Echoes of Cincinnati Reds Baseball: The Greatest Stories Ever Told
With a colorful history that dates back to 1869, the Cincinnati Reds--then  known as the Red Stockings--are considered the first all-professional  baseball team on record. They opened their season with a 45-9 victory over  the Great Westerns of Cincinnati and finished the historic campaign several  months later with a perfect 57-0 record. Not a bad way to leave an  indelible mark on what would eventually come to be known as our national  pastime. Over the next several decades the franchise was instrumental in forming  professional baseball as we know it today. And the Reds were a lightning  rod that attracted many of the game's greatest players and renowned  characters: Eppa Rixey, the lanky southpaw who spent his last 13 seasons in  the organization in the 1920s and 1930s; fellow hurler Johnny Vander Meer,  who threw two consecutive no-hitters in 1937; and catcher Johnny Bench and  fellow Hall of Famer second baseman Joe Morgan, considered two of the best  to ever play their respective positions. Bench and Morgan played together  on the Big Red Machine of the 1970s along with all-time hits leader and  Hall of Fame absentee, the incomparable Pete Rose.The history and character of the Reds has also lent itself to some of  the more memorable sportswriting in baseball's annals. Echoes of Cincinnati  Reds Baseball is a compilation of such eloquent reporting, from W.A.  Phelon's account of the infamous 1919 World Series to Sports Illustrated's  profile of Ken Griffey Jr., one of the most electrifying players of the  past half-century. Renowned baseball writers such as Roger Kahn and Ron  Fimrite were compelled to document Reds players, managers, and  championships over the years for revered publications such as The Sporting  News and The Saturday Evening Post. Echoes of Cincinnati Reds Baseball is a  nostalgic collection of the most memorable feature articles, profiles, and  recollections about Major League Baseball's original franchise.