2008 Cincinnati Reds season

The 2008 Cincinnati Reds season was the 139th season for the franchise in Major League Baseball, and their sixth at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. The Reds play in the National League Central; their divisional foes were the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, Milwaukee Brewers, Houston Astros, and Pittsburgh Pirates. The Cubs were the defending champions. The Reds did not make the playoffs until 2010 season, with their last playoff appearance in 1995.^[1]

The 2008 season was manager Dusty Baker's first with the Reds; the 19-year major league veteran outfielder from 1968 to 1986 with the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, and Oakland Athletics, previously managed the San Francisco Giants from 1993 to 2002 and the Chicago Cubs from 2003 to 2006. He took the entire 2007 off. Baker replaced Pete Mackanin, who was named the interim manager on July 1, 2007, after Jerry Narron, coincidentally hired as an interim manager himself, was fired.

Baker was the club's first-ever African American manager.^[2]

The season was dedicated to a number of people who died prior to the beginning of the season. Primarily, former Reds left-handed pitcher and longtime announcer Joe Nuxhall, affectionately known to fans as "The Ol' Lefthander", who died on November 15, 2007, of cancer. A patch that said "NUXY" was worn on Reds uniforms.

Other Reds figures who passed were Sheldon "Chief" Bender, a former major league pitcher who developed the Reds' minor league farm system in the late 1960s and into the 1970s. Bender died on February 27, 2008. He worked with general manager Bob Howsam, who had died eight days earlier, to develop the Reds into 1970s powerhouse team nicknamed "The Big Red Machine".

Just 21 games into the 2008 season, the Reds fired 3rd year General Manager Wayne Krivsky and replaced him with former St. Louis Cardinals General Manager Walt Jocketty. The Reds had at 9–12 record, tied for 4th in the NL Central standings at the time of the firing. It was the team's worst start since the 2003 season. The Reds again stirred up controversy in Cincinnati in late July and early August by first trading right fielder Ken Griffey Jr., who a month earlier had hit his 600th home run, to the Chicago White Sox at the trade deadline. On their next off day they sent popular left fielder Adam Dunn to the Arizona Diamondbacks for two minor leaguers and pitcher Micah Owings.