Tempers flare after Chapman K's Schierholtz (Mei 2024)
Cincinnati Reds, Amerikaanse professionele honkbalfranchise gevestigd in Cincinnati, Ohio. De Reds spelen in de National League (NL) en zijn opgericht in 1882. Ze hebben vijf World Series-titels (1919, 1940, 1975, 1976, 1990) en negen NL-wimpels gewonnen.
Quiz
Wereldorganisaties: feit of fictie?
De Noord-Atlantische Verdragsorganisatie begon in de middeleeuwen.
De stad Cincinnati claimt het eerste echt professionele honkbalteam te huisvesten, de Red Stockings, dat in 1869 begon te spelen en in de eerste 81 wedstrijden tegen amateurclubs ongeslagen was. Een ander in Cincinnati gevestigd team met dezelfde naam was een van de stichtende leden van de NL in 1876, maar dit team werd in 1880 uit de competitie gezet vanwege het spelen van wedstrijden op zondag en het toestaan van drank op het terrein van de marge. Terwijl 1882 - het jaar waarin een Red Stockings-club met een paar leden van de verboden NL-ploeg lid werd van de opkomende American Association (AA) - door Major League Baseball officieel wordt erkend als het eerste jaar van de huidige franchise, beschouwen de meeste Cincinnatians de Reds niettemin als de oudste franchise in honkbal, en de Reds-organisatie zelf neemt deze eerdere clubs op in de teamgeschiedenis.
De Red Stockings eindigden in hun eerste seizoen bovenop de AA en boekten in de meeste van hun acht jaar in de competitie winnende records. Het team verhuisde in 1890 terug naar NL, wat hetzelfde jaar was dat het zijn bijnaam verkortte tot "Reds". Cincinnati zette een aantal middelmatige teams op tot het einde van de 19e eeuw en het begin van de 20e eeuw, en behaalde nooit een hogere plaats dan de derde plaats in Nederland tot 1919. De ploeg van 1919 won 96 wedstrijden achter outfielder Edd Roush en werper Dolf Luque op weg naar de eerste World Series-ligplaats van de franchise. De Reds wonnen de World Series vijf wedstrijden tot drie over de Chicago White Sox, maar hun kampioenschap werd bezoedeld toen acht van de spelers van Chicago ervan werden beschuldigd steekpenningen te hebben genomen om de serie te gooien (zie Black Sox Scandal). Het succes van Cincinnati was echter van korte duuren halverwege de jaren twintig keerde het team voor een lange periode terug naar de bodem van NL, inclusief vier rechte plaatsen op de laatste plaats van 1931 tot 1934.
In 1938 the Reds’ young star pitcher Johnny Vander Meer became the only player in baseball history to throw no-hitters in consecutive starts. Vander Meer was a part of a nucleus of players that also included future Hall of Fame catcher Ernie Lombardi and that led the Reds to NL pennants in 1939 and 1940, as well as a World Series win in the latter season. By the middle of the decade, the Reds again found themselves routinely finishing in the bottom half of the NL.
Fearing association with communism at the height of the Red Scare in the United States, the team officially changed its nickname to “Redlegs” from 1954 to 1959. During this period one of the Reds’ few bright spots was Ted (“Big Klu”) Kluszewski, a power-hitting first baseman who famously cut the sleeves off his uniform to free his huge biceps. In 1956 Cincinnati called up outfielder Frank Robinson from the minor leagues, and he quickly became one of the biggest stars in the game. Robinson led the Reds to a pennant in 1961 (which was followed by a loss to the New York Yankees in the World Series), but in 1965 he was traded to the Baltimore Orioles for three players of relatively little consequence in what is considered by many observers to be one of the worst trades in the history of the game.
Baseball in the 1970s was dominated by Cincinnati teams known as the “Big Red Machine,” which had left behind Crosley Field, with its distinctive left field terrace, for a new home, Riverfront Stadium. Boasting a regular lineup that featured three future Hall of Famers (catcher Johnny Bench, second baseman Joe Morgan, and first baseman Tony Pérez) as well as all-time major league hits leader Pete Rose, the Big Red Machine—under the guidance of manager Sparky Anderson—won five division titles in the first seven years of the decade. The Machine’s first two trips to the World Series ended in disappointment, however, as it lost to Robinson’s Orioles in 1970 and the Oakland Athletics in 1972, which was followed by a surprising loss to the underdog New York Mets in the 1973 NL Championship Series. The years of frustration ended in 1975, when the Reds won a remarkable 108 games and beat the Boston Red Sox for the franchise’s first World Series title in 35 years. While the 1976 Reds won six fewer games than their 1975 counterparts, they led major league baseball in all the major offensive statistical categories and swept both teams they faced in the postseason en route to a second consecutive championship, leading a number of baseball historians to claim that they were the second greatest team ever, after the famed 1927 Yankees.
The Reds closed out the 1970s with two second-place divisional finishes and an NL Championship Series loss in 1979, but they missed out on the postseason in each season of the following decade. The team’s most notable event of the 1980s was the 1989 lifetime ban from baseball of then manager Rose for gambling on the sport.
In 1990 the Reds surprisingly rebounded from their turbulent 1989 by winning their division after having never fallen out of first place for the entire season, the first time the feat had occurred in NL history. Behind first-year manager Lou Piniella, all-star shortstop Barry Larkin, and a motley crew of relief pitchers known as the “Nasty Boys,” the Reds swept Oakland to win the franchise’s fifth World Series.
Cincinnati fielded a few competitive teams through 1999, but the Reds of the first decade of the 21st century finished most of their seasons with losing records. In 2003 the Reds got a new home, the Great American Ball Park.
In 2010 the Reds ended a 15-year play-off drought—and surprised most baseball observers—by winning a divisional title after having placed no higher than third in their division in the previous nine seasons. Cincinnati bested that achievement in 2012 by winning 97 games (the team’s highest win total since the days of the Big Red Machine) and captured another NL Central championship. The Reds were then eliminated in the Division Series, and, the following year, the team won 90 games but lost in a one-game Wild Card play-off. Cincinnati could not continue its unexpected success, and the team returned to the lower echelons of the NL the following season.
