Mark J. Schmetzer - Before the Machine: The Story of the 1961 Pennant-Winning Reds

Fifty years have passed, and I still remember where I was September 26, 1961in the driveway of our house in Richmond, Indiana, in our 1955 Buick, leaning on the horn with full force. The Cincinnati Reds had just clinched the 1961 National League pennant.

Up and down our usually quiet suburban street, the neighbors were out celebrating this most unexpected triumph. My sister stood in our front yard and banged pan lids together. Other car horns joined in the serenade.

Maybe our little celebration was out of the ordinary, but I doubt it. I suspect such jubilation was repeated throughout Reds countryOhio, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, and nowhere more enthusiastically than in the heart of Cincinnati itself, at Fountain Square, the symbolic center of the city. Thousands of fans spontaneously descended on the Square, where they nearly mobbed the team bus carrying the Reds, who had just returned from winning an afternoon game in Chicago.

The Cincinnati victory, combined with the Los Angeles loss in Pittsburgh around 9 p.m. that evening, made it official: the Reds had won the pennant and would go to the World Series for the first time in twenty-one years.

Youll find all the details from that evening, as well as the rest of that season in this long-overdue tribute to that 1961 team. And more. Mark Schmetzer has captured the mood of the city and Reds fans in this most unlikely of seasons, bring the city of the early 1960s to life. He evokes the experiences we fans recall so wellWaite Hoyts play-by-play, Ed Kennedy and Frank McCormick on the TV broadcasts, the irrepressible Ruth Lyons, the diva of Cincinnati TV in 1961, as she celebrated and promoted the Reds throughout the season.

I have known Mark for many years, but didnt realize until he told me about this book that we shared such fondness for those Ragamuffin Reds. Robinson, Pinson, Coleman, Jay, OToole, Purkey, and, of course, Hutch. The names come flooding back. The memories are still fresh.

Mark traces the arc of the season, the ups and downs of the early months, followed by a push to the lead in early June. But the Dodgers kept it close, and every Reds-Dodgers game seemed pivotal. And those night games from the West Coast? Reds fans lost a lot of sleep that season, and many parents found a transistor radio tucked beneath their kids pillows the morning after those games.

In Before the Machine, we also get a look at the front office and the work of Bill DeWitt, who had just assumed control of the Reds after the death of long-time owner Powel Crosley Jr. in March 1961. The series of moves DeWitt made prior to and during the 1961 seasontrading for Joey Jay, Gene Freese, and Don Blasingame, installing Gordy Coleman at first base, and calling up Johnny Edwards and journeyman pitcher Ken Johnsonall worked beyond anyones expectations. The 1961 Reds improved twenty-six games over the 1960 squad, a remarkable turn-around in the era before free agency.

Cincinnati fans will forever condemn Bill DeWitt for the 1965 trade of Frank Robinson, but this book will help balance out the scales. The Reds dont win the 1961 pennant without Bill DeWitt in the general managers chair. And the foundation he built in his tenure in Cincinnati from 1960 to 1966 ended a dismal sixteen-year stretch in the 1940s and 50s, when the Reds only managed two winning seasons. DeWitt put the Reds on a winning track for four decades. Between 1961 and 2000 the Reds were the winningest team in the National League.

Youll find all this and much more in Mark Schmetzers wonderfully crafted tribute to the 1961 Reds. The ragamuffins deserve it. Rally round the Reds, boys!

Greg Rhodes

Team Historian

Cincinnati Reds