10 memorable moments from the 1990 Reds Wire-to-Wire World Series championship
It's been 25 years since the Reds went Wire-to-Wire in winning the 1990 World Series championship. It's been 25 years since the Reds started off the season by winning their first nine games, by winning 50 games at the All-Star break and 59 of their first 92 games overall en route to a National League West title, a six-game victory over Pittsburgh in the NLCS and then a four-game sweep of Oakland to capture the franchise's fifth World Series title.
This weekend at Great American Ball Park the Reds are celebrating that championship team with a reunion in which more than 30 members of the squad are scheduled to attend.
The 1990 season was Lou Piniella's first year as manager. Piniella was taking over a team that had been through the turmoil of the Pete Rose scandal in 1989 but had finished in as runner-up in the NL West four times in the previous five seasons. It was a talented team, whether anyone wanted to believe so or not in April. By late September the Reds had won the franchise's first division title in 11 years.
There is a lot to be remembered from 1990. Anyone who followed that team in that magical season will have their favorite memories. Here are 10 moments that stick out, listed from beginning of the season to its championship end.
April 9, 1990: Opening Day
Opening Day against the Houston Astros wasn't your normal Opening Day. First off, it was on the road. The Reds and Astros played at the Astrodome because of labor dispute that resulted in the owners locking players out of spring training for 32 days, delaying the start of the season. Tom Browning got the start against Houston ace Mike Scott. Second baseman Mariano Duncan drove in the first runs of the season with two-run home run in the top of the second inning but Houston answered with four runs in the bottom of the inning to put the Reds in a deficit.
A RBI single by Duncan in the sixth inning tied the game, 4-4, and the Reds eventually won 8-4 in 11 innings, getting a three-run triple by Barry Larkin with two outs to break the tie. The bullpen combination of Tim Layana and Nasty Boys Norm Charlton, Rob Dibble and Randy Myers combined to pitch seven shutout innings with 11 strikeouts.
It was the first of nine straight wins to open the season.
May 25, 1990: Armstrong turns it on
Jack Armstrong pitched eight shutout innings, allowing just three hits and striking out seven without a walk to lead the Reds to 5-0 win at Montreal. It was the eighth win in nine decisions for Armstrong, who had won just six games in 21 previous starts with the Reds over the two previous seasons. Armstrong was 11-3 at the All-Star break and was the National League starter in the Mid-Summer Classic at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
Armstrong won just one game after the All-Star break but he got his chance to contribute in the postseason, delivering three shutout innings of relief as the Reds came from behind to beat Oakland in Game 2 of the World Series.
July 7, 1990: Reds get to 50
The Reds beat the Phillies, 5-0, at Veteran's Stadium in Philadelphia for their 50th win of the season with one game left before the All-Star break. Rick Mahler pitched a six-hit shutout and helped himself at the plate by going 1-for-3 with a RBI groundout in the sixth inning that gave the Reds their final run of the game.
July 23, 1990: 26 over .500
Larkin goes 3-for-5 with two doubles, two runs scored and two RBI in a 9-2 win at San Diego. The victory pushes the Reds' record to a season-high 26 games over .500 at 59-33 and gives them an 11-game lead in the NL West standings over second-place San Francisco.
September 29, 1990: Reds clinch NL West
It was a rainy Saturday at Riverfront Stadium, enough to eventually force play between the Reds and Padres to be called after 6½ innings and give San Diego a 3-1 win but this was a day of celebration. While the Reds and Padres were in a rain delay, San Francisco was beating the Dodgers 4-3. That result clinched the NL West title for the Reds for the first time since 1979. They never trailed in the division the entire season and for only two days did they share first place. Their lead never dropped below 3½ games after May 4.
October 5, 1990: Reds even the series
Pittsburgh took Game 1 of the NLCS by rallying from a 3-0 deficit for a 4-3 win at Riverfront Stadium and had its best pitcher, Doug Drabek, starting in Game 2. The Reds were up to the challenge, however, and beat the Pirates 2-1 to even the series. Browning gave up one run on six hits over six innings before turning the game over to Dibble and Myers. Right fielder Paul O'Neill drove in both runs for the Reds and helped quell a Pirates rally with his arm.
O'Neill's flair single to right field in the first inning scored Larkin for the first run of the game. He doubled off the wall in left-center field in the fifth to bring home Herm Winningham with what proved to be the decisive run. The Pirates got their first two runners on base in the top of the sixth inning on singles by Andy Van Slyke and Bobby Bonilla but O'Neill threw out Van Slyke at third base attempting to tag up on a fly ball by Barry Bonds for a double play. Browning struck out R.J. Reynolds to end the inning and the Pirates didn't threaten again.
October 12, 1990: Braggs robs Martinez, Reds win NLCS
The Reds were three outs away from the NL pennant and had Myers on the mound to protect a 2-1 lead in Game 6 against the Pirates. Myers was working his second inning and got Bonilla on a pop-up to Larkin at shortstop to start the ninth. He walked Bonds, however, to bring up Carmelo Martinez. Martinez had failed to get sacrifice bunt down with two on and no one out in the seventh inning but he wasn't bunting this time.
Martinez hit a fly ball to right field that kept carrying and forced right fielder Glenn Braggs to the wall. Braggs found his way back to the warning track, took a short leap back into the wall with his glove hand raised above the top. Braggs came down with the ball, robbing Martinez of a home run that would've give Pittsburgh the lead. It was final defensive gem in a series full of gems for the Reds.
This was a game in which the bench starred. Braggs entered the game in the eighth inning. Ron Oester was part of double switch in the top of the seventh inning and led off the bottom of the inning with a single to right field. He scored what proved to be the series-deciding run on a single by pinch-hitter Luis Quinones.
October 16, 1990: Davis sets the tone in Game 1
Game 1 of the World Series at Riverfront Stadium. The Reds are in the World Series for the first time in 14 years, the first time since the Big Red Machine swept the New York Yankees in 1976 to win back-to-back titles. They're facing the Oakland A's, the defending World Series champions who are prohibitive favorites behind the star power of left fielder Rickey Henderson and Bash Brothers Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire. The A's had swept San Francisco in 1989 and had swept Boston to win their third consecutive AL pennant.
Any sense of Oakland invincibility was wiped out in the bottom of the first inning when Eric Davis drove a two-run home run deep to center field with two outs against Dave Stewart. The Reds went on to beat the A's 7-0 behind Jose Rijo's seven shutout innings but it was Davis' home run in the first inning that not only set the tone for the game but for the entire series.
October 17, 1990: Oliver comes through
The Reds sent Danny Jackson, who had helped Kansas City win the 1985 World Series title, to the mound in Game 2 against AL Cy Young award winner Bob Welch. Jackson didn't make it through the third inning as Oakland built a 4-2 lead but the Cincinnati bullpen of Scott Scudder, Armstrong, Charlton and Dibble shut the A's out the rest of the game to give the Reds a chance to come back. That's what they did, scoring single runs in the fourth and the eighth inning to force extra innings.
Against closer Dennis Eckersley, the Reds won the game in the 10th inning with the some of the most unlikely players they could've imagined.
Davis led off the inning with a groundout. Billy Bates, who was acquired from Milwaukee along with Braggs in the middle of the season, came up as a pinch-hitter for Dibble. Bates fell behind two strikes but reached on an infield single to third base. Chris Sabo followed with a solid single to left field to move Bates to second base. Catcher Joe Oliver, who was a .231 hitter in the regular season and was just 4-for-22 in the postseason at that point, came to the plate.
Oliver pulled Eckersley's 0-1 pitch over the third base bag, hitting the foul line for a single that scored Bates and gave the Reds a 5-4 win and a 2-0 series lead.
October 20, 1990: World Series champions Rijo was more dominating in Game 4 than he had been in Game 1. After allowing a run in the first inning and then two walks in the second, Rijo retired 20 batters in a row before giving way to Myers with one out in the ninth. The Reds had rallied to take the lead in the eighth inning with two runs off of Stewart and now Myers was called upon to close up the championship.
That's exactly what he did, getting Canseco to groundout to Sabo at third base and then getting Carney Lansford on a foul pop up to first baseman Todd Benzinger.
Wire-to-Wire was complete.
