1937 Cincinnati Reds – 56-98

On the other side of the coin we have the 1937 reds they hit lightly to say the least, I don’t think they have 40 HR as a team!! (Editors note:  they had 73 HR’s), but these boys can pitch !!

Lee Grissom (12-17, 3.26) had to be the king of the hard luck pitchers.  With a 3.26 ERA and 149 strikeouts Grissom had to be near perfect every time out to even think about winning.  The #5 starter is a young 22 year old named Johnny Vander Meer (3-5, 3.84) who during the following season would put his name in the baseball record books by tossing consecutive no hitters, a feat neither tied nor exceed in 72 subsequent seasons.

The hitting star [sic] would have to be none other than the “Schnozz” himself, Ernie Lombardi.  Considered the slowest runner in the history of the game Lombardi led the league in hitting twice and batted .334 with 9 homers in only 120 games in 1938.  How he got his 1 stolen base that season is one of those eternal mysteries.  Secondbaseman Alex Kampouris led the team with 17 homers, even though he only hit .249.

Intangibles:  The following season they would win 82 games, a 26 win turnaround, so there had to be some real talent here.  The season after that (1939) they won 97 and took the NL pennant, then in 1940 they’d win 100 games and win the World Championship.  Maybe they just underachiever, which means look out KOD.

--submitted by Bill Keller--