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Best Cincinnati Reds Ever: George Foster v. Wally Post

By Brandon Shrider|
Credit: cincinnati.com
Credit: cincinnati.com

First Round Matchup | No. 3 George Foster v. No. 14 Wally Post

Foster:

George Foster didn’t join the Cincinnati Reds until a midseason trade during the 1971 season — and once he did he hardly made a name for himself. But four years later he began to shows glimpses of a future All-Star when he hit .300 with 23 home runs and 78 RBIs.  Foster broke out entirely the following season as a key player for the Big Red Machine.

He hit .306 with 29 home runs and a league-leading 121 RBIs making his first of five All-Star appearances and was runner-up to teammate Joe Morgan in the MVP race. Foster one-upped himself in 1977 by winning the MVP award ahead of Greg Luzinski and future Red Dave Parker. He led the league with 52 home runs — the first Red to eclipse the half-century mark — 149 RBIs, 124 runs, .631 SLG and a 1.013 OPS — and paired it with a .320 average and 61 walks.

Foster earned MVP votes in three of the next four seasons including a third place finish in 1981 behind Mike Schmidt and Andre Dawson. In the season following his MVP performance Foster still belted a league-high 40 home runs, drove in a league-best 120 RBIs and hit .281.

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After a slow start to his Reds career, he produced seven straight seasons with at least 20 home runs, topping 90 RBIs in six of them and 100 RBIs in three. He finished his 11-year Reds career with 244 home runs, 861 RBIs, and a .286/.356/.514 slash line. And over his final seven season’s with the Reds Foster averaged 31 home runs and 107 RBIs — not too shabby.

He was one of the most dominant, not just power hitters, but hitters in general during his prime and is undoubtedly one of the best Reds hitters ever. Foster is tied with Ken Griffey Jr. for the fourth highest slugging percentage (.514) in Reds history behind just Frank Robinson (.554), Joey Votto (.530) and Adam Dunn (.520).

After being a part of the back-to-back World Series champion teams of 1975 and 76 — including a career .286 average with three home runs in 76 postseason at-bats — Foster was inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame in 2003.

Post:

Wally Post earned a six-game stint with the Cincinnati Reds in 1949 as a 19 year old, but he didn’t earn a full-time gig until five years later at age 24. But Post quickly made his presence felt. After a rookie season in which he hit 18 home runs with 83 RBIs and a .255 average, Post burst onto the scene with 40 home runs, his only 100 RBI season (109) and a .309 average prompting a 12th place finish in the MVP race.

Post did strikeout a league-high 102 times that season before following it up the following year with, again, a league-high 124 strikeouts, but he had asserted himself as a legitimate power-hitting outfielder despite his 6-foot-1, 190-pound frame.

Unfortunately for Post, he produced his 40-home-run season on a bad Reds team that featured little offensive help with Ted Kluszewski, Gus Bell and little else. The following season though, the Reds won 91 games as Frank Robinson was added into the picture for a dynamic outfield of Robinson, Bell and Post.

Post totaled 12 seasons with the Reds, although they were broken up by a stint with the Phillies, hit 172 home runs with 525 RBIs and a .266 average. He was inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame in 1965 — three years after his last full season with the Reds and one year removed from his retirement.

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