By Mark Maynard
Kentucky Today managing editor
It started 14 years before marrying the love of my life in 1981. Yet the affair that began in 1967, when my father took me to a baseball game at Crosley Field, has carried on through a lifetime.
They had me at “Play ball!”
My relationship has been a rocky one over the years because the Cincinnati Reds, like every other team in Major League Baseball, are heartbreakers. But those good days were oh so good. We yearn to return to the days of the Big Red Machine. It will likely never happen again, or will it? Those long-suffering Cubs fans enjoyed the first World Series championship since 1908 last year. So who is to say the Reds can’t find some new glory?
Nevertheless, the memories of the Big Red Machine and those days when they were building to that crescendo in the 1970s are fresh in my mind.
One of those cogs was Lee May, also known as the “Big Bopper from Birmingham.” The big first baseman and fan favorite launched some missiles out of Crosley Field and a few out of Riverfront Stadium, too. I used to love watching him come to the plate because he brought that thunder with him.
Lee May was one of my favorite Reds’ players when my love affair with the Reds was beginning. He died on Sunday at the age of 74, leaving Reds Nation in mourning.
My memories of the “Big Bopper” remain electric in my mind’s eye. I was sitting in the green seats (remember those?) in right field at Riverfront Stadium and a rocket off May’s bat was coming directly toward us. Thankfully it hooked slightly. The ball was sizzling when it careened off the hard, plastic seats. I’ll never forget the sound that baseball made in flight and on impact.
Lee May didn’t hit many (any?) cheap home runs. He even blasted the last home run at dear old Crosley Field.
But with that joy that Lee May brought us came heartbreak.
It was November of 1971 when my father came into my bedroom one morning and announced to me what he’d read in that morning’s sports sections. The Reds and Astros had put together a blockbuster trade that, at the time, sure looked painfully lopsided with my Reds on the short end.
May was one of the Reds’ more popular players as was second baseman Tommy Helms. The right side of the infield was gone. Helms was a two-time All-Star, Gold Glove winner and Rookie of the Year. May was a two-time All-Star and the Reds’ MVP in 1971. Both players were instrumental in the 1970 NL pennant-winning club. Popular bench player Jimmy Stewart was also part of the trade.
In return, the Reds obtained disgruntled second baseman Joe Morgan (who?), third baseman Denis Menke, pitcher Jack Billingham and outfielders Cesar Geronomo and Ed Armbrister.
Everybody was in agreement: The Reds got swindled.
Well, history told a different story. It was the making of the Big Red Machine with Morgan taking off on a Hall of Fame career, Geronomo becoming a dynamo defensive player in center field and Billingham a workhorse pitcher. They were all part of the Reds winning back-to-back World Series in 1975 and 1976.
The Reds sacrificed Lee May for a future that the Queen City (and me) long to see again.
It looks like this love affair is for life.
Mark Maynard can be reached at mark.maynard@kentuckytoday.com