Our rundown of the best teams in the Modern Era is progressing by five-year intervals. Last Monday’s installment determined that Cincinnati’s 1975 version — the vaunted Big Red Machine — was the strongest club to take the field between 1971 and 1975.
We move today to the period from 1976 to 1980, once again finding Cincinnati in first place. The winner this time is the 1976 Reds, the immediate successors to the club mentioned above.
All of these five-year rankings are based on team scores, which are plotted on a 100-point scale. (Click here to learn about the formula.) The Reds’ 1976 TS of 87.331 points surpassed every other 1976-1980 club by more than four points.
Only 11 of the 1,656 teams throughout the entire Modern Era (1961-2022) scored higher than Cincinnati’s ’76 squad.
Second place in the 1976-1980 standings goes to the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates, followed by the 1978 Los Angeles Dodgers, and the 1976 and 1977 versions of the New York Yankees.
Look below for a rundown of the 10 highest-rated clubs from 1976 to 1980. Each is shown with its win-loss record and its Modern Era percentile, the share of 1961-2022 teams that it outranks.
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1. Cincinnati Reds (1976)
Record: 102-60
Team score: 87.331 points
Modern Era percentile: 99.3%
Manager: Sparky Anderson
Stars: Second baseman Joe Morgan won his second straight Most Valuable Player Award, leading the National League in both on-base average (.444) and slugging percentage (.576). Third baseman Pete Rose topped the league in runs (130), hits (215), and doubles (42).
Bottom line: Cincinnati stumbled out of the gate, losing nine of its first 20 games, but the club morphed into the Big Red Machine after that, going 91-51 the rest of the way. The Reds were unbeatable in the postseason, sweeping the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL Championship Series and the New York Yankees in the World Series.
2. Pittsburgh Pirates (1979)
Record: 98-64
Team score: 83.113 points
Modern Era percentile: 98.2%
Manager: Chuck Tanner
Stars: The club’s emotional leader, first baseman Willie Stargell, tied Keith Hernandez of the St. Louis Cardinals for the National League’s Most Valuable Player Award. Stargell swatted 32 home runs. Right fielder Dave Parker batted .310 and drove home 94 runs.
Bottom line: The Pirates hardly seemed like a club of destiny. They didn’t climb over the .500 mark for good until June 15. But they set a blistering 69-36 pace the rest of the way, swept the Reds in the NL Championship Series, and then overcame a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Baltimore Orioles in Game Seven of the World Series.
3. Los Angeles Dodgers (1978)
Record: 95-67
Team score: 82.060 points
Modern Era percentile: 97.9%
Manager: Tommy Lasorda
Stars: Right fielder Reggie Smith led the Dodgers in home runs (29) and on-base average (.382). He finished fourth in balloting for the MVP Award. Pitcher Burt Hooton’s 19-10 record and 2.71 ERA earned him second place in the Cy Young Award standings, trailing only San Diego’s Gaylord Perry.
Bottom line: Los Angeles spent much of the season in a battle with the Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants for the lead in the NL West. The Dodgers didn’t establish a permanent grip on first place until August 16. Their season ended with a six-game loss to the Yankees in the World Series.
4. New York Yankees (1976)
Record: 97-62
Team score: 81.368 points
Modern Era percentile: 97.6%
Manager: Billy Martin
Stars: Catcher Thurman Munson was named the Most Valuable Player of the American League, batting .302 with 105 runs batted in. Third baseman Graig Nettles led the Yankees in home runs (32) and slugging percentage (.475).
Bottom line: The Yankees won the American League title in 1976, earning the franchise’s first World Series appearance in 12 years. It was their misfortune to square off against the Reds, then at the height of their powers. The result was a four-game Cincinnati sweep.
5. New York Yankees (1977)
Record: 100-62
Team score: 80.125 points
Modern Era percentile: 97.0%
Manager: Billy Martin
Stars: Graig Nettles again paced the club in home runs (37), while also playing Gold Glove defense at third base. Center fielder Mickey Rivers batted a solid .326 and swiped a team-leading 22 bases.
Bottom line: The Yankees finished 1977 with a slightly lower team score than the TS they had amassed the previous year. But why would they have cared? The Yanks had been thoroughly outclassed in the 1976 World Series, but they triumphed over the Dodgers in 1977’s six-game matchup.
Next five
6. Baltimore Orioles (1979), 102-57, 96.2%
7. Los Angeles Dodgers (1977), 98-64, 96.1%
8. New York Yankees (1978), 100-63, 96.0%
9. Philadelphia Phillies (1980), 91-71, 95.3%
10. Kansas City Royals (1980), 97-65, 92.4%