By now you’ve surely heard that Sports Illustrated is teetering on the brink of collapse. The news of the mass layoffs at America’s former status-granter in the world of athletics was properly acknowledged it the venue that partially killed it: Everybody one the internet had something to say.
Joey Votto posted a sweet memory of sprinting to the mailbox to collect his weekly highlight, as befits a kid who would one day wind up on the cover. The best random comment on the matter was “I’m typing this on my football phone.”
Pete. Pete. Pete. Pete.
Here in Cincinnati’s virtual space, many of my colleagues shared out the images that now grace many a mancave: Carson Palmer rehabilitating on an underwater treadmill. A grinning Icky Woods, who thus activated The Curse and sealed the Bengals’ 1989 Super Bowl doom. Pete. Pete. Pete. Pete.
Looking at the entire history of SI covers, though, grants the odd experience of understanding how the rest of the media world sees us. When Cincinnati was splashed all the nation’s sports magazine, we found out what the PR machines and Madison Avenue really perceived our little river town. It was a little like having the opportunity to hear what English sounds like to non-English speakers.
Every Issue Surrounding It
The Bengals pop up when expected, bookended by Paul Brown the in year they were founded and the year they returned from the dead. But Joe Burrow’s turn on the cover was no big deal… after all, he’d been there before, as an undergraduate. He was, as expected, cool about it.
You see, the story is never in the cover. The story is in every issue surrounding it– about what we thought, what others wanted us to think, and how we measure greatness.
So you won’t find what you think when you go looking for the Reds through almost 70 years of four-color print. The throughline of Cincinnati’s presence in America’s sports consciousness shows us a team riding high for a decade and its leadership brought low by a long thread of culture-driven bad decisions.
Sports Illustrated was founded in 1954, and featured mostly illustrated covers. The Reds showed up along with the switch to more Life-style covers. And the story was very much behind the story:
There were four Reds in the 1956 All-Star game. Our Ed Bailey, representing the left field for the National League, is in the top left.
Gus Bell, Frank Robinson, and Roy McMillan also started. If you’re wondering if the Reds where their photos are, and whether the Reds were actually that good in 1956, they were not. (*sorry for the initial incorrect ID– as always, Redleg Nation readers are always more accurate than the rest of the Internet.)
This was when Cincinnati WLW broadcaster Ruth Lyons first began agitating for an all-Redlegs ballot. In 1957, the city voted in pretty much the entire lineup, and voting was taken away from the fans for several years– until after Lyons had retired. (I covered the ballot box stuffing in my first piece for Redleg Nation here.)
The last time a Red appeared on the cover was some Canadian in August of 2010:
In between was one last hurrah for Johnny Bench, a frequent cover boy who was named a member of the 2006 all-time baseball team:
There are so many stories in the middle that I need to break this post to make it scrollable, so I’ll have the rest of the Reds as they saw us in the coming columns.
But even if the wishbone C only showed up these three times… I’m pretty dang proud of us.
Ah the mystique of SI … and I don’t even visit their website anymore … 😮
As I read this and type my comment, I recall Tom Seaver interviews and a few other articles. I never subscribed myself, so I had to read it at a library or by borrowing a copy. I was a little more partial to the Sporting News for my baseball stuff.
Regardless, it’s the end of an era. Probably almost a decade late, but a memorable end regardless.
Looking forward to this nostalgic trip you are taking us on, MBE.
Tom is on his way with his own cover 🙂 I want to know what you think of his when it shows up!
I’m a subscriber to SI since the 80’s… looking forward to this series, Mary Beth! Who made the cover of SI was a real cultural “thing” for a long time. There was actually a little tiny bit of added excitement in the walk to the mailbox on Thursdays… who would it be? 🙂
(One thing though… the 1956 All-Star Game cover… I did a double-take but isn’t that Ernie Banks in the top-left corner?)
Oh did they mislabel it?! Somebody confirm and I’ll change if need be!
Here is Ernie on the cover with Pete Rose after he joined the Cubs:
https://sicovers.com/featured/cincinnati-reds-pete-rose-and-chicago-cubs-ernie-banks-september-08-1969-sports-illustrated-cover.html?product=poster
Deffo Ernie Banks.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bankser01.shtml Ernie Banks joined the Cubs in the early 1950s, not in 1969.
Sheesh. Thanks. This is from the SI site, so no wonder it’s sliding directly into Great Sucking Hole of Mail-Order Retail
Man this is such a sad situation. SI Was such a huge connection for my son and I. I was on the road a lot when he was growing up but each week we would talk about the latest edition of SI on the phone.i hate that SI will cease to exist!
That’s a lovely memory. When fathers and sons can’t talk about anything else, they can always talk about baseball.
SI deserves its fate sadly. They forgot who they were. Even back in the 70s, I mostly preferred Sporting News. But, the internet has destroyed print media. Now all we’re left with is AI generated garbage.
I miss the Sporting News, but I don’t miss having to be glued to a TV to know what’s going on with my games 🙂
If memory serves, and it often doesn’t, Eric Davis was on the cover during the 1990 season, with a caption that used the phrase “the Hunt For Red October.” Anybody remember that? LDS and I are in rare agreement about the sad demise of print media. Not all change is good.
Yep, you know things are messed up when @Greenmtred and I agree on something.
Well, we could agree on something that was perfectly fine. In theory.
I believe it was Chris Sabo on “The Hunt for Reds October”?
It is indeed Boogie.
I think SI may have used multiple covers sometimes. There could certainly be some conflating on my part, but I remember it pretty clearly.
Davis was on the cover, but not for the 90s series. You’ll see him!
That looks like Ernie Banks, not Frank Robinson, at top left.
I trust you guys over the rest of the Internet any day. Thanks so much for letting me know. Fixed!
The 1956 Reds WERE that good. 91-63 and 3rd place, 2 games back. In contention all year.
Best Reds teams of the 1950s.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CIN/1956.shtml here is proof.
I agree with both of your assessments above. That is Ernie Banks and the 56 team was really good. Next to the 1970 year, it was my favorite season as a young reds fan
Always fantastic to hear from those who were there! 🙂
I had every SI from the age of around 10 through 20 or so, including the first stabs at the swimsuit issue (thanks Mom and Dad)! I kept them in a neat stack in the basement, and would transfer them periodically to a neat stack in the garage. Coming home from a backpacking trip in Europe after graduating from college (3 month Eurailpass, 2nd class, $190 smacks!), I discovered that my Mom had had a garage sale in my absence and some lucky SOB made off with all of my SIs for a nickel apiece. I don’t think she even gave me the money?? I was crushed and still have not quite gotten over it.
That’ll teach you to put things in neat stacks.
I think you can tell by my screen name that the 56 team was my all time favorite.