[jingram058]

Everyone when I was a senior in high school and freshman in college in Memphis (that was into baseball, that is) 1975-76 was talking about the Cincinnati Reds "Big Red Machine", and what a team it was. We didn't have a big-league team, so we rooted mainly for the Cardinals, Braves and Reds, as they were the closest to us. Several of my all-time favorites were in that dynasty.

But before that, before World War II, the Reds had another powerhouse team. It began really when Powel Crosley bought the team, and vowed he would bring them to prominence. He brought in Bill McKechnie to manage, and things began to change. By 1938, things were truly looking up. That summer, Johnny Vander Meer pitched back to back no-hitters, and if he never amounted to anything after that, wasn't that enough? No one is going to break that record, maybe tie it, but three consecutive no-hitters?

1939 things really took off for the Reds. They won the pennant, and Bucky Walters, a converted third baseman, won the National League MVP award as a pitcher. It was his manager at Philly that made him into a really good pitcher, Jimmy Wilson, now one of his coaches with the Reds. Unfortunately, they ran into a buzz-saw Yankees team, some say one of the best ever, in the World Series, and got swept aside.

They put it all together in 1940, with virtually the same team, and for the second year in a row, won the pennant. But late in that season of 1940, with regular catcher Ernie Lombardi hurt, they went into a bit of a funk with Willard Hershberger doing the catching. Tragically, he took his own life over it, the only in-season action like that in MLB history. 40 year-old Jimmy Wilson stepped in as a catcher in the pennant-clinching stretch drive, and the Reds won the Series against the Tigers in 7 games.

Here are some interesting items from that Cincinnati Reds brief dynasty. The colorized 1940 team photo shows them with the correct color socks. Do a search on Google or eBay and you will see what I mean. I think it's a pretty cool era for the old Redlegs. Let's see some of yours.