Griffey was a better all-around player than Driessen. He nearly won the batting title in 1976, IIRC had a three of four point lead over Bill Madlock on the final day. Madlock went 4-for-4 to pull ahead and seeing this Sparky Anderson used Griffey, who was bring rested in a meaningless season finale, up as a pinch hitter -- for Driessen no less -- but he struck out. Lost the batting title on the final day. The Reds went 7-0 that post-season.
I am not sure of you were around in 1976 but the 9th inning of the final game of the NLCS that year was the perfect representation of what the Reds offered that year -- around 1:54:00 on the clip below:
Householder was part of the early 80s rebuild. Foster, Griffey, Collins all gone. In came Householder, Duane Walker, Clint Hurdle and others but none factored.
Mike Schmidt was the year in between my older brothers in high school. He was going to play pro football but was clipped in practice and blew out his knee. Steve Yeager played for our arch rival, Meadowdale. It must have been awful playing in that conference in the late 1960s! The site of our high school is a branch library now.
I am sure that I watched this game on TV. George Foster was a better defensive outfielder than most people gave him credit for. He had a wicked throwing arm. I remember him throwing out a runner at home on a Sac Fly in a playoff game. He threw it from the left field corner. Gary Nolan was a tough playoff pitcher. His arm went dead. I am pretty sure that it was a rotator cuff. For some reason, the Reds never scored very many runs for him, 3 or less was usual. When somebody else pitched, the Big Red Machine would score 5, sometimes more.
Joe Morgan hated to bat against Jim Katt. He would sit out a regular season game and let the utility infielder play. Maybe that was Doug Flynn? Al Michaels did the Reds games on radio for 7 years.
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