One of the biggest days of the year in Cincinnati is one week away – Opening Day. Although that topic is a post in itself, the official start of the national pastime stimulates a lot of thoughts. Lester’s Legends inspired this post has he is in the early stages of posting his all-time teams for each MLB team.
As a lifelong Cincinnati Reds fan, I contend Reds teams of the 1970s, especially ’75 and ’76 are among the great MLB teams; therefore, players from this era would dominate an all-time Reds team. With that in mind, here’s my 25-man team of 13 batters and 12 pitchers outside of the Big Red Machine era.
1B – Ted Kluszewski
2B – Bid McPhee
SS – Barry Larkin
3B – Chris Sabo
C – Ernie Lombardi
OF – Frank Robinson
OF – Edd Roush
OF – Eric Davis
Bench – Ron Oester (MI), Heinie Groh (3B), Cy Seymour (OF), Vada Pinson (OF), Bubbles Hargrave (C)
SP – Jim Maloney
SP – Jose Rijo
SP – Mario Soto
SP – Bucky Walters
SP – Tom Seaver
P – Paul Derringer
P – Eppa Rixey
P – Noodles Hahn
P – Bob Purkey
RP – John Franco
RP – Rob Dibble
RP – Wayne Granger
Manager – Bill McKechnie
Tidbits
- The Reds have a strong history with middle infielders, and Brandon Phillips has the potential to be on this team.
- Reds history is least blessed at third base
- Baseball Reference the year-by-year lineup
- List of Reds Mangers
- Reds history
Reds logo is property of the Cincinnati Reds
A Frank Angle 
Nicely done Sir.
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Lester … and many thanks for stimulating the idea!
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Nice team Frank. Third base is a position that hasn’t been a strong point for the Cubs outside Ron Santo. Aramis Ramirez has a good shot to make it now though. I did one of these on the message boards for the Cubs three years ago on SN, so I might repost another one for them.
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David,
It was interesting to do with the no Big Red Machine players. The Baseball Reference link shows the starting lineups through the years, and wow … 3B was thin. I’ll have to check the Cubs.
Thanks for visiting!
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I had to read it a 2nd time when I did not see Pete Rose and Tony Perez not on it. And Yes the Big Red Machine would dominate it, It is still a very good team
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Larry,
The dominance of the Big Red Machine is why I did it. Beieve it or not, I still considered Rose since he started in 1963.
Since you had to read it a second time to catch my premise, I’ll accent the font on the post.
Thanks Larry!
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I wonder if at this time 3 years later if Joey Votto is close to making this list.
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Larry,
Great question. I would say a good chance. After all, I see that I didn’t include a DH on that team, so I could work one in on a technicality. Yet, who knows …. maybe Votto’s stats will become one of the elites. Thanks for digging into my archives.
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