Reds

Reds1982. Men at Work and "Ebony and Ivory" topped the charts. Grease 2 premiered. Pete Rose was playing for the Phillies. Johnny Bench was playing third base. The Reds were horrible. Just a season removed from the travesty that was the 1981 baseball season, in which the Reds owned the best record in the NL but failed to qualify for the playoffs, they were 19 games back at the break and finished 61-101. Dead last in the NL West, 28 games behind the division-leading braves and 16 games back of the 5th place Astros.


But it wasn't all bad. There were some good beginnings in '82. The Smiths and the Pogues formed. Anne Hathaway and Elisabeth Moss were born. So were a few of you jokers too, I'd wager. Dave Concepcion still held sway over short stop, as he had since 1970 and still had one very good season ahead of him. Especially now, with yet another SS candidate freshly called up to the bigs, it's easy to idealize the Concepcion Era. 19 seasons of mostly Gold Glove caliber defense and hitting that almost always at least adequate, especially given the era.



Concepcion came into the Break slashing .293/.332/.363, with 9 SBs. He was elected to start for the NL over Ozzie Smith, who had a very similar line (.258/.326/.362, 16 SB), on the strength of his Big Red Machine pedigree and batting average. It was Davey's 8th straight All Star appearance and 9th in his career, but would be his last. Concepcion didn't really steal from Ozzie's trophy case. But Concepcion's successor, Barry Larkin, that would stand in the shadow of the Wizard of Oz for a portion of his career.

Reds