Before the Machine
Copyright © 2011 by Mark J. Schmetzer
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any fashion, print, facsimile, or electronic, or by any method yet to be developed, without express permission of the copyright holder.
Published by Clerisy Press
Printed in the United States of America
Distributed by Publishers Group West
First edition, first printing
For further information, contact the publisher at:
Clerisy Press
PO Box 8874
Cincinnati, OH 45208-08074
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Schmetzer, Mark J.
Before the machine: the story of the 1961 pennant-winning Cincinnati Reds / Mark J. Schmetzer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-1-57860-463-0
ISBN-10: 1-57860-463-X
1. Cincinnati Reds (Baseball team)—History. 2. World Series (Baseball) I. Title.
GV875.C656S36 2011
796.357’640977178—dc22
2011007056
Edited by Jack Heffron
Cover designed by Stephen Sullivan
Text designed by Annie Long
All photos in this book, including the cover photos, were taken by Jack Klumpe. They appear courtesy of the Rhodes/Klumpe Reds Hall of Fame and Museum Collection.
To Dad:
I still feel now the anticipation I felt then when seeing in the distance the lights of Crosley Field when you took us to games. Thanks for getting me started in sports–and for knowing the usher who could upgrade our seats.
For my wife, Sharon,
whose 1960 Pirates gave the Reds hope, and for our daughter, Kalli, who still dreams of a championship team all her own.
table of contents
Foreword by Greg Rhodes
Introduction
| one | Makeover | |||
| two | Taking Aim | |||
| three | The Scene | |||
| four | Fits and Starts | |||
| five | On Track | |||
| six | What’s Up with the Cubs? | |||
| seven | Robby and Hutch | |||
| eight | Blowing the Lid Off | |||
| nine | Bronx Bombed | |||
| ten | Moving On |
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
About the Author
foreword
Fifty years have passed, and I still remember where I was September 26, 1961—in 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 country—Ohio, 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.
You’ll 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 well—Waite Hoyt’s 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 didn’t realize until he told me about this book that we shared such fondness for those “Ragamuffin” Reds. Robinson, Pinson, Coleman, Jay, O’Toole, 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 season—trading