TODAY’S GAME
Dodgers at Reds, 1:05 p.m., FS Ohio, 700, 1410
A three-game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the thick of a late-summer pennant race.
The Great Eight — who powered the Big Red Machine to consecutive World Series victories — reunited on the field again.
Great American Ball Park felt like a throwback to the 1970s on Friday night. Well, at least to Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker. The former star outfielder reminisced about his days as a Dodger prior to the game, the first of a key three-game series between playoff contenders.
Even though Baker is now on the other side of the dormant rivalry, he can’t blame his players for not seeing red when the Dodger blue comes to town. Only three of his players — Corky Miller (1976), Bronson Arroyo (1977) and Ryan Ludwick (1978) — were alive in that decade.
“I don’t think you can expect the guys to feel what we felt back then. It was a different time, different place,” Baker said of the classic rivalry that saw the Reds or Dodgers combine to win nine National League West titles from 1970-79. “Back then we were in the same division as the Reds. Now our natural rivalry seems to be Pittsburgh and St. Louis. … It’s easy to have bad blood when you play somebody a lot. If you don’t see them but six times a year how bad of blood can there be?”
Billed as a possible postseason preview, it wouldn’t hurt the Reds to draw first blood with a win Friday night. The Dodgers entered the series having won three of four against the Reds. They were 21-9 against the NL Central, a division that could boast three playoff teams.
And, as Baker knows well, they play by the Dodger way. Baker told the story of joining the Dodgers in 1976 and receiving a gift from Los Angeles general manager Al Campanis.
“When I first got there Al Campanis gave me a book, The Dodger Way to Play Baseball. I didn’t read it,” Baker said with a smile. “One game I missed the cut-off man I had a guy come up and tell me don’t do that. I told him some things. The next thing I know I’ve got eight guys in my face. I got home that night and said, ‘Well, maybe I’ll read that book.’ And I did.”
The Reds look to use the Great Eight reunion as inspiration this weekend. Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Morgan will have a statue dedicated this morning and the Reds’ eight position players from the 1975-76 World Series champion teams will appear onfield.
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