By 1882, professional baseball was just over twelve years old, and yet in that short time the Queen City had already lost 2 teams - the original Cincinnati Red Stockings, baseball's first pro club, had fallen apart after 1870, and the National League's Reds who were formed in 1876 and basically kicked out of the league in 1880 over disagreements regarding the sale of beer at parks and Sunday games (the team was "pro" on both, the league "con").  In 1882, Cincinnati sports writer O.P. Caylor was one of the instrumental figures in forming a new major league, the American Association, and his own Cincinnati Reds became one of the new circuit's founding members (the new league, it is worth noting, permitted the sale of alcohol and Sunday games - the stuffy N.L. still refused).  

​

From 1882 through 1889, the Reds (formally the Red Stockings, but universally, and quickly officially, known as the Reds) played decent enough ball.  In 1890, both the Reds and the Brooklyn club exercised their option to resign from the A.A. over a dispute related to the election of the A.A. president, and each was quickly accepted for admission into the N.L.

​

Once they joined the N.L., the Reds became a symbol of mediocre play - between 1890 and 1918, they finished higher than 4th just 3 times, with each of those being a 3rd place finish.  In 1919, behind stars Heinie Groh, Dutch Ruether. Slim Salee and future Hall-of-Famer Edd Roush, the team won 96 games and the N.L. pennant.  They won the World Series too, but this accomplishment will always be somewhat dimmed as history knows that their opponents, the White Sox, initially made some effort (exactly how great an effort will likely never be known) to throw the series.   

​

After 1919, it was up and down (mostly down) until they won back-to-back pennants in 1939 and 1940, and the 1940 World Series.  For almost the next three decades, the club was basically an afterthought in the league, aside from an improbable pennant in 1961.   As the 1970s began, however, things changed - fast.  Young home-grown stars Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, and Tony Perez, rookie manager Sparky Anderson, and prize acquisition Joe Morgan formed the nucleus of a club that would be dominant for a decade before settling back into irrelevance - between 1970 and 1979, the club won 6 of a possible 10 division titles, along with 4 pennants and 2 World Series titles, earning the club the moniker of The Big Red Machine.   Then, free-agency and irrelevance settled in.  

Future Hall-of-Famer Barry Larkin arrived in 1986, but otherwise the 1980s were forgettable for Reds fans, and they were probably grateful to forget as the decade ended with Pete Rose's banishment from baseball for betting on games.  Seemingly out of the blue they took the pennant in 1990 and beat the A's in one of the greatest Series upsets ever, but since then it's been largely middling ball in Cincy with just a few missed opportunities for post-season success.    

​

The main purpose of this page is to illustrate those players, managers and coaches who have been the most prominent in the franchise's history.  Links below will take you to galleries highlighting each, by position.  Generally, an individual is included if he spent at least 2 full seasons (consecutive or cumulative) as a starter, relief pitcher, closer or manager. For coaches, I've generally used 5 years of service as the bar.  None of this is scientific, though, so there are exceptions.  Where possible and practical, I used pictures of actual baseball cards because that it is the medium through which I, and I suppose many others, first discovered the game. Where necessary, I designed my own images.  Images of actual baseball cards were obtained at the Card Cyber Museum, and for my own designs I used photos found at host of different sites, but none moreso than the wonderful forum at Out of the Park Developments.  

I claim no rights to, or ownership of, any of the photographic images I've used on these pages.   You are welcome to use them yourself.  All I ask is that that if you use any of my personal creations, you give credit to this site.