The 1976 Cincinnati club, which won 102 regular season games, then swept both the Phillies in the 1976 National League Championship Series and the Yankees in the 1976 World Series, is considered one of the strongest in baseball history. "The Sporting News" named Howsam Major League Executive of the Year for 1973—ironically, a season in which the powerhouse Reds dropped the NLCS to the underdog New York Mets.