12-17-2022, 10:17 AM
(12-17-2022, 03:51 AM)Forever Spinning Vinyl Wrote: That's the one that killed me. They replaced him with clueless Ray Knight. Davey Johnson was their last amazing manager. He knew baseball and he knew people. Some guys needed a pat on the back and some needed a kick in the ass and he wasn't above delivering either. Even though he never delivered a championship for Cincinnati, I put him even with Lou Piniella and both of them behind Sparky on the list of best Reds managers in my lifetime. Bryan Price might be the worst with Dumb Bell slightly above him.
I liked Jack McKeon. They has a nice season under him in the year that they got knocked out by the Mets in the 1 game playoff. They had a duct-tape and zip tie pitching staff and a fun offensive group gelling at the right time. It was one of the most fun Reds teams I can recall watching. The rumor was that when Griffey got here, he and Larkin ran McKeon out of town. As much as I loved the Griffey move when it happened, it was undeniably a bad thing for the team in the long term. They sent a bunch of solid team guys with great chemistry to Seattle or a guy that was expected to be Willie Mays in his prime. Well, that guy got hurt, gained weight, and proved to be less that awesome for the clubhouse. The team basically had two HOF players whose HOF days were behind them and it sold off a promising group to get one of them.
Meanwhile, tTader Jack went on to win a WS title in Miami. Ugh.
