Favorite/Least Favorite Reds Season?

[allpurpose]

I have to go with the 75 season and that great WS win over Boston as my all time favorite. I was still young enough to love it and old enough to understand what was going on. My least favorite was probably 94 when the post season was cancelled and the Reds were in first place..81 was another highly disappointing season when they split the season and came up short in both halves with arguably the best team..

[Roy Tucker]

The season I liked the least was 1977. With the 75 and 76 World Series wins, I thought the run was going to continue forever. We owned baseball. But they finished second to the hated Dodgers (I miss that rivalry, that team gave me a royal pain in the ass) and the run was over before we knew it. Did I mention I really didn’t like the Dodgers with the Garvey Lopes Russell Cey infield and Lasorda? Bah!

[allpurpose]

The season I liked the least was 1977. With the 75 and 76 World Series wins, I thought the run was going to continue forever. We owned baseball. But they finished second to the hated Dodgers (I miss that rivalry, that team gave me a royal pain in the ass) and the run was over before we knew it. Did I mention I really didn’t like the Dodgers with the Garvey Lopes Russell Cey infield and Lasorda? Bah!

Back then I was in my constant wishing the Dodgers plane would crash killing all on board mode.. Somehow it just never happened.. Dammit! Yeah..I thought we were never going to have a losing season ever again.. In retrospect I may have had a bit of wishful thinking at the time. I too miss that rivalry..small town Reds slaying big town Dodgers.. Back then I dreamt of a global baseball league with teams in every major city in the world with the Reds always winning.. Yeah well...Kids!

[westofyou]

I’d have said 1975... but I lived in Ann Arbor then

[Ron Madden]

I believe there's some pleasure to be found in every season, a little but o' heart ache too.

[Kingspoint]

'75, especially when they went on that 40-game errorless streak after moving Rose to 3rd. The early '70's Orioles Defenses were probably better, but for a couple of months, that REDS' Defense was the best I've ever seen.

[RedsBaron]

1975 is my favorite. I'd been a Reds fan since 1966, and a Big Red Machine fan since the name originated in 1969. As much fun and as much winning as the BRM had given, each season had ended in some disappointment, until the magical '75 season and the greatest World Series ever.
1976 was a close second to '75. Total dominance, but I had a little melancholy at the end of the '76 World Series by the premonition that such dominance would never be seen again.
I liked 1967, as the Reds made an early run before injuries derailed their chances. Still, the season had the debuts of Johnny Bench and Gary Nolan, and the breakout seasons of Tony Perez and Lee May.
1968 saw the stirrings of the Reds dominant offense, Bench's Rookie of the Year campaign, and Pete Rose's first batting title. Rose repeated his batting championship in '69 and the BRM was in a pennant fight all season. 1970 was a happy season, with the NL pennant and the assumption that the World Series loss would be quickly avenged. 1972 was another pennant and Bench's game five tying homer in the NLCS before the bitter loss in the World Series. 1973 was Hal King and a great come-from-behind division title, before the bitter loss in the NLCS to the Mets. Anyway, 1967-1976 was a great decade to be a Reds fan.
Since then, 1987 with the breakout by Eric Davis, the World Championship season of 1990, the unexpected success in 1999, and the almost season of 2012 are personal favorites.
1982, 1989and most of the "lost decade" of the 00s were the worst.

[cumberlandreds]

1975 was my favorite.Not long after installing Rose at 3rd and Foster in LF they took off like no other Reds team before or since. They won something like 41 of 50 games in the middle of the season and just ran away from the the rest of the NL West. They beat up a good Pirates team in the NLCS and then won an epic World Series in 7 games that made it all the better.

1976 was great too but you almost knew they were going to win it all again that season. You thought they would continue on for a while but it all came to a screeching halt in 1977. The years between 1972 and 1976 were about as good as you can get. A division winner every year except 1974 and three World Series. You look back at that and wonder how did it all happen?

1990 was good also. I had just moved to the DC area that spring. I went to work early and I followed the Reds by turning on my car radio every morning to WLW and find out how the Reds did the night before. Even though they were never headed in the regular season they were underdogs in the playoffs. They beat a very good Pirate team in the NLCS and then unbelievably swept another very good team in the A's. This was a year it seemed the Reds just caught lightening in a bottle and rode that all season long.

As for least favorite it had to be 1982. I had been a fan since 1971 and had only known mostly good teams during that time. 1982 was a real belly drop. Going from first to worst was really hard to take and it made you see the other side of the tracks.

1981 was the most bitter. Reds had the best record in baseball but yet didn't make the playoffs. How does that happen?!? Leave to Bowie Kuhn and some stupid owners to figure out a way to do that. It was the same as you favorite college team having a great season but being banned from the post season because of some dumb infractions. This season was just a real black eye for all of baseball and Reds got the shortest end of the stick for it.

[Bruce Berenyi]

1964 was the worst losing to the pirates 2 out of 3 the last week,, one game on a squeeze bunt by Jerry May, in a game the reds had bases loaded no outs in extra innings and did nt score

[krm1580]

Best 1976 - Completely drama free but kicking of the rest of the league. Stupid moment that sticks out in my head was the All-Star game that year where Geronimo was the only Red regular that did not make the team and they had 5 starters

Worst 1981/1982 combo. 1981 they have the best record in baseball and don't go to the playoffs because of the strike. The very next year they have the worst record in the NL with 101 losses. Coming out of the out of the 70s the entire scenario seemed impossible. I would be like the Patriots going 1-15 next year.

[Bruce Berenyi]

yes but 1982 allowed us to see dan bilardello charlie puleo and duane walker

[PuffyPig]

I am going to excludes the obvious world series winnings seasons, as I've been a fan since the 60's.

1970 was my first playoff/world series year and the start of the Big red Machine.

I really enjoyed 1999 as the Reds had a great and exciting team and really deserved a playoff spot. My sons and I had a great time watching the gamecast that season every night.

[Crosley68]

1970 was my favorite. I had been following the team since '65 but in '70 I was 11 and was really into it. We got to go to the All-star game and I listened to every single game on the radio. The pennant race was exciting for me and I dissected the box score every day. The World Series devastated me.

2001 was my Least. Hopes were high but Griffey injury and terrible pitching doomed them. Tied for first on May 1st and 11.5 games behind by May 31st. I didn't pay much attention after that.

[westofyou]

1970 was my favorite. I had been following the team since '65 but in '70 I was 11 and was really into it. We got to go to the All-star game and I listened to every single game on the radio. The pennant race was exciting for me and I dissected the box score every day. The World Series devastated me.

2001 was my Least. Hopes were high but Griffey injury and terrible pitching doomed them. Tied for first on May 1st and 11.5 games behind by May 31st. I didn't pay much attention after that.

Yeah, 2001 is high on my kicked in the nad's list too

[Bruce Berenyi]

1979 and doug bairs epic failure,, execrable