The Big Red Machine's Last Hurrah

What if I told you that the Big Red Machine was deprived of one last World Series run – not by competing teams, but by MLB owners?

This is the story of the bizarre 1981 season and how the Cincinnati Reds were excluded from the playoffs despite owning baseball's best record.

Incorporating fact and fiction, "The Big Red Machine's Last Hurrah" delivers corrective justice to Johnny Bench, Dave Concepción, George Foster, Ken Griffey and their talented teammates, supplying this special group with a final shot at glory in the Greatest World Series Never Played."The Big Red Machine's Last Hurrah" tells the real story of the infamous strike interrupted 1981 MLB "split season" concocted by Bowie Kuhn that resulted in the Reds being excluded from the postseason despite possessing the best record in baseball – and then what should have happened!

The fictional part of the book details the lawsuit that was filed to prevent this unjust result, Judge Joe Jackson's wise decision, and the resulting greatest World Series never played."

RANDY FREKING is a lifelong baseball fan and current cohost of the
podcast, WE LOVE OUR TEAM. He lives in Cincinnati with his wife,
Sue, and they have four adult children and enough grandchildren to
field a starting lineup. They are blessed with many nieces and nephews,
including coauthor Grant.
A retired lawyer versed in labor law, Randy is the author of Cincinnati's
150-Year Opening Day History: The Hoopla Started With A Parade
(Cincinnati Book Publishing, 2018); coauthor with Mike Zilliox of
@Titanicstruggle: The Best of Marty Brennaman (Cincinnati Book
Publishing, 2020); author of The Real Employee Handbook (CreateSpace
Independent Publishing Platform, 2012); and author of the ABA Consumer
Guide to Employee Rights (American Bar Association, 2015). Randy was
listed in every edition of Best Lawyers in America from 1994 through his
retirement in 2020.
Randy graduated from The Ohio State University College of Law, along
with classmates and avid baseball fans, Jim Neary and Bob Kiss. Neary and
Kiss, bearing the pseudonyms of Jim Far and Bob Smack in the fictional
chapters herein, were Randy's co-conspirators in filing the lawsuit that
inspired this book.

Grant Freking is also a lifelong baseball fan and overall sports enthusiast. He lives in Cincinnati, surrounded by family and friends.
A journalist/writer since age 16 and a graduate of The Ohio State University, Grant currently works in marketing and communications for the University of Cincinnati. He has written for a host of brands, magazines, newspapers, and websites, covering everything from high school gymnastics meets in Lafayette, Indiana, to signage and graphics conventions in Las Vegas. His writing has garnered honors from the Public Relations Society of America's Cincinnati chapter, Society of Professional Journalists, Indiana Associated Press Media Editors, Hoosier State Press Association, and Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association.