In 1975, Cincinnati Reds manager Sparky Anderson could have changed only one word in that quote: “They also serve who only sit and wait.”
During that 108-win season, Anderson scribbled The Great Eight on his starting lineup card 130 times during the 162-game season.
There were nine extra players on that team and mostly they sat in the dugout awaiting the few chances Anderson tossed their way.
There were back-up catchers Bill Plummer and Don Werner. There were back-up infielders Darrel Chaney, Doug Flynn, Dan Driessen and John Vukovich. There were back-up outfielders Ed Armbrister, Merv Rettenmund and Terry Crowley.
Because they felt as if Anderson held them in low esteem, they called themselves the turds and wore t-shirts with ‘Turds’ emblazoned across the front.
The most frustrated probably was Vukovich. There was an early-season game against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Dodger Stadium. Vukovich started at third base and was batting eighth.
But he never batted. The Reds staged a big first-inning rally and when it was Vukovich’s turn, Anderson sent up a pinch-hitter — in the top of the first.
On his way up the tunnel from the dugout to the clubhouse, the frustrated Vukovich took a bat with him and broke out every light in the tunnel on his way to the clubhouse.
That doesn’t mean the extras didn’t earn their World Series rings. They most definitely did.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Carrying three catchers seemed a bit extravagant with Johnny Bench around. Bench played in 142 games. Anderson, though, found a way to get Plummer into 65 games and get him 189 plate appearances, mostly as a pinch-hitter and late-game replacement when the Reds were throttling some overmatched opponent.
Werner? He appeared in only seven games and made nine plate appearances because he spent most of the season in the minors.
Driessen was the most noteworthy of the extra players, filling in at third base and first base in 88 games with a .281 batting average.
His name was etched forever in baseball’s history books when during the 1976 World Series he became the National League’s first designated hitter.
At the time, the DH was used in the American League but not in the National League. For the World Series, they decided to use the DH in the American League park and not in the National League.
After the Reds won the first two games over the New York Yankees without a DH in Riverfront Stadium, the Series shifted to Yankee Stadium and the DH was used.
And Driessen was the man and did he ever respond. He didn’t make an out and accounted for three Reds’ runs with an infield hit, a walk, a home run and a double.
Driessen, always a man of economical words, said after the game, “On the whole, I’d rather get out there and play the whole game rather than be a DH. You go into the clubhouse after each at bat and there isn’t much to do except drink coffee.
“I went through a whole pot because it was so cold out,” he added. “It’s a little strange going to the plate and then going back to the dugout when everybody else is going back on the field to play. But I’ll try anything once.”
Driessen became the regular first baseman in 1977 when Tony Perez was traded to Montreal, an unpopular and terrible trade. It wasn’t Driessen’s fault. He was a good player, a good hitter, but did not have Perez’s personality and clubhouse presence.
Two of the best extra players were infielders Chaney and Flynn with Chaney mostly manning shortstop behind Dave Concepcion and Flynn second base behind Joe Morgan.
Both were magicians with the glove and probably turned a double play quicker than Concepcion and Morgan. They called Flynn ‘The Glue’ because any baseball that hit his glove stayed there until he decided to dislodge it.
Both, though, were far better out of the batter’s box than in it. Flynn did hit .262 in 90 games and 143 plate appearances, but hit one homer and seven doubles.
Chaney hit .219 in 71 games and 175 plate appearances with two homers and six doubles.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Said Flynn, “I got ticked off in 1975 because I thought I should be playing. But Chaney and Plummer really helped me a lot. Those guys were used to being back-up people and knew what to tell me. But on this team I learned it was no disgrace to be a second man behind Morgan or Rose or Concepcion.”
Of the extra outfielders, the most remembered is Ed Armbrister for his unusual happenstance that led to the Reds winning Game 3 of the ’75 World Series.
It was 5-5 in the 10th inning with Cesar Geronimo on first base. Armbrister was pinch-hitting and in an attempt to put down a sacrifice bunt he popped it up.
As catcher Carlton Fisk scrambled to catch it, Armbrister was leaving the batter’s box and they collided and the ball hit the ground and Geronimo made second.
The Red Sox screamed obstruction, but umpire Larry Barnett said no and Geronimo later scored and the Reds won, 6-5.
Was bunting all he could do? Well, in a July game that season against San Diego he got a rare start and had four hits, including two homers.
And he was full of confidence and said, “If I played every day, I know I could hit .300. When I get into a game, I always think I can make something happen.”
Despite four hits and two homers in a game, Armbrister goes down in Reds’ lore as the guy who helped win a World Series game with an eight-foot bunt.
GREAT EIGHT AT 50
PREVIOUS COVERAGE
50 years ago, the Reds greatest lineup began making history
Remembering Pete Rose the legendary Hit King
Once an afterthought draft pick, Griffey, Sr. was integral part of Big Red Machine
Hall of Famer ‘Little Joe’ Morgan was a human dynamo
‘The Little General’ Johnny Bench was one of MLB’s all-time greats
‘Big Dog’ Tony Perez was a clutch hitter, crucial leader for the Big Red Machine
Power-hitting George Foster set the Big Red Machine in motion
Dave ‘Elmer’ Concepcion deserves a spot in Cooperstown
Centerfielder ‘Chief’ Geronimo gave Big Red Machine pitchers ‘tremendous confidence’
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