Big Red Machine Part II

Some more of Ted's keen observations regarding the players of the Big Red Machine.


"You can count on Concepcion." Dave Concepcion went to have a 19 year career as the Reds shortstop, staying with them long after most of the others in the famed starting lineup had left for more money elsewhere. He was the best shortstop of his generation, and one of the ten best of all time. Won five Gold Gloves (at the end of the season the players and coaches vote on the best defensive player at each position, the winner for each position is awarded a Gold Glove); nine all star games, one of which he won with a game-ending home run. He is a popular hero and legend in his native Venezuela, the land of great shortstops (Luis Aparicio, Omar Vizquel, others).

"We should take George Foster out for a drink and ask him what's bothering him." Ted said this upon hearing that the Reds' slugging outfielder did not hit a single home run in the month of September 1976, remaining stuck at 30. The implication was that George was a sensitive guy whose feelings could affect his performance. George hit a home run that nite, as, with my brother Bill in his apartment, we watched the Reds win the first game of 1976 NL Championship series against the Phillies. George helped win the third and clinching game of that series with a dramatic 9th inning home run. In 1977 George hit 40 home runs, and then 52 in 1978: he was the only player of that decade to hit as many as 50 in a season. By the end of 1981, George had firmly established himself as the best power hitter in baseball. But he didn't want to stay with the Reds anymore, he wanted big money in a big market. So the Reds traded him to the Mets, where in 1982 he hit a paltry 11 home runs and played poorly overall. The NY fans booed and George's feelings were hurt, he never recovered. He had a mediocre 1983 and then, in the middle of 1984, the Mets released him. His career was over.


Asked to comment, George said: "It was a dream that didn't come true." Had he stayed in Cincy, George would most likely have continued his prodigious slugging and would now be in Baseball's Hall of Fame. George is now a mellow and humble man. When he was elected to the Reds team Hall of Fame a couple of years ago, he was proud and pleased. In the end he knew that Cincinnati was his town, not NY.