You guys were awesome! The Big Red Machine was one of the great all time teams. I grew up in Pittsburgh in the 60’s/70’s and was a huge Pirate fan. I had lots of cousins in Cincy and we always had a baseball feud going on. :) Mom used to stick me on a Greyhound to Cincy to spend a couple of weeks each summer there. It meant that Mom had one less kid in her hair for a week or two, and my Cincy cousins had someone to badger about baseball. :)
My all time favorite was Willie Stargell and 2nd was Roberto Clemente. Many’s the time I sat in the left field bleachers at Forbes Field to watch them play the Reds. And even more in Three Rivers Stadium.
I do miss those days...
Around 1975 or 1976 I went to the old Riverfront ballpark for a doubleheader with the Pirates, aka the Lumber Company. Got down there a couple of hours early to watch batting practice, which was always great when those two teams were playing each other.
We watched Stargell hit TWO balls into the red seats of Riverfront - right field naturally, and caught two from....oh lord, (gettin old is hell)....that big outfielder...what was his name? Had a bit of trouble with coke during the end of his career....(sorry I can’t remember his name).
Both of those teams were fun to watch.
>>We watched Stargell hit TWO balls into the red seats of Riverfront - right field naturally,
Willie was always a good “tape-measure” hitter. :) When he’d hit one into the upper deck of Three Rivers they’d put a different color seat at that spot to keep track.
>> and caught two from....oh lord, (gettin old is hell)....that big outfielder...what was his name? Had a bit of trouble with coke during the end of his career....(sorry I can’t remember his name).
You’re probably thinking of Dave Parker. I was very excited when he came along, and had high hopes that he’d take Willie’s place as my favorite after Willie retired, but no such luck. Parker just wasn’t the lovable gentleman that Willie Stargell was. I think Parker was the first major leager to make a million per year. He held out for a while to get it and then after he got it he had a bad slump. Then one day someone took a battery out of their radio and chucked it at him out in right field. He wasn’t there much longer I think, though it’s been such a long time... hard to remember.