The Big Red Machine at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.
Note the 1976 National League Centennial sleeve patches.
Back row, outfield: George Foster, César Gerónimo and Ken Griffey Sr.
Middle row, infield: Pete Rose, Dave Concepción,
Joe Morgan and Tony Pérez. Front, catcher: Johnny Bench.
October 21, 1976: The Cincinnati Reds beat the New York Yankees, 7-2 in Game 4 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium. This completes a 4-game sweep of the Series, and also a 7-0 record in postseason play that season.
Having won 108 games and the World Series the year before, the Reds won 102 games, winning the National League Western Division by 10 games over the Los Angeles Dodgers. In the NL Championship Series, they beat the Philadelphia Phillies in 3 straight: 6-3 and 6-2 in Philadelphia, and 7-6 at home at Riverfront Stadium.
Their sweep of the Yankees wasn't as clear-cut as it looks. They only led Game 1 by 2-1 after 5 innings, before winning 5-1. They needed a single by Joe Morgan, driving Ken Griffey Sr. in, in the bottom of the 9th to win Game 2, 4-3. In Game 3 at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees closed to within 4-2 in the 7th inning, before the Reds scored 2 in the 8th to win, 6-2.
Game 4 was only 3-2 Cincinnati going into the 9th inning. But the Reds scored 4 times, to win, 7-2. Johnny Bench hit a home run in that inning. The official highlight film had Reds manager George "Sparky" Anderson hooked up with a microphone, and he told one of his coaches, George "Sugar Bear" Scherger, "I'll tell you you something: We are gonna be World Champions again, Sugar Bear!"
Yankee manager Billy Martin, angry at what he thought was bad umpiring throughout the Series, got himself thrown out, possibly to show that somebody still cared. The highlight film also had umpire Bruce Froemming miked up, and his argument with Martin was captured for posterity, with Billy yelling, "Don't you be intimidating me!"
In defeat, Yankee catcher Thurman Munson tied a Series record by getting 6 straight hits. Anderson was caught on mike saying, "That fella can flat-out hit, can't he? Ooh, he's a good hitter." During a mound conference, Anderson mentioned it to Pete Rose, who compared him to Bill Madlock of the Chicago Cubs, who had won the NL batting title the last 2 seasons. Munson would be named the American League's Most Valuable Player after the season.
After the Series, though, Anderson was asked to compare Munson to Bench, and said, "Don't ever embarrass anybody by comparing him to Johnny Bench." Munson took that as a slight.
Having completed this 7-0 sweep, and thus back-to-back titles, plus winning 2 Pennants earlier in the decade, Reds fans thought their "Big Red Machine" was the best team of the 1970s, and even the greatest team of all time. They thought they had the best lineup ever, and that Bench was the best catcher ever. With Joe Morgan winning back-to-back NL MVPs, they thought he was the best 2nd baseman ever. And they thought Rose was wonderful.
Reds fans don't just live in Southern Ohio. Some live in Southern Indiana. And some live in Kentucky, where the sense of entitlement they got as fans of University of Kentucky basketball carried over to their Reds fandom.
Morgan may well have been the best 2nd baseman since the early 20th Century, when Napoleon Lajoie, Eddie Collins and Rogers Hornsby walked the Earth. And Bench was certainly better than Munson, and may have been the best catcher in National League history. But he was not better than Yogi Berra. And Munson, at the time, was the best catcher in the American League, better than Carlton Fisk of the Boston Red Sox.
The Reds' record in World Series games in the decade wasn't spectacular: 12-11. Compare that to the Oakland Athletics: 12-7, (The Yankees ended up 8-8.) And in 1972, the A's beat the Reds, clinching at Riverfront, and did it without their best player, as Reggie Jackson was injured. They had also lost the 1973 NLCS to an 82-79 New Yor Mets team.
If Bill Lee hadn't thrown that blooper pitch to Tony Pérez in Game 7, the Reds probably would have lost the 1975 World Series. And their failure might have carried over into 1976, and maybe the Yankees would have beaten them, and they would have been 0-4 in World Series in the decade -- and thus 0-5 in World Series between 1940 and 1990.
After a strong regular-season, winning the AL Eastern Division by 10 games, and a hard-fought ALCS win over the Kansas City Royals, the Yankees batted just .222 in the 1976 World Series. They hit just 1 home run, ironically by light-hitting backup shortstop Jim Mason.
Reggie Jackson, about to be a free agent, had been part of ABC's broadcast team for the ALCS. Imagine that, instead of the A's trading him to the Baltimore Orioles in April, so that the Yankees could sign him in November, the A's had just traded him to the Yankees. And presume that the Yankees' season had gone the same way, though the end of the ALCS.
Granted, Billy Martin would go on to make a habit of not batting Reggie 4th. But suppose team owner George Steinbrenner had insisted, as he actually did in August 1977. So Reggie plays right field instead of Elliott Maddox, and Reggie bats 4th between Munson 3rd and Lou Piniella 5th, as eventually happened. Reggie could have made a difference in any of the 4 games, maybe enough to turn the Series around.
Since 1976, the best postseason performance has been the 11-1 by the 1999 Yankees. In 1983, Moses Malone said the Philadelphia 76ers would win int "Fo', fo', fo'." Sweeping 3 series in 4 straight games. He almost got it right: They went 12-1. With the expansion of the league and its Playoffs, the 2001 Los Angeles Lakers topped that, going 15-1. In 2017, the Golden State Warriors went 16-1.
In 1952, the Detroit Red Wings went through the Stanley Cup Playoffs 8-0, inspiring the tradition of Detroit fans throwing an 8-legged octopus onto the ice. In 1960, the Montreal Canadiens also went 8-0. In the post-expansion era, the best record is 16-2, by the 1987 Edmonton Oilers.
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October 21, 1976 was a Thursday. This was also the day that the novel The Boys From Brazil was published. I have a separate entry for that event.
Actor Jeremy Miller was born. He played Ben Seaver on the ABC sitcom Growing Pains. The writers of the show must have been New York Mets fans, because, not only was the show set on New York's Long Island, but the central family was named Seaver, and their next-door neighbors were the Koosmans.
There were 4 games played in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 102-97 at Madison Square Garden.
* The Houston Rockets beat the Atlanta Hawks, 120-104 at The Omni in Atlanta. Mike Newlin scored 33 for the Rockets.
* The Boston Celtics beat the Indiana Pacers, 129-122 in overtime at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. John Havlicek scored 32 for the Celtics.
* And the Buffalo Braves beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 133-112 at the Milwaukee Exposition and Convention Center Arena, a.k.a. The MECCA (now the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena).
There were 4 games in the NHL:
* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Montreal Canadiens beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-3 at the Montreal Forum.
* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 5-1 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.
* The Washington Capitals and the Los Angeles Kings played to a tie, 5-5 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.
* And the Cleveland Barons beat the St. Louis Blues, 6-2 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.
And there were 3 games in the World Hockey Association:
* The Birmingham Bulls beat the Houston Aeros, 8-5 at the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center (now the Legacy Arena) in Birmingham, Alabama.
* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Calgary Cowboys, 4-2 at the Stampede Corral in Calgary.
* And the Indianapolis Racers and the San Diego Mariners played to a tie, 4-4
at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena).
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