Early last month Jeff Polman–the baseball fanatic/alternate history enthusiast who runs the blog 1924 and You Are There!! (“a complete ‘fictional replay’ of the 1924 season using Strat-O-Matic Baseball, then reported daily in the language of the time through two characters”)–contacted me about being an absentee manager for another baseball simulation he had in mind. He wanted me to put together a lineup and rotation for the Reds. The 1977 Reds.

Now, I wasn’t born for the 1977 baseball season, so I pretty much expected to be arranging my lineup in order of mustache awesomeness, but as it turns out, there were a few big names on the team back then.

Here’s the result; see what you think. I think you stat heads will appreciate the consideration for OBP that went into deciding this somewhat nontraditional batting order. It’s a pretty balanced group, so we’re starting the season sending out the same guys against righties and lefties and see how it goes. Might need to mix it up as the season goes on.

On the Field
1. Joe Morgan
2. George Foster
3. Pete Rose
4. Ken Griffey
5. Johnny Bench
6. Dan Driessen
7. Dave Concepcion
8. Cesar Geronimo

On the Mound
1. Tom Seaver
2. Fred Norman
3. Paul Moskau
4. Doug Capilla
5. Jack Billingham
6. Mario Soto

The season will start later this month. There’s supposed to be a Twitter feed or something. Whatever the technology, we’ll get the updates to you. I know how entrancing pretend baseball can be.