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Cincinnati Reds, franchising americano di baseball professionista con sede a Cincinnati, Ohio. I Reds giocano nella National League (NL) e sono stati fondati nel 1882. Hanno vinto cinque titoli delle World Series (1919, 1940, 1975, 1976, 1990) e nove gagliardetti NL.
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La città di Cincinnati sostiene di ospitare la prima squadra di baseball veramente professionale, chiamata Red Stockings, che iniziò a giocare nel 1869 e fu imbattuta nelle sue prime 81 partite contro i club amatoriali. Un'altra squadra con sede a Cincinnati con lo stesso nome era uno dei membri fondatori della BN nel 1876, ma questa squadra fu espulsa dalla lega nel 1880 per aver giocato domenica e aver permesso il liquore sul terreno del suo campo da baseball. Mentre il 1882 - l'anno in cui un club dei Red Stockings che presentava alcuni membri della band bandita dalla BN si unì alla nascente American Association (AA) - viene ufficialmente riconosciuto dalla Major League Baseball come il primo anno dell'attuale franchise, la maggior parte dei Cincinnati considera comunque i Reds i più vecchi franchising nel baseball, e l'organizzazione Reds stessa include questi club precedenti nella storia della squadra.
I Red Stockings finirono in cima alla AA nella loro prima stagione e pubblicarono record vincenti nella maggior parte dei loro otto anni in campionato. La squadra tornò alla BN nel 1890, lo stesso anno in cui abbreviava il suo soprannome in "Reds". Cincinnati ha schierato un numero di squadre mediocri fino alla fine del 19 ° secolo e all'inizio del 20 °, non finendo mai al di sopra del terzo posto nella BN fino al 1919. La squadra del 1919 vinse 96 partite dietro il difensore esterno Edd Roush e il lanciatore Dolf Luque sulla sua strada alla prima cuccetta delle World Series del franchise. I Reds hanno vinto le World Series cinque a tre contro il Chicago White Sox, ma il loro campionato è stato offuscato quando otto dei giocatori di Chicago sono stati accusati di aver preso tangenti per lanciare la serie (vedi Black Sox Scandal). Il successo di Cincinnati fu di breve durata, tuttavia,e a metà degli anni 1920 la squadra tornò in fondo alla NL per un lungo tratto, tra cui quattro finali consecutive all'ultimo posto dal 1931 al 1934.
In 1938 the Reds’ young star pitcher Johnny Vander Meer became the only player in baseball history to throw no-hitters in consecutive starts. Vander Meer was a part of a nucleus of players that also included future Hall of Fame catcher Ernie Lombardi and that led the Reds to NL pennants in 1939 and 1940, as well as a World Series win in the latter season. By the middle of the decade, the Reds again found themselves routinely finishing in the bottom half of the NL.
Fearing association with communism at the height of the Red Scare in the United States, the team officially changed its nickname to “Redlegs” from 1954 to 1959. During this period one of the Reds’ few bright spots was Ted (“Big Klu”) Kluszewski, a power-hitting first baseman who famously cut the sleeves off his uniform to free his huge biceps. In 1956 Cincinnati called up outfielder Frank Robinson from the minor leagues, and he quickly became one of the biggest stars in the game. Robinson led the Reds to a pennant in 1961 (which was followed by a loss to the New York Yankees in the World Series), but in 1965 he was traded to the Baltimore Orioles for three players of relatively little consequence in what is considered by many observers to be one of the worst trades in the history of the game.
Baseball in the 1970s was dominated by Cincinnati teams known as the “Big Red Machine,” which had left behind Crosley Field, with its distinctive left field terrace, for a new home, Riverfront Stadium. Boasting a regular lineup that featured three future Hall of Famers (catcher Johnny Bench, second baseman Joe Morgan, and first baseman Tony Pérez) as well as all-time major league hits leader Pete Rose, the Big Red Machine—under the guidance of manager Sparky Anderson—won five division titles in the first seven years of the decade. The Machine’s first two trips to the World Series ended in disappointment, however, as it lost to Robinson’s Orioles in 1970 and the Oakland Athletics in 1972, which was followed by a surprising loss to the underdog New York Mets in the 1973 NL Championship Series. The years of frustration ended in 1975, when the Reds won a remarkable 108 games and beat the Boston Red Sox for the franchise’s first World Series title in 35 years. While the 1976 Reds won six fewer games than their 1975 counterparts, they led major league baseball in all the major offensive statistical categories and swept both teams they faced in the postseason en route to a second consecutive championship, leading a number of baseball historians to claim that they were the second greatest team ever, after the famed 1927 Yankees.
The Reds closed out the 1970s with two second-place divisional finishes and an NL Championship Series loss in 1979, but they missed out on the postseason in each season of the following decade. The team’s most notable event of the 1980s was the 1989 lifetime ban from baseball of then manager Rose for gambling on the sport.
In 1990 the Reds surprisingly rebounded from their turbulent 1989 by winning their division after having never fallen out of first place for the entire season, the first time the feat had occurred in NL history. Behind first-year manager Lou Piniella, all-star shortstop Barry Larkin, and a motley crew of relief pitchers known as the “Nasty Boys,” the Reds swept Oakland to win the franchise’s fifth World Series.
Cincinnati fielded a few competitive teams through 1999, but the Reds of the first decade of the 21st century finished most of their seasons with losing records. In 2003 the Reds got a new home, the Great American Ball Park.
In 2010 the Reds ended a 15-year play-off drought—and surprised most baseball observers—by winning a divisional title after having placed no higher than third in their division in the previous nine seasons. Cincinnati bested that achievement in 2012 by winning 97 games (the team’s highest win total since the days of the Big Red Machine) and captured another NL Central championship. The Reds were then eliminated in the Division Series, and, the following year, the team won 90 games but lost in a one-game Wild Card play-off. Cincinnati could not continue its unexpected success, and the team returned to the lower echelons of the NL the following season.
