The You Mark My Words and Genius chapters cover the '75 season from May 18 to July 28.  The BRM steamrolled the league during that stretch, shaking off a sluggish start that found them 4.5 games behind LA on May 18 to build an insurmountable 13.5 game lead on July 28.  

Mostly everything went right for the Reds while they went 47-17 during that period, but the injury to Don Gullett could have taken the wind out of their sales.  Gullett was from Lynn, Ky., and was regarded as a can't-miss.  Reds scout Cliff Alexander noted in his report: "Better at 18 than Koufax."   Gullett was in the bigs at 19 in 1970 and pitched 217.7 innings the following year with a 2.65 ERA, leading the league in W-L%.  While he did not improve on that the next few seasons, he was off to great start in 1975.  After pitching a shutout in St. Louis against an aging Bob Gibson on May 31, Sparky gushed "He's the best there is.  The very best there is."  

Gullett was pitching another gem on June 16 against Atlanta.  With the Reds up 9 -1 after eight innings, Sparky let Gullett go back out in the 9th to finish the job.  Sparky may have been known as Captain Hook, but this was still 1975.  One in five games were completed by starters then, compared to about one in forty now.  Naturally, a Brave lined a ball off of Gullet's thumb in the 9th.  The injury knocked Gullett out for two months.  Hard to blame Sparky for a line drive to the thumb, but I wonder how Gullett's health may have been managed better in general.  Maybe a more stable role would have helped.  He started 31 games in 1971 but then split the following two years between the rotation and the bullpen (in '73, he started 30 games and relieved an additional 15). 

Even with the injuries Gullet had productive if somewhat shortened seasons in '75 and '76.  After helping the Reds sweep the Yankees in the '76 WS he signed with them as a free agent, the first Red (I believe) to leave via free agency.  Posnanski provides a helpful history of free agency, which officially started after 1976 and would triple the average salary by the end of the decade.  GM Bob Howsam predicted "things will never be the same," and he was right.  

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For a team that would win 108 games, the BRM got off to a sluggish start.  On May 17th (the end of Chapter 4 of The Machine), the Reds won to end a six game losing streak and climb back to .500 at 19-19.  Meanwhile, the smug Dodgers were cruising with a 24-13 record and a 5.5 game lead over the Reds.  But for the rest of the season, there wouldn't be any contest.  The Reds finished 89-35 (.718) to win the NL West by 20 (!) games over LA.  Not until the '86 Mets would an NL team win the division by that many games. 


One reason for the slow start was the light-hitting starting third baseman, John Vukovich.  The Reds had acquired the infielder in the offseason from Milwaukee (he must have been perceived as a really good fielder, because his career line before '75 was 157/200/212 in 468 PAs).  Sparky called him "Balsa."  On April 16, Sparky pinch hit for Balsa.  In the 2nd inning.  PH Dan Driessen fouled out and the Reds went on to lose 7-6.  While Vukovich fumed in the dugout, Sparky loudly asked his bench coach how he was supposed to win "without a real third baseman." 

The solution for a "real" third baseman, of course, was already on the team, playing left field.  Sparky's decision to shift Rose to third and insert the rising star George Foster into the starting lineup made perfect sense.  Still, the execution would be tricky.  Huge stars like Pete Rose don't get told to move to a new position just like that.  Sparky wisely opted for a softer sell:

And now, like fate, [Sparky] saw that opening.  He saw Pete Rose before the [May 2nd] game taking a few ground balls at first base.  This was his moment.  "What are you doing there, Peter Edward?"  Sparky said as he walked out on the field.  "Aw, just breaking in this new glove for Fawn," he said.  Fawn was Pete's daughter.  "Yeah," Sparky said.  Then he looked longingly over toward third base.  "I sure wish you were playing over there instead."  "Where's that?"  Pete asked.  "You mean third base?"  "I sure could use you there," Sparky said.  "Give me a chance to get Danny Driessen and George Foster in the lineup more."  "Are you serious?" Pete asked, and he looked over at third base.

The soft approach was particularly smart given a prior position switch controversy nine years earlier.  Then Reds manager Don Heffner told Rose that he would be moving to third, no questions asked.  Rose responded poorly on and off the field and was moved back to second a few weeks later.  Heffner would be fired that season.  Rose said of Heffner: "He was an asshole."  Rose had a different opinion of Sparky: "Sparky reminded me a lot of my dad."   Now that's a good manager.

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The second chapter of The Machine - "A show like they never seen before" - sets the stage for the 1975 season by describing the hiring of Sparky Anderson and the preceding offseason.  In spring training Sparky Anderson famously gave his "turds" speech:

"He announced that the Machine was made up of two different kinds of players.  First, there were the superstars.  To be more specific, Sparky said, there were four superstars - Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, and Tony Perez.  Those four made their own rules....   Those four were royalty.

"The rest of you," Sparky said, "are turds."

It's arguable that the handling of egos and personalities on a baseball team is at least as important, if not more so, than the more strategic or technical aspects like lineup construction or bullpen use.  Sparky did not have failings in the latter categories - known as "Captain Hook," he was an early leader in modern bullpen usage, and of course there was no bad way to construct a lineup with those players.  But his deft handling of the superstar egos on the BRM might have been his most valuable trait.  What say you?  Would a manager who insisted on equality have failed to deliver the same success, or was the talent so overwhelming that it didn't matter who managed?  And how do you think Dusty compares to Sparky in this respect?  As much as I like to bag on Dusty, it seems as if he handled a delicate situation with Votto well this year.  And he also stuck with Bruce through some ugly slumps.  If these guys put up MVP caliber seasons in the near future, some of their success may very well be attributable to the toothpick chewin' fossil.


Sparky also told the club that "this team is like my television set.  Nobody messes with it."  Relief pitcher Will McEnaney's 30-year reflection on Spark's speech is priceless: "None of us ever knew what the fuck Sparky was talking about."

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Welcome to Red Reporter's second hurrah into some old-timey nerdery in the form of a book club.  This time we'll be reading Joe Posnanski's The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series: The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds.  As most of you know, Posnanski is a former Cincinnati Post reporter, current Sports Illustrated writer, and a Clevelander at heart.  I think he does a great job discussing the personalities and stories of the 1975 Reds, and if you have the means I highly recommend acquiring The Machine and giving it a read.  I'll try to post something every week or two covering a chapter of the book so that we finish the book before Opening Day. 

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I've gotten to the point in this book where I'm disappointed to see that there is less to go than what I've read.  Honestly, it's rare that this happens with me.  There is just something special about these stories that is really striking a nerve with me.

This segment of reading (pp. 107-211) was more about the Negro Leaguers that Buck played with than with Buck himself, though Posnanski gives us plenty of insight into Buck's character as well.

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 Have you done your homework?  It's once again time for another periodic meeting of the Reporter Book Club.  This week, we'll discuss "Winter" (pp 27-51) and "Spring" (pp 55-103) from Joe Posnanski's The Soul of Baseball.

There's a lot of good stuff here.  Great stories and even better tall tales, Maddux vs Clemens , a plaintive afternoon with the greatest living ballplayer,  a shady Negro League busdriver, Sweet Swingin' Billy from Whistler, a big bag of Cracker Jack and seven dollar beers. There's even a Jerry Hairston, Jr. sighting!

Yowza!

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By now ya'll should be somewhat familiar with the Red Reporter Book Club and if you've decided to become a member of the RRBC you've probably got your copy of Joe Posnanski's book and you're ready and raring to start doing whatever people in book clubs do.

(If you want to get a copy and join us, it's not too late!  The first "assignment" is only 24 pages and it's such an easy read that you could probably knock it out during the drive home from Barnes & Noble.  C'mon and join in.  This thread should be active for at least a day or two so seriously, you've got time to get caught up.)

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So last Sunday, JD and Slyde invited me over to Rick's house for the weekly meeting of The Lords of SB Nation Book Club and let me tell you- the absinthe was a-flowin'!  After a while it didn't matter that I'd never even heard of The Room.  I was definitely the square peg of the group but still... Good times, good times...

JD: "Sure, Selby tore at me in all the right places but he simultaneously left me so numb that I guess I just didn't feel torn."

 Rick: "I don't know, JD.  Didn't the mirrors throughout give you pause?"

 JD (rolls eyes): "I got it.  I got it.  Just didn't feel it."

 Slyde: "You girls have been over this and over this.  It really starts to leave me numb after awhile."

 [Laughter from all.]

 [Except me.]

 Slyde: "Howabout something just a tad more pedestrian this time around."

 JD (rolls eyes): "hrrrmmm..."

 Slyde: "Just a tad!"

 JD (with disdain): "Let me guess- something not so dark as well? More Burroughs?"

 Slyde (emphatic but restrained): "I said: Just. A. Tad."

 Rick: "No wait!  I know! Why not something completely pedestrian?"

 JD (smugly): "Alan?.."

 [Chuckling from Rick and Slyde]

 Me: "Umm...hmm.. maybe a baseball book that everyone at Red Reporter would also enjoy reading?"

 [Laughter from all.]

[Except me.]

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