The year was 1961. The franchise had struggled since World War II, and long-time team owner Powel Crosley died just days before the season began. New general manager Bill DeWitt had made a few trades but the new players didn't offer much hope. Everything expected another dismal year. Then, somehow, all of the pieces fell together in one remarkable season that kicked off a return to winning baseball in Cincinnati--a trend that lasted through the century. With young starting pitchers like Jim O'Toole and Joey Jay, a first-rate bullpen, a tough manager, and a lineup of sluggers led by Frank Robinson, the Reds defied the odds and experts to win the league championship. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of this stunning season, author Mark J. Schmetzer has written the definitive book on the 1961 Reds. Interviewing a number of the players, as well as the sports writers who covered them, Schmetzer provides a fascinating account of this unlikely group of misfits who won the pennant. With Dozens of photos by revered photographer Jack Klumpe and a foreword by Reds historian Greg Rhodes, Before the Machine gives fans a dramatic look at the first steps of a franchise destined to dominate the league in years to come.
The Big Red Machine dominated major league baseball in the 1970s, but the Cincinnati franchise began its climb to that pinnacle in 1961, when an unlikely collection of cast-offs and wannabes stunned the baseball world by winning the National League pennant. Led by revered manager Fred Hutchinson, the team featured rising stars like Frank Robinson, Jim O'Toole, and Vada Pinson, fading stars like Gus Bell and Wally Post, and a few castoffs who suddenly came into their own, like Gene Freese and 20-game-winner Joey Jay. In time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their pennant-winning season, the amazing story of the "Ragamuffin Reds" is told from start to finish in Before the Machine. Written by long-time Reds Report editor Mark J. Schmetzer and featuring dozens of photos by award-winning photographer Jerry Klumpe of the Cincinnati Post & Times Star, this book surely will be a winner with every fan in Reds country and coincides with an anniversary exhibit at the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum. Through interviews and research, Before the Machine captures the excitement of a pennant race for a team that had suffered losing seasons in 14 of the past 16 years. Schmetzer also beautifully evokes the time and plac