1979 cincinnati reds

this post covers the 1979 cincinnati reds and cards numbered 166 to 170 in the set. here are the fronts:

and backs:

this is the first subset to not feature at least one black and white photo.  and, out of the five players featured, only one is new to the set.

what team is this?: this is the national league west champion 1979 cincinnati reds.

why this team?:  these reds won the division by 1.5 games over the houston astros.  they went 90-71 in the regular season, but were swept by the pittsburgh pirates in the national league championship series.

which players are featured?:  there is a fairly good representation of the 1979 version (if there were such a thing) of the big red machine here, meaning the version wihout pete rose and tony perez but with tom seaver.  we get dave concepcion, george foster, johnny bench, ray knight, and tom seaver.

why these players?:   let's break it down and see.

dave concepcion set career highs in runs, home runs, and rbi in 1979.  he won his fifth (and final) gold glove, and finished in the top ten of the league mvp voting.  he went 6 for 14 with a double in the nlcs against the pirates, making the final postseason appearance of his career.

george foster was coming off of back-to-back league leading home run seasons in 1979, but wound up finishing sixth with 30 roundtrippers that year.  he played in only 121 games, however, and he still managed to lead the team in home runs and rbi (98).  as with concepcion, 1979 was foster's last time in the postseason, but unlike the reds' shortstop, foster hit only .200 in the series against pittsburgh.

johnny bench hit .276 in 130 games for the reds in 1979.  he hit 22 homers with 80 rbi, and was named to the all-star team for the 12th consecutive year.  he also appeared in the postseason for the final time in 1979, hitting .250 with a triple and a home run in the nlcs.

ray knight took over at third base for the reds in 1979, replacing hometown hero pete rose.  knight wound up leading the team with a .318 average and 37 doubles.  he was 4 for 14 with a double in the playoffs - his first foray into the postseason.  this is the first time we see knight in this set, but it won't be the last, thanks to his role on the 1986 mets.

speaking of mets, we last saw tom seaver in the 1969 mets subset.  he joined the reds in 1977, and made it to the postseason with them in 1979.  he was 16-6 in the regular season with a league leading 5 shutouts.  seaver started game 1 of the playoffs, and left the game tied after throwing 8 innings and allowing two runs.  the reds eventually lost the game in extra innings, and seaver never pitched in the postseason again.

the stadium on the back is...?:  riverfront stadium, where the reds played from 1970 through 2002.

did upper deck get it right?:  upper deck did pretty well with only five players.  of the regulars not featured (dan driessen, joe morgan, cesar geronimo, ken griffey/dave collins) only griffey might have warranted inclusion.  his absence is more glaring when you consider the fact that he appears in the set later on, as a member of the yankees.  as far as pitchers go, the 1979 reds had tom seaver and then a group of serviceable arms.  tom hume would have been a decent choice for the set, had upper deck chosen to include more pitchers from this team.

as far as the photos go, we know for sure that the bench photo predates 1979 by several years, thanks to the uniform he is wearing.  the reds switched to the pullover jerseys with the striped arms in 1972.  we also know that the concepcion photo is from before 1977, since that was the year that the pirates started wearing the striped home jerseys.  and, because the pirates player sliding in to second on concepcion's card is not wearing the national league centennial patch, i will suggest that the image comes from no later than 1975.  the other photos don't have any way that i know of to correctly determine the year that they were taken.

is this team timeless?:  no, not to me.  it is overshadowed by the reds teams from earlier in the decade.

1976 cincinnati reds

this post covers the 1976 cincinnati reds and cards numbered 127 to 135 in the set. here are the fronts:

and backs:

everyone that was featured for the 1975 reds team is back, except for the manager, sparky anderson.  ken griffey sr. takes sparky's place.

what team is this?: the back-to-back world champion 1976 cincinnati reds

why this team?: the 1976 reds successfully defended their title by beating the yankees in the world series.  they won 102 games in the regular season, and were a perfect 7-0 in the postseason.

which players are featured?:  pedro borbon, dave concepcion, don gullett, george foster, joe morgan, johnny bench, ken griffey sr, rawly eastwick, and tony perez.

why these players?:  let's see what these guys did in 1976.

pedro borbon pitched in 69 games for the reds during the regular season.  he was 4-3 with 8 saves and a 3.35 era in those appearances.  he pitched in 2 games during the nlcs, earning a 4-inning save in game 1 and retiring the only batter he faced in game 2.  in the world series, borbon pitched only in game 1, closing out the reds' victory with a perfect 1.2 innings of work.

dave concepcion won his third gold glove and started at shortstop for the nl all-star team for the second year in a row in 1976.  he was solid at the plate, too, putting up a slash line of 9/69/.281 with 74 runs scored.  concepcion scored 4 runs in the nlcs and hit .357 with 3 rbi in the world series.

don gullett was 11-3 with a 3.00 era for the reds in 1976. he started 20 games and relieved in three others, earning a save in one of his relief appearances.  he won each of his postseason starts - one in each series - and shut the yankees down in game 1 of the world series by allowing just one run in 7.1 innings of work.  the bronx bombers must have liked what they saw, because they signed gullett to a free agent deal later in the fall.

george foster finished second to teammate joe morgan in the 1976 nl mvp vote.  he hit 29 home runs and led the league with 121 rbi.  he was voted to the all-star team for the first time, and his 3 rbi in the game earned him mvp honors.  he hit just .167 in the nlcs against the phillies, but both of his hits were home runs.  then, in the world series, he was held homerless, but hit .429 in the four games.

joe morgan's 1976 season saw him become the back-to-back nl mvp award winner thanks in large part to his .444 obp and .576 slugging percentage, both of which led the league.  he also drove in 111 runs (the only time in his career he topped 100) and stole 60 bases.  in the postseason, morgan was held hitless in the nlcs but hit .333 in the world series.

johnny bench had a memorable moment in 1976, apparently, but i am pretty sure it wasn't during the regular season.  bench was able to stretch his string of consecutive gold gloves and all-star game appearances to 9, but he hit just .234 on the season.  his home run total dropped to just 16, the fewest since his 1968 rookie season, and he drove in only 74 runs despite playing in 135 games.  he did steal a career high 13 bases, though.  still, upper deck is right - bench's display in game 4 of the world series against the yankees was an awesome display.  overall, he was 8 for 15 with  a double, a triple, 2 home runs and 6 rbi in the four game series with a whopping 1.667 ops, earning the series mvp award.  in game 4 alone, bench hit both of his home runs and drove in 5 of his 6 runs as the reds finished their sweep of the yankees in new york.

ken griffey sr was the right fielder for the big red machine, so it's nice to see him appear in the set with this team.  in 1976, griffey hit .336, just .003 points behind league leader bill madlock.  he scored 111 runs and stole 34 bases.  griffey made the all-star team for the first time, and finished 8th in the league mvp vote. while he hit .385 in the nlcs, griffey was just 1 for 17 (.059) in the world series.

rawly eastwick's 26 saves in 1976 allowed him to lead the league in saves for the second year in a row.  he pitched in 71 games and had a record of 11-5 with a 2.05 era.  he finished 5th in the cy young voting and even earned some mvp votes as well.  he got the victory in game 3 of the nlcs against the phillies, but he didn't pitch remarkably well in that game or his other nlcs appearance that year.  eastwick did not pitch in the world series against the yankees.

tony perez went 19/91/.260 in what turned out to be his last season in cincinnati for a while.  he made the all-star team and was 5 for 16 with a double in the world series against the yankees.

the stadium on the back is...?:  that's riverfront stadium, home to the reds from 1970 through 2002.

did upper deck get it right?: i was a little surprised that the reds are the only team from 1976 to be featured in the set.  the other playoff teams - the phillies, royals, and yankees - would all have made sense, especially the phillies and yankees as they have other teams in the set.  but, if you are only going to choose one team, it makes sense to pick the champion.

pete rose and cesar geronimo are still missing, and gary nolan would have made sense, too, but the addition of ken griffey kind of makes up for some of that.  otherwise, the players upper deck chose are a good representation of the team.

as for the photos, only pedro borbon's is obviously not from 1976.  his uniform tells us that the photo is from 1970 or 1971.  even though the uniforms match the year in the other photos, i still suspect that don gullett's photo and tony perez's photo are definitely from other years.  gullett's looks like it is from earlier in the decade, and as for tony perez, i would guess that upper deck used an image from his second tour of duty with the reds, which was from 1984-86.

is this team timeless?:  a repeat world champion and a yankee killer?  yes!

1975 cincinnati reds

this post covers the 1975 cincinnati reds and cards numbered 114 to 122 in the set. here are the fronts:

and backs:

what team is this?: the world champion 1975 cincinnati reds

why this team?:  the reds won 108 games during the 1975 regular season, and then swept the pirates in the nlcs.  they capped their season by winning their first world championship since 1940 as they beat the red sox in seven games.  they were the 'big red machine'!

which players are featured:  pedro borbon, dave concepcion, don gullett, george foster, joe morgan, johnny bench, rawly eastwick, sparky anderson, and tony perez

why these players?:  well, let's find out.

pedro borbon pitched in 67 games for the reds in 1975, all in relief.  he was 9-5 with 5 saves and a 2.95 era in those appearances which were just shy of will mcenaney's team leading 70 games.  borbon earned the save in the reds' pennant clinching game 3 win over the pirates in the nlcs, and pitched in three world series games, giving up two runs over 3 innings of work.

shortstop dave concepcion was an all-star for the second time in 1975 (first time starting), and he also won his second straight gold glove that year.  over 140 games in the regular season, he hit .274 and stole 33 bases.  in the postseason, concepcion hit .455 against the pirates, and although he hit only .179 against the red sox in the world series, he did have a home run, 4 rbi and 3 stolen bases.

don gullett won 15 games for the reds in the regular season, tying him with gary nolan and jack billingham for the team lead.  gullett lead the starting staff in era, however, with a 2.42 mark.  he finished 5th in the league cy young award voting, and was chosen to start both game 1 of the nlcs and game 1 of the world series for the reds.  against the pirates, gullett threw a complete game as the reds won 8-3.  against boston, however, gullett gave up 10 hits and 4 runs in 6+ innings, and the reds lost game 1 6-0.  he started game 5 a few days later, and earned the win with 8.2 innings pitched.  gullett was then tapped to start game 7, in which he pitched 4 innings and gave up three runs.

george foster had a bit of a breakout year in 1975.  the 26-year old played in 134 games and hit 23 home runs with 78 rbi and a .300 batting average.  foster was 2 for 4 in each of the first two nlcs games, and then had two hits in 3 of the 7 games against the red sox. one of those games was game 6, in which he hit a two-run double to give the reds a 7th inning lead.

joe morgan won the first of his two back-to-back nl mvp awards in 1975.  he hit .327 that year, with 67 stolen bases and a league leading .466 obp.  he was also the national league's starting second baseman in the all-star game, and he won his third consecutive gold glove as well.  morgan's regular season success didn't directly translate to the postseason, although all 3 of his hits in the nlcs were doubles, and he stole four bases.  in the world series, he hit .259 with 4 runs scored and 2 steals.  in game 7, however, morgan was 2 for 4 with a walk, and it was his 9th inning single that drove in the game (and series) winning run.  a memorable moment to be sure.

johnny bench won his 8th straight gold glove for his work behind the plate in 1975.  he also started his seventh consecutive all-star game and finished fourth in the league mvp voting for the second straight year.  at the plate, bench hit 28 homers and drove in 110 runs during the regular season.  in the nlcs, however, the pirates held him to just one hit in 13 at bats.  he did a bit better in the world series, hitting .207 with a home run and 4 rbi.

1975 was rawly eastwick's rookie year, and he didn't disappoint.  although he finished 3rd in the rookie-of-the-year balloting, eastwick led the national league with 22 saves.  he had a 5-3 record in 58 appearances with an era of 2.60.  eastwick was 3-0 in the postseason with a save, although the first of those wins came after he blew a save in game 3 of the nlcs.  he earned the wins in both games 2 and 3 of the world series, and then got the save in the reds' game 5 victory.  in game 6, it was eastwick who gave up bernie carbo's game-tying home run in the bottom of the eighth to set the stage for carlton fisk's walk-off homer in the 12th.

a first for our set so far - a manager is featured on a card.  sparky anderson won his third pennant in 1975 with the reds.  the 108 games that cincinnati won that year was the most any team managed by anderson (including the detroit tigers) ever won.

tony perez was the first baseman for the big red machine in 1975, and he hit .282 with 20 home runs and 109 rbi during the regular season.  he was named to the all-star team, although he didn't start because steve garvey had begun his stranglehold on the position a year earlier.  perez hit .417 against the pirates in the nlcs, and despite batting just .179 against the red sox in the world series, he drove in 7 runs with 3 homers.

the stadium on the back is...?: an outside shot of old riverfront stadium.  that's where the reds played from 1970 through 2002.  i did not realize that the stadium opened during the 1970 season, and hosted the 1970 all-star game a mere two weeks after the reds began playing there.

did upper deck get it right?: i think that each of these players were a big part of the reds' success in the mid-1970's.  of course, pete rose, the 1975 world series mvp is missing from the set due to licensing issues stemming from his ban from baseball.  other reds that would have made sense to be included are ken griffey (their right fielder), cesar geronimo (their center fielder), and maybe gary nolan or will mcenaney.  still, the 9 that upper deck chose to represent this team, given their inability to include rose, make sense to me.

the photos, on the other hand, are not all kosher.  for everyone but gullett and sparky, the photos could be from anywhere between 1972 and 1992.  well, not until 1992, but you get the idea - the reds wore those pullover unis for a long time.  that also means that the photos could be from 1975.  i like eastwick's photo, by the way, with dodger stadium showing up in the background.  however, for gullett and sparky, we have photos from no later than 1971.

gullett and sparky both first appeared in the reds' uniforms in 1970, so we know the photos are from either 1970 or 1971.  in sparky's case, wayne granger offers no additional clues because he was on the team both years.

is this team timeless?:  yes.