Giants fan who recognized him a few years ago: 'You're the worst trade in Giants history!' Bench keeps display of autographed balls from the Big Red Machine in his Florida home. 'Big Red Machine went out to humiliate you' They still remember. That might be the biggest thing 50 years later. Just how deep and lasting the impression those players made was. 'We set the standard,' Bench said. Just ask the other pitchers in the league. 'They were a different team than every other team I ever faced,' said former Cy Young winner Steve Stone, who faced the Reds nine times from 1971 through '76 and never beat them (0-4,4.89 ERA). 'There were certain teams that if they get up 6-0, maybe they beat you 6-2. If the Big Red Machine got up 6-0, they tried to beat you 12-0. There was never any wasted at-bats.' Advertisement Stone pitched in both leagues during his 12-year career and faced the Oakland dynasty in 1973 during its three-year run of championships and later the 1977-78 Yankees champions. 'A lot of those teams could beat you,' Stone said. 'The Big Red Machine went out to humiliate you.' With stars at every position, Stone added. 'Not stars but Hall of Famers.' Who was comparable? Who might have been better? Not the '27 Yankees of Ruthian lore, Perez said. 'The Yankees in those days were a great team,' Perez said. 'But in those days you didn't have the great defense. You needed hitters and pitching. That's all. It's hard to catch the ball with the gloves they used to use.' Advertisement During this recent conversation in the living room of his Miami bayside condo, Perez gestures across the room toward the figurines of the Big Red Machine lineup that he keeps on a top shelf. 'But our team,' he said, 'you go through the lineup, that one there, and you can see everything you need to win a ballgame. Anything. You had defense. Speed. Offense. Anything. 'And we had pitching. We didn't have pitching to win 20 games or something like that. But they were great. The bullpen was great. The starters were great.' 'Not only was that lineup relentless,' said All-Star Rick Monday, who joined the arch-rival Dodgers in 1977, 'but defensively they beat you, too.' Advertisement Stone called Davey Concepcion one of the most underrated players in the game, an athletic shortstop with five Gold Glove who mastered the skip throw to first, using the hard turf at newly opened Riverfront Stadium to his advantage. In fact, that Reds 'Great Eight' lineup of Rose, Morgan, Bench, Perez, Foster, Griffey, Concepcion and Cesar Geronimo had higher cumulative WAR (wins above replacement), according to than the 1927 Murderer's Row Yankees of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, Earle Combs and Bob Meusel. The Big Red Machine lineup and 15-game winner Gary Nolan. Cincinnati Reds once prototype for best talent in sports Anyone who wants to win a baseball trivia contest at their next sports-bro party should quiz the room on who the catcher and third baseman were on the '27 Yankees. Advertisement (Bench's and Rose's counterparts were Pat Collins and Joe Dugan). Anybody else? 'Maybe the Dodgers teams (of the 1950s) with Duke Snider and them,' Pete Rose said last year during a long conversation with the Enquirer. 'But Duke was the only left-hand hitter on that team. The rest of them were all right-handed hitters. (Pee Wee) Reese, (Carl) Furillo, (Roy) Campanella).' Anybody else? Sure, maybe. But consider this in any historical comparison: Not only did the Big Red Machine rise to dominance in a post-integration, pre-steroids moment, but as a percentage of MLB players, Black American levels were at their highest in the 1970s, more than 20 percent of the league in some of those seasons (more than double today's numbers). The percentage of Latin American players reached double digits in the '70s and grew steadily through the decade. Advertisement And the young adults of the 1970s were the kids of the '50s and '60s, when baseball was still king in American sports. Bottom line: For the first time – and the last time, so far – the greatest athletes in the Western Hemisphere disproportionately played baseball compared to other sports. And the Reds were the prototype model for the best of the best of that rich pool of talent. So if it seems like they had the greatest lineup of all-time, maybe they did. 'Look in the dictionary for 'the greatest team ever,' ' Bench said. 'We'll be listed.' Perez at his home in Miami, with figurines of the Big Red Machine lineup, World Series trophies and personal awards over his shoulder. MLB free agency dismantles Big Red Machine dynasty Two months and a day after the Reds beat the Red Sox 4-3 in Game 7 of an epic World Series, arbitrator Peter Seitz rendered a landmark decision that opened the door to free agency. He ruled that a player who refused to sign a standard one-year contract containing the 'reserve clause' that owners had used for decades to retain perpetual club control over players would be deemed a free agent at the end of that season. Advertisement 'A lot of guys took 20 percent pay cuts in '76,' said Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer, referring to the maximum one-year cut a team was allowed to impose. MLB litigated the ruling, but the following August – as the Machine was rolling at the top of the game to another championship – a deal was struck with the players union to create the free agent system that continues into this day and age of $350 million payrolls and $765 million outfielders. Within months, the Big Red Machine began to be dismantled – first with the November trade to Montreal of Perez and then the free agency departure of ace Don Gullett. Foster, Rose were gone not long after. And the era of dynasties in places like Cincinnati and Pittsburgh were over. Advertisement The Reds' eight-man lineup of MVPs and All-Stars made a total of $877,000 in salaries in 1975 (roughly the equivalent of $5.3 million today). Economically, the Big Red Machine had found itself in a sweet spot historically just ahead of free agency. 'That's why it lasted so long,' Griffey said. 'All of us played at least six or seven years with the same team.' But the top of the Reds organization knew it would be a quick descent from the greatest heights in franchise history as soon as the free agency pact was struck with the union. Even in the earliest days of adjusting to free agency, the Reds quickly pivoted away from some of their higher priced veterans and built a future around the new business strategy. And never sustained more than three or four years of high-level success at a time again. Advertisement 'Bob Howsam in '76 had said that,' Foster said. ' 'You won't see a team like this together again. I think nobody else will equal what we have.' 'I didn't realize he was going to start breaking up the team.' Big Red Machine payroll be today? 'Priceless' Never mind that a market like Cincinnati could never see another team with the star power and veteran success it had in the 1970s. It's doubtful anyone could afford to put together the equivalent of that team again – as much as the mega-spending Dodgers and New York teams might try. 'Would you try to pay us?' Bench said. How much would it even cost? Advertisement 'A lot – $400 million?' Palmer said. Even the almighty Dodgers' almighty dollars might not stretch that far. 'Yes, they would,' Palmer said. 'You know what they'd do. It would be deferred money.' On the other hand, that $400 million estimate might be on the low side, considering the $51 million a year Juan Soto just got from the Mets on his record 15-year deal, or the $40 million Aaron Judge and Alex Bregman each makes this season. Imagine paying just the hitters on that Big Red Machine team in today's economy. Foster: "The word is 'priceless.' " Pete Rose hugs George Foster after Foster scores the pennant-clinching run on a wild pitch in 1972. Legendary players remained presence in Cincinnati Barry Larkin, the Reds' Hall of Fame shortstop on the 1990 championship team, was a kid in Cincinnati dreaming on that Big Red Machine in the 1970s. Advertisement 'I remember my mom one time telling me she went to the bank,' said Larkin, who then dropped his voice to a whisper, 'and she saw George Foster.' Larkin laughed. 'I saw George Foster,' Larkin said in a whisper again, imitating his mom's reverence. 'It was a big deal.' Forget economics. Forget baseball history. The legacy of the Big Red Machine and all those household names on the city with the annual Opening Day parade was about their impact on the community. It was a big deal. And 50 years later it still is. Rose is from Cincinnati. Foster still lives there. Morgan was a Reds broadcaster and a baseball operations advisor until until his death in 2020. Rose and Bench went into business together with a car dealership while teammates and hosted the local Pete and Johnny Show in the 1980s. WKRP in Cincinnati debuted in 1978 with a lead actor from Dayton (Gary Sandy) often wearing a Reds jacket he scored from The Enquirer, and Sparky Anderson guest-starring in an episode. It was baseball culture that spilled into popular culture because of the celebrity that spilled into local and regional culture because they played everyday all summer and lived in the community. 'You used to see the biggest players in the country on the street,' said Jim Tarbell, the longtime civic leader and businessman, who by mayoral proclamation is also known as 'Mr. Cincinnati.' 'You'd see Morgan and Johnny Bench. You'd see them at the grocery story,' Tarbell said. 'You talk about hometown. It was the epitome of hometown, that period. Civic pride at that time I think was just overwhelming.' Thanks in large part to a certain group of bigger-than-life baseball players in the provincial river city at the crossroads of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. A phenomenon of national celebrity? Something that brought the spotlight on the city culturally? A landmark event or person, place or thing that significant in a moment in time for Cincinnati? 'I'm not sure there's anything quite as unique,' Tarbell said. Bench and Perez celebrate after winning the 1972 National League Championship Series. Impacting generations of players from Cincinnati Larkin is quick to bring up that team when asked why the Cincinnati area has disproportionately produced as many major leaguers as it has compared to other regions of the country – including David Justice, Kyle Schwarber, Andrew Benintendi, Larkin and Suter since that team roamed the city's streets. Suter recalls a family story his dad tells of his grandpa helping Perez's wife, Pituka, with a car problem in his duties as a Blue Ash cop. 'As a thank you, Tony Perez had my dad and his family down there to Riverfront, and they were in the tunnel after the game,' Suter said, 'and Tony came out and introduced them to Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, George Foster – all the guys. He was 10 years old. You talk about star-struck.' You talk about impact. In local sports, Oscar Robertson was a three-time national player of the year on the UC basketball team in the late 1950s and later an MVP for the Cincinnati Royals in the 1960s. 'I wouldn't compare life on the street then to the way it was with the Big Red Machine,' Tarbell said. The Bengals have been to three Super Bowls but haven't won any, and Burrow is a bona fide national figure. But no. 'There isn't any in our lifetime that rivals that,' Tarbell, 82, said. Beyond sports, as a cultural phenomenon in the city? There's the region's Underground Railroad legacy. The shift to a charter system of governance in the post Boss Cox era a century ago. WKRP in Cincinnati? You start to get the idea of how unique the Big Red Machine legacy on the city's landscape might be for its national notoriety and lasting impact. Tarbell takes a few moments to consider what compares. 'In terms of culture, Fountain Square. She's still there,' Tarbell said. And they still remember. Fifty years later. 'It's a long time,' Perez said. And it's yesterday for those who were there the night the champagne poured in Boston. 'I can still see and feel the moment of walking in the clubhouse in '75,' Bench said, 'and seeing Merv (Rettenmund), (Terry) Crowley, (Bill) Plummer and Doug (Flynn), and just sitting there on the side. Just reveling in the whole excitement that was happening with the champagne flowing and Pat Zachry with a grin from ear to year. And from (clubhouse manager) Bernie Stowe and from (trainer) Bill Cooper. 'I mean it was the thing. It was like 25 players. No matter what you did, if you hit three home runs or 50 home runs, you were a world champion. The trainers, the equipment men, the coaches. I mean, (coaches) George Scherger and Alex Grammas and Larry Shepard – I mean, the emotion they were experiencing.' And then Bench compared it to stories he'd heard about families from Boston who lived thousands of miles away sharing the 2004 curse-busting World Series celebration with their kids. 'The emotional side of it is not just for us,' Bench said. 'It was for the thousands and the millions of fans that we created for the Big Red Machine.' This story is part of an ongoing Enquirer series this summer examining the legacy of the Big Red Machine 50 years after the first of back-to-back World Series titles. This story is part of an ongoing summer series This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Big Red Machine has lasting cultural impact on city, baseball
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Cincinnati Reds Austin Hays, Jeimer Candelario near returns from IL
ST. LOUIS – Reinforcements are on the way for the Cincinnati Reds lineup as they prepare for a tough homestand this week against the New York Yankees and San Diego Padres. Left fielder Austin Hays, the Reds' best hitter this season when he's been healthy, said he's 'very' close to returning from a bone bruise in his left foot after testing the foot in drills in recent days. Jeimer Candelario celebrates a run-scoring single in the season opener (with first base coach Collin Cowgill). Candelario has been on the injured list since the end of April and is set to join the Reds in Cincinnati on Monday. And Jeimer Candelario, the $45 million corner infielder who has spent most of his 1 1/2 years as a Red on the injured list, is done with his minor-league rehab assignment after Saturday's game with Triple-A Louisville and is scheduled to join the team in Cincinnati when the Reds open a three-game series against the Yankees on Monday. Advertisement Reds Big Red Machine Tony Perez 'I cried.' How Tony Perez defined rise and fall of Big Red Machine Reds injuries pitching Wade Miley Wade Miley's future as uncertain as Cincinnati Reds' rotation depth after flexor injury Candelario has been on the IL since the end of April because of a lumbar spine strain. He was hitting .259 with a home run and .791 OPS in 16 games at two minor-league stops during his rehab stint (entering Saturday's game). He's just 9-for-80 (.113) with 29 strikeouts in 22 big-league games this year. Austin Hays, shown batting in May, has been one of the Reds' best hitters when healthy, batting .303 with six home runs in 31 games. Hays has made quick progress since returning to activities this past week following a shutdown because of persistent pain in the foot he hurt when he fouled a pitch off it May 28 in Kansas City. Advertisement 'We were starting to get better and then just hit a plateau, and I was trying to push through it, and I think I was just pissing it off more,' he said. 'The first day of running (after the brief shutdown) I felt significantly better. So I think that was what I needed to do. 'I'm feeling really good now.' Hays, who's hitting .303 with six home runs in 31 games, will need at least a quick minor-league rehab assignment before the Reds activate him, Francona said. That could come this week. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Reds Austin Hays, Jeimer Candelario near returns from IL
The Hill
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hill
Michael Stipe, Brandi Carlile and Jason Isbell headline album to benefit legal group battling Trump
Michael Stipe and Big Red Machine, 'The Joke' singer Brandi Carlile and Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit are among the artists featured on a new album from a left-leaning legal organization that has gone head-to-head with the Trump administration in the courts. Songs and spoken word pieces from the musicians will be included on 'Democracy Forward,' the group of the same name announced on Tuesday. The double album from Democracy Forward and the literary magazine The Bitter Southerner will begin shipping at the end of the month and is poised to be released on vinyl in early July. Other artists performing as part of the compilation album include Tyler Childers, Brittany Howard, Wilco and John Prine. 'We believe in the importance of our democracy and also our ability to save it,' Stipe said in a spoken word recording featured on the album, according to the group. 'The world is depending on us. This fight is not over. The day is not done,' the REM lead singer said. Last week, Democracy Forward represented a coalition of democracy groups in a lawsuit against the State Department that challenged an agreement struck by the Trump White House with the government of El Salvador to transport more than 200 migrants to a prison in the Central American country. 'At a time when so many communities across the nation are hurting and being targeted, music, art, and expression helps to bring people together in community, which creates the conditions for courage,' Skye Perryman, Democracy Forward's president and CEO, said in a statement about the album's release. 'We are incredibly grateful to the artists who have dedicated their music to support the American people's rights and our democracy during this consequential time. Each of us has a role to play in strengthening our democracy, and every voice matters,' Perryman said. All proceeds from the $46 musical project, which is available for pre-sale beginning this week, will benefit Democracy Forward's work, 'including the legal representation it provides free of charge for people and communities to defend their rights under the Constitution,' the organization said.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Pete Rose may now be a Hall of Famer. Not living to see it is punishment enough
Better late than never, you could say. Tuesday brought unexpected news that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has removed Pete Rose, 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson and other deceased players from the league's permanently ineligible list. The commissioner ruled that punishment of banned individuals ends upon their deaths. Advertisement Around these parts, that means only one thing: Pete Rose is now eligible to be voted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. The decision comes after Rose's death last September at the age of 83, and one day before the Reds' scheduled 'Pete Rose Night' at Great American Ball Park in which Marty Brennaman will serve as emcee and several former players from the Big Red Machine will talk about the game's all-time hits leader. Should Rose be in the Hall of Fame, considering he broke baseball's unbreakable rule of wagering on the game while a manger of the Cincinnati Reds? Cincinnati Reds outfielder Pete Rose sits in dugout during the 1984 season at Riverfront Stadium. I'll admit to have softened my stance over the years. I started out passionately in favor of the lifetime ban and opposed to Rose's Hall induction not just on the basis of his infraction, but his initial denial and then his ever-changing story concerning his guilt. In recent years, I've not held to that hard line, however. Advertisement I'm in favor of putting Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame, as long as the entire Peter Edward Rose story is told. That includes his integral part of Cincinnati's World Series titles in 1975 and 1976, the Philadelphia Phillies' World Series championship in 1980, his three batting titles, his 1973 National League Most Valuable Player award, his record 4,256 hits, the 'Charlie Hustle' manner in which he played the game, but also the MLB investigation that led to commissioner Bart Giamatti issuing the ban. As former Cincinnati Enquirer sports columnist Paul Daugherty wrote on Substack on Tuesday morning, 'As the years passed, Baseball's noble vigilance sunk into grudging pettiness and it became easier again to side with Pete.' Add the fact that Major League Baseball has now formed partnerships with sports betting entities, to the point where the Reds played host to a BetMGM sportsbook site inside Great American Ball Park. It's now across the street. That doesn't mean that Major League Baseball players are allowed to bet on the game. Any MLB game. They're not. The Cincinnati Reds offered a daylong visitation for Pete Rose at Great American Ball Park on November 10, 2024. Rose, MLB's all-time hits leader, died in September. Rose's reinstatement doesn't mean enshrinement is a sure bet, however. Pun intended. Advertisement 'Pete Rose's 4,256 hits can't erase that he admitted to putting the integrity of the game in question with his gambling,' wrote author Travis Sawchick for theScore. 'A strong deterrent must remain in place to guard against our weakest impulses. In the case of baseball, it's a ban that extends beyond a lifetime.' Since the bulk of Rose's on-field accomplishments came before 1980, his candidacy will be considered in December 2027 by the 16-person Classic Baseball Committee, which also considers Negro League and pre-Negro League stars. Rose won't be inducted before July 28. By any measure, Rose was a flawed human being. He was accused of statutory rape, which he denied. He served time for tax evasion. He could be charming when he wanted to be, combative when he didn't. When Rose managed the Reds, I remember once asking to speak to him in his office at Riverfront Stadium. He gave a gruff answer, then stopped and remembered I was from Lexington. That launched a conversation about another of Pete's favorite gambling subjects, horse racing. Advertisement But I don't agree that his enshrinement now would undercut the 'integrity of the game,' as Marcus Giamatti, Bart Giamatti's 63-year-old son told USA Today. 'I don't know how a fan could go and watch a game knowing that what they're seeing may not be real and fair anymore,' Marcus Giamatti told Bob Nightengale. 'That's a really scary thought.' Anything other than a 'lifetime ban' punishment for Rose would have been a blight on the game. Instead, Charlie Hustle did not live to receive the honor that, outside of the World Series title, he coveted most. That's punishment enough. Cincinnati Reds third baseman Pete Rose, left, grimaces while watching the races at Keeneland on October 13, 1976. The Reds had won the National League playoff series against Philadelphia the day before. Reaction to penalties on Kentucky Derby winning jockey shows racing's disconnect Advertisement Sovereignty skipping the Preakness is another reason to change the Triple Crown Why have Secretariat's records never been broken? It's simple and complicated. I was at the Final Four. I can report that college basketball is far from dead.
