Best Cincinnati Reds Ever: Ted Kluszewski vs. Jim O’Toole

First Round Matchup | No. 5 Ted Kluszewski vs. No. 12 Jim O’Toole

Ted Kluszewski

Big Klu was not only one of the great underrated sluggers of all-time, he was also one of the game’s most physically imposing players. With biceps that measured 15 inches around — so large he had to cut the sleeves off of his Cincinnati Reds uniform — he struck fear into the hearts of pitchers everywhere during the prime of his career.

After signing as an amateur free agent with the Reds in 1946, Kluszewski made his debut the next year. Despite his size, it took him several years to blossom into a star. In 1950, he showed the world a glimpse into the player he’d become by hitting 37 doubles, 25 home runs and driving in 111 runs, garnering a few National League MVP votes. Three years later, in 1953, Big Klu emerged as one of the top hitters in the game.

In a four-year stretch from ’53 to ’56, he hit more home runs than anyone else in baseball (171), beating out the likes of future Hall of Famers Duke Snider, Eddie Mathews and Mickey Mantle. Kluszewski’s 464 runs batted in trailed only Snider, while his batting average (.315) and slugging percentage (.585) also ranked in the top 10 during that span. As he did throughout his career, he also made contact at very high rate, walking (248) far more than he struck out (140). He was named an All-Star in all four of those years and finished as the runner up for MVP in 1954.

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Had Kluszewski continued on that path for a few more seasons, he’d have truly gone down as one of the all-time greats, but injuries caught up to him. He would average just 89 games played over his final five seasons and would never again hit more than 15 home runs. His last season in Cincinnati proved to be in 1957, when he was limited to just 69 games. He spent his final four seasons with three different clubs — the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Angels — and retired after the 1961 campaign.

The Reds never made the playoffs in the years Kluszewski spent with them, but that didn’t diminish his impact with the franchise. The year after his retirement, he was inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame and returned to the club in 1970 as their hitting coach, a position he would hold through the duration of the Big Red Machine’s glory years. He had his No. 18 retired by the club in 1998, ten years after his death, and currently has a statue sitting outside of Great American Ball Park. To date, Big Klu ranks fifth in Reds history in home runs (251), sixth in slugging percentage (.512), eighth in RBI (886) and is in the top 20 in doubles (244), batting average (.302) and fWAR (25.1).

Jim O’Toole

When you talk about the great pitchers in Cincinnati history, O’Toole has to be in the conversation.

Signed by the Reds in 1956 at 20 years old, he was an established member of the starting rotation by 1958 and, along with Jim Maloney, the left-hander anchored the pitching staff in the 1960s. His breakout season came in 1961, when he went 19-9 with a 3.10 ERA in 252 2/3 innings, as he finished 10th in MVP voting and helped lead the Reds to the World Series in 1961, their first pennant win in 21 years. He would start Game 1 and 4 of that series against the New York Yankees, but would lose both to future Hall of Famer Whitey Ford. The Yankees would go on to win the series 4-1.

O’Toole would win a combined 50 games over the next three years, while pitching 200 or more innings in each and putting up ERAs of 3.50, 2.88 and 2.66, respectively. In 1963, he was selected to start the All-Star Game for the NL, the sixth different time a Cincinnati hurler had earned that honor. Since then, only two Reds have started the Midsummer Classic (Mario Soto and Jack Armstrong).

After a down year in 1965, O’Toole bounced back in ’66 by posting a 3.55 ERA in 25 starts in his last season with the Reds. He was traded to the White Sox after the 1966 season, and he would spend his final season in his hometown before retiring at the young age of 30.

In nine seasons in the Queen City, the southpaw posted a 94-81 record, along with a 3.59 ERA, 1.29 WHIP and 1,002 strikeouts. He was elected to the team’s hall of fame in 1970 and made Cincinnati his new hometown, appearing at various Reds team events and functions throughout the remainder of his life.

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