60 free Cincinnati Reds trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Cincinnati Reds trivia quiz starts with a team thrown out of the National League for selling beer and playing on Sundays, and follows the franchise through the American Association, the tainted 1919 title, the first night game, Vander Meer's back-to-back no-hitters, a 15-year-old pitcher, the Redlegs years and the Frank Robinson trade. Then comes the Big Red Machine: Sparky Anderson, the Great Eight, Bench, Morgan, Pérez and Pete Rose, the 1975 and 1976 titles, and Rose's hit record and ban. The 1990 wire-to-wire champions, the Nasty Boys, Marge Schott and her Saint Bernards, Griffey Jr., Joey Votto, Elly De La Cruz and Terry Francona round it out. The ballparks get their own questions too: Crosley Field, Riverfront Stadium and Rose's collision with Ray Fosse, and Great American Ball Park's steamboat smokestacks, plus the Rosie Reds and the retired numbers. Easy questions suit any Reds fan; the hard ones are for people who know which sportswriter coined 'Big Red Machine'. Every answer has been checked against an encyclopaedic source and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The original Cincinnati club was expelled from the National League in 1880 for selling beer and what else?
Playing on Sundays
Neither practice was actually against the rules yet; both were popular with the city's large German population.
Q 02The modern Reds were a charter member of which league in 1882, winning its first pennant?
American Association
The league was founded at Cincinnati's Hotel Gibson after a bluff by telegram convinced owners that everyone else was coming.
Q 03The Reds' first World Series title, in 1919, came against which team amid a scandal?
Chicago White Sox
The Black Sox affair, revealed the next year, forever tainted the club's 'Golden Anniversary' championship.
Q 04Which electronics magnate, maker of radios and refrigerators, bought the Reds out of bankruptcy in 1933?
Powel Crosley Jr.
He also founded WLW radio, the club's flagship station, and Redland Field was renamed for him in 1934.
Q 05Crosley Field hosted the first what in Major League history, in 1935?
Night game
It was also the first fireworks night, courtesy of Joe Rozzi of Rozzi's Famous Fireworks.
Q 06Which Reds pitcher remains the only man to throw back-to-back no-hitters, in 1938?
Johnny Vander Meer
The second came in the first game played under lights at Ebbets Field.
Q 07The Reds beat which team in seven games to win the 1940 World Series?
Detroit Tigers
First baseman Frank McCormick was NL MVP that year; the club had been swept by the Yankees the season before.
Q 08Who became the youngest major leaguer ever when he pitched for the Reds in 1944 at age 15?
Joe Nuxhall
He was on loan from a junior high school in Hamilton, Ohio, and later spent decades in the radio booth.
Q 09In 1953 the club asked to be called by what name, to avoid Cold War connotations?
Redlegs
The word 'REDS' even disappeared from the wishbone-C logo until the team reverted in 1959.
Q 10Which former MVP did the Reds trade to Baltimore after 1965 in baseball's most lopsided deal?
Frank Robinson
He won the AL Triple Crown and MVP the very next year and led the Orioles to their first title.
Q 11The Rosie Reds, baseball's oldest fan club, were formed by Cincinnati women to do what?
Stop the owner moving the team
Owner Bill DeWitt had threatened relocation after the 1964 near-miss; the club later nearly moved to San Diego before a new downtown stadium was approved.
Q 12Which little-known manager was hired in 1970 and led the Big Red Machine to four pennants?
Sparky Anderson
He was fired after two second-place finishes in 1978 and later won another title with Detroit.
Q 13Which sportswriter is generally credited with coining the nickname 'Big Red Machine'?
Bob Hertzel
Q 21Which pitcher's only career no-hitter came as a Red against St. Louis in 1978?
Tom Seaver
The Reds had acquired him from the Mets a year earlier for Pat Zachry, Doug Flynn, Steve Henderson and Dan Norman.
Q 22Pete Rose's 1978 hitting streak, tied for the second-longest ever, reached how many games?
44
It ended in Atlanta when Gene Garber struck him out; DiMaggio's 56 remained safe.
Q 23Pete Rose broke Ty Cobb's hits record in September 1985 with a single off which Padres pitcher?
Eric Show
Hit number 4,192 brought a minutes-long home ovation; he finished with 4,256.
He used it in the Cincinnati Enquirer in 1969, and it stuck to the 1970 team that won 70 of its first 100 games.
Q 14Which center fielder joined Cincinnati in the 1971 Houston trade for a Hall of Fame second baseman?
César Gerónimo
Lee May and Tommy Helms went to the Astros in the deal, which Reds fans still regard as the franchise's best.
Q 15In 1975 the manager moved Pete Rose to which position so George Foster could play left field?
Third base
Rose had little experience there but proved reliable, and the club won 108 games.
Q 16Whose RBI single won Game 7 of the 1975 World Series for the Reds?
Joe Morgan
It came the day after Carlton Fisk's foul-pole homer had forced a seventh game.
Q 17The Reds swept which team in the 1976 World Series to repeat as champions?
New York Yankees
They went undefeated that postseason and remained the last NL team to repeat until the Dodgers in 2024-25.
Q 18The Reds have not lost a World Series game since which moment?
Carlton Fisk's 1975 home run
That is nine straight Series wins: Game 7 of 1975, four in 1976 and four in 1990.
Q 19The Reds trailed which team by 10.5 games after the 1973 All-Star break before winning the division?
Los Angeles Dodgers
They then lost a bad-tempered NLCS to the Mets that featured Rose's fight with Bud Harrelson.
Q 20Which Reds pitcher gave up Hank Aaron's record-tying 714th home run on Opening Day 1974?
Jack Billingham
It was the first pitch Aaron swung at that season; the record-breaker came in Atlanta four days later.
Q 24Which commissioner banned Pete Rose from baseball in 1989 following the Dowd Report?
Bart Giamatti
Rose was posthumously reinstated in 2025, making him eligible for the Hall of Fame at last.
Q 25Who gave Pete Rose the nickname 'Charlie Hustle' after watching him sprint to first on a walk?
Whitey Ford
It was meant as a jibe during a spring training game against the Yankees; Rose wore it proudly.
Q 26Johnny Bench, a two-time MVP, was raised in which state?
Oklahoma
He was valedictorian at Binger-Oney High School and won ten Gold Gloves behind the plate.
Q 27The Reds moved from Crosley Field into which new riverside venue on June 30, 1970?
Riverfront
Hank Aaron hit the first home run there, and two weeks later it hosted the All-Star Game.
Q 28The 1970 All-Star Game is remembered for Pete Rose's collision with which catcher?
Ray Fosse
The Cleveland catcher's shoulder was never the same, and the play is still argued about.
Q 29Which reliever refused to join the Reds in the early 1980s rather than shave his handlebar mustache?
Rollie Fingers
The clean-shaven policy dated to GM Bob Howsam and was not rescinded until goateed Greg Vaughn arrived in 1999.
Q 30Which Reds pitcher threw a perfect game in 1988?
Tom Browning
It was the club's last no-hitter for 24 years.