To walk from the park to the hotel required a three-block foot trip to circumvent the parking lot.
As I left the stadium one night, a security guard said, “Walk straight back in the parking lot toward the hotel and there is a gate, always open, that empties into the hotel parking lot. Save ya a long walk.”
I did and it worked.
The next night as I left the park, I encountered the Cincinnati Reds top two pitchers in the rotation, Don Gullett and Gary Nolan.
“If you guys are walking to the hotel, follow me,” I said in a cock-sure voice. And they did.
When we got to the gate, it was closed and locked. Rather than walk back and around, we decided we could climb the eight-foot fence topped with barbed wire.
I was young. I made it.
Nolan was next and he made it, but he caught his new, first-worn $1,000 suit on the wire and ripped it up the back.
Then it was Gullett. He made it over, but when he jumped down he twisted his ankle so bad we had to help him to the hotel as I thought, “Oh, my God. I’ve just put the team’s best pitcher on the disabled list.”
Fortunately, Gullet only missed one a couple turns and manager Sparky Anderson went to his grave not knowing how I almost ruined the 1975 season.
How good was Gullett? Pete Rose’s famous line about him was, “Don Gullett could throw a ball through a car wash and not get it wet.”
Gullett grew up tossing hay bales on his parent’s farm in Lynn, Ky., just across the Ohio River from Portsmouth.
And what kind of athlete was he? Well, in his senior year, he scored all 72 points in a football game for McKell High School in a 72-7 win over Wurtland. He scored 11 touchdowns and kicked six extra points because his coach wanted him to win the Kentucky prep scoring championship.
He succeeded.
Gully, as everybody called him, was the star of the vastly underrated pitching staff that was under-publicized and under-appreciated because it pitched in the shadow of The Great Eight.
When there is talk about The Big Red Machine, the names Gullett, Nolan, Jack Billingham, Fred Norman, Pat Darcy, Clay Kirby, Tom Carroll, Clay Carroll, Pedro Borbon, Will McEnaney and Rawlins Jackson Eastwick III are seldom mentioned.
And what a staff it was. Six starters won 10 or more games. Nolan (32 starts), Billingham (33) and Norman (34) never missed a start.
Anderson used six starters and all six won 10 or more games, with Gullett, Nolan and Billingham each winning 15.
Credit: Lisa Powell
Credit: Lisa Powell
Gullett, with his mysterious ankle injury and a couple of other aches and pains, only made 22 starts, but he was 15-4 with a 2.47 earned run average that included eight complete games and three shutouts.
Billingham, called Cactus Jack, was 15-10 with a 4.11 earned run average with five complete games. When he pitched the offense piled up runs, which is how he won 15 games with the rotation’s highest ERA. He even penned a poem about his run support:
“Seven (runs) is heaven, eight is great, nine is divine and ten we win.”
Nolan, known as ‘Noggin’ because of his high forehead, threw hard when he first arrived, perhaps as hard or harder than Gullett. But he hurt his arm and survived by becoming a cunning finesse pitcher and said, “I tricked ‘em.”
He was the rotation’s third 15-game winner, 15-9 with a 3.16 ERA, five complete games and one shutout.
Norman was ‘Little Freddie’ because he was 5-foot-8, but he stood tall on the mound, baffling hitters with a screwball, something rarely seen in those days. He was 12-4 with a 3.73 ERA and two complete games.
Anderson used a couple of swing guys in the fifth spot and both won double-digit games.
Pat Darcy, a lanky curly-haired right-hander, is unfortunately marked for life as the pitcher who gave up Carlton Fisk’s iconic walk-off 12th-inning home run in Game 6 of the ‘75 World Series.
He had no reason to drop his head because during the season he started 22 games and pitched five times out of the bullpen to compile an 11-5 record with a 3.58 earned run average.
The least known and least remembered member of the starting staff was Clay Kirby, a useful trinket as a spot starter. He was 10-6 in 19 starts with a 4.72 ERA.
Even though the rotation pitched 31 complete games, Anderson was known as ‘Captain Hook’ for his quickness to remove a pitcher at the first sign of distress. And why not? His bullpen was overstuffed with talent, a group that won 30 games and saved 49.
And Anderson was a master at mixing and matching. Four different guys recorded saves.
The most used was Springfield native Will McEnaney, the only left-hander in the bullpen. He appeared 70 times and was 5-2 with a 2.47 ERA and 15 saves.
McEnaney was an identical twin and his mirror-image brother, Mike, once dressed in Will’s uniform and sat at his locker before a game. One writer actually interviewed him, believing he was Will.
If he had gone to the bullpen, Anderson most likely would have called him in and not realized the hoax until Mike threw. . .right-handed.
The Reds had their own Pedro Serrano from the movie ‘Major League’ way before the movie hit the screens. Pedro Borbon did not have a Jobu in his locker, but he did believe in Voodoo.
What he didn’t believe in was icing his arm, as was the routine for pitchers after appearing. Borbon was 9-5 as a middle guy with a 2.95 ERA and not once did ice touch his arm or shoulder after his 67 appearances and five saves.
Before one 10-day trip, Borbon left his dog alone in his apartment with an open bag of dog food. He forgot what a dog does after digesting his food and Borbon had a bigger mess to clean up in the apartment than any mess he cleaned up on the mound.
Clay Carroll was known as ‘The Hawk’ and entertained the clubhouse and bars with his screeching hawk call, followed by, “I’m the Hawk.”
And his pitches dipped like a diving hawk swooping on a field mouse while he compiled a 7-5 record with a 2.62 ERA in 56 appearances and seven saves.
The term ‘closer’ was not used in 1975, but if Anderson had one it was Eastwick. He led the team with 22 saves and was 5-3 with a 2.60 ERA in 58 appearances.
Eastwick was an artist, on the mound and off it. He took lessons from famous artist Andrew Wyeth and could paint a pretty picture as well as paint the corners.
Those were the guys who kept the other teams quiet while The Great Eight assaulted opposing pitchers.
As Anderson once said, “If I ever find a pitcher who has heat, a good curve and a slider, I might seriously consider marrying him, or at least proposing.”
In that case, Sparky had a pitching staff full of fiancés.
GREAT EIGHT AT 50
PREVIOUS COVERAGE
50 years ago, the Reds greatest lineup began making history
Remembering Pete Rose the legendary Hit King
Once an afterthought draft pick, Griffey, Sr. was integral part of Big Red Machine
Hall of Famer ‘Little Joe’ Morgan was a human dynamo
‘The Little General’ Johnny Bench was one of MLB’s all-time greats
‘Big Dog’ Tony Perez was a clutch hitter, crucial leader for the Big Red Machine
Power-hitting George Foster set the Big Red Machine in motion
Dave ‘Elmer’ Concepcion deserves a spot in Cooperstown
Centerfielder ‘Chief’ Geronimo gave Big Red Machine pitchers ‘tremendous confidence’
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