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Wire to Wire: How the 1990 Reds Shocked the A's
The 1990 Reds weren't supposed to win the World Series. They were supposed to be a nice story that ran into the Oakland A's. Instead they swept the defending champions in four games and gave Cincinnati its fifth title, and still its most recent one.
Here's how that team pulled it off.
First place, every single day
Lou Piniella was the new manager, and his team came out flying. The Reds won their first nine games, a franchise record, and were in first place every day of the season. Only one National League team had done that before, the 1955 Dodgers.
The season even started in an unusual way. A lockout pushed Opening Day back a week, so Cincinnati, which traditionally hosts the first game of the season, opened on the road for only the third time since 1876. By the time the Reds came home on April 17 for the Findlay Market parade, renamed "Reds Homecoming" that year, they were 6-0. They beat San Diego that day to go to 7-0.
It wasn't all smooth. The Reds were 41-21 after 62 games and went exactly 50-50 the rest of the way, finishing 91-71. They still won the division by five games over the Dodgers, clinching it on September 29.
The building blocks
Two trades the previous December shaped the team. Cincinnati sent closer John Franco to the Mets for Randy Myers, and traded Tim Leary to the Yankees in a deal that brought back Hal Morris.
Jack Armstrong won eight of his first nine starts, went 11-3 before the break and started the All-Star Game. Barry Larkin, Rob Dibble and Myers also made the team, and Larkin won a Silver Slugger.
The Nasty Boys
The bullpen was the identity. Myers, Dibble and Norm Charlton became known as the Nasty Boys, three hard throwers who shortened games. Together they saved 44 games, with Myers getting 31. Dibble and Myers shared NLCS MVP honors after the Reds beat Pittsburgh in six games.
Shocking Oakland
Oakland was the overwhelming favorite in the World Series. There was a personal angle, too: Piniella and A's manager Tony La Russa were old friends who had played together on an American Legion team in Tampa. It didn't play out the way anyone expected.
- Game 1: Eric Davis homered in the first inning, José Rijo settled in, and the Reds won. The Cincinnati Post's headline the next day: "DAVIS STUNS GOLIATH."
- Game 2: Pitcher Tom Browning's wife went into labor and left the game to drive to the hospital. The Reds, wanting Browning available if the game went long, had broadcaster Marty Brennaman issue an on-air bulletin to find him.
- Game 4: Rijo and Dave Stewart dueled. Oakland led 1-0 until the eighth, when a Larkin single, a bunt hit and an error loaded the bases. A groundout and a sacrifice fly made it 2-1. Rijo at one point retired 20 straight hitters, and Myers got the last two outs.
The Nasty Boys held the A's scoreless in nearly nine innings. Billy Hatcher set a World Series record with seven straight hits and batted .750, breaking Babe Ruth's record for a four-game series. Rijo won two games with a 0.59 ERA and was named MVP.
Our Take
The 1990 Reds are a reminder that you don't need the most talent to win in October. You need a fast start to build a cushion, a bullpen nobody wants to face and players who get hot at the right time. That team had all three.
Thirty-six years later, it's still the standard. Every offseason, the question is the same: what will it take to get back there?
Go Reds.