1990 Cincinnati Reds

Red14

Well-known member
I believe on Fox Sports Ohio this week, beginning Wednesday, the 1990 world series games will be re-aired. What a magical season for the Reds!!! From the delayed start, the Reds beginning on the road in Houston, winning the first 9 games and going wire to wire. Should be fun to relive that season.
 
 
Fantastic game 1 of the 1990 World Series last night. Obviously the quick story is that Eric Davis's first inning 2 run homer set the tone for the series and the Reds rolled from there. But the As has multiple chances to stay in the game. They left 11 men on base and was one key hit away from being in the game at several points.

Dave Stewart was unusually wild that game, walking 4 in only 4 innings. I thought Billy Hatcher getting the first inning walk and his base stealing ability kept Stewart occupied, Davis got a fastball and smacked it.

Reds got the lead early, added on in the 3rd and 5th innings to put the game away. Tonight, Bob Welch vs. Danny Jackson.
 
Honestly still think Eric Davis' 1st inning home run won the series. I remember the talk being how great the A's were and how the Reds didn't stand much chance. That was kinda the...we can play with these guys moment.
 
I forgot that Tom Browning’s wife went into labor during Game 2 of the 1990 World Series. Tom was at the hospital and when the game went into extra innings the Reds Clubhouse called up to Marty Brennaman to announce over 700 WLW that the Reds needed him to return to the stadium.
Lou Piniella thought they may need him to pitch. Joe Oliver knocks one down the line scoring Billy Bates. Reds Win and they announce over the radio that Browning can stand down.
 
Honestly still think Eric Davis' 1st inning home run won the series. I remember the talk being how great the A's were and how the Reds didn't stand much chance. That was kinda the...we can play with these guys moment.
Yes, it was the first haymaker that staggered the A's. But there was plenty of opportunities for them to get back into the series. Watched game 2 last night and Danny Jackson wasn't very good. Reds down 4-2 early. Jack Armstrong, who started in the all-star game that season, had faltered and came out of the bullpen in the playoffs and gave the Reds some good middle innings.
Reds had 2nd and 3rd, nobody out and didn't score. Fortunately, they were able to tie the game up and send it to extras. Ron Oester came in and got a big hit to tie the game. Just so many little known contributions in that series by so many Reds players. Heck, the A's had Harrold Baines and Willie McGee come off the bench in that game!
Had to be a surreal feeling for Billy Bates who got an astro turf chopper hit in the 10th and scored the winning run on Joe Oliver's hit. Bates was tiny, Glen Braggs picked him up at the plate like he was a little kid! Never forget that game.
 
Grew up around Ron Oester's family so Game 2 was special for me. My family actually got a pair of tickets for the series. Dad and I went the first game then gave game 2 to his family. Ended up being the last hit of his career.
 
I loved watching Chris Sabo play. He was an important cog of that Reds team and had his breakout year in 1990.
 
How much trouble are the Reds in if they don't finish it in 4? They probably have to finish the series without Davis or Hatcher. That's a lot of offense and 2/3 the outfield
 
Grew up around Ron Oester's family so Game 2 was special for me. My family actually got a pair of tickets for the series. Dad and I went the first game then gave game 2 to his family. Ended up being the last hit of his career.
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Oester was very quietly a very solid, long time Red. He unfortunatley had to endure the ealry 80s when the Reds were awful, so it was good to see him get a ring.
 
I loved watching Chris Sabo play. He was an important cog of that Reds team and had his breakout year in 1990.
Sabo was a great player in Cincy for a few years, seems like he had a bad ankle injury that kind of shortend his career. He's the new head baseball coach at Akron. Unfortunately this was supposed to be their first season. The program had shut down for 5 years, he was hired to bring it back. You wonder how things will move forward.
 
How much trouble are the Reds in if they don't finish it in 4? They probably have to finish the series without Davis or Hatcher. That's a lot of offense and 2/3 the outfield
With a decent game 4 Hatcher may had been the series MVP, only two great starts by Rijo took it away. Sabo probably got some votes as well.
 
I was really actually in quite a mental quandry for the 1990 World Series. I had tickets for game 5 back at Riverfront, but I wanted the sweep too. Likely the only time in my life I'd ever go to a world series game.
 
Watched Game 4 last night. Kind of poetic that Herm Winningham and Glenn Braggs, who subbed in for Hatcher and Davis, had good games and contributed to the win. Amazing how many opportunities the Reds had to score and kept stubbing their toes.
 
In hindsight the sweep of the A's was an upset, but I don't think the Reds should have been as big an underdog as they were. I remember as a sixth-grader thinking the A's were invincible, but the Reds' pitching staff ate that lineup alive. During the pandemic, I've watched the 10 postseason games again and I like the Pirates bit better than the A's. And damn, Ricky Henderson was good.

But you know, hindsight is pretty easy.
 
In hindsight the sweep of the A's was an upset, but I don't think the Reds should have been as big an underdog as they were. I remember as a sixth-grader thinking the A's were invincible, but the Reds' pitching staff ate that lineup alive. During the pandemic, I've watched the 10 postseason games again and I like the Pirates bit better than the A's. And damn, Ricky Henderson was good.

But you know, hindsight is pretty easy.
The A's were the heavy favorties because they had won the series the year before and had pretty much everyone in place again. Now the thing about baseball is it's not quite as easy to have favorites because on any given day or in this case a couple of weeks, a team can get hot. Who thought Billy Hatcher, a good but not great major leaguer, would have the series he had. Sabo was good, Larkin was good. That Reds team just played really well in that entire playoffs. The A's had a really good team, but outside of Henderson, no one else had much of a series.
 
The A's were the heavy favorties because they had won the series the year before and had pretty much everyone in place again. Now the thing about baseball is it's not quite as easy to have favorites because on any given day or in this case a couple of weeks, a team can get hot. Who thought Billy Hatcher, a good but not great major leaguer, would have the series he had. Sabo was good, Larkin was good. That Reds team just played really well in that entire playoffs. The A's had a really good team, but outside of Henderson, no one else had much of a series.
Larkin is a HOF shortstop. Most importantly, the Reds has Rijo and the Nasty boys which afforded them a dominant power pitching staff especially effective in shortening the games against the As. ??‍♂️
 
Agreed - the Reds would lose HR Derby to those A's, but had better pitching, a Hall of Fame SS and leader in Larkin, and Eric Davis was probably the best player in baseball for a couple of years. An upset maybe, but not a huge one.

I remember Eric Davis had a 162 game stretch over 2 seasons (maybe 87-88 ?) where SI wrote a feature piece on him, something like 45-50 HR, 120 RBI, 150 runs scored and 95 SB. What? Canseco and McGwire could not dream of doing that.
 
Anther interesting thing from re-watching those games was Tony LaRussa's complete buffoonery. I'm not sure how much of a difference it would have made, but for a guy I grew to loathe in St. Louis for his continuous of pitching changes, he left pitchers in way too long in all the games. That rang especially true in Games 2 and 3. I believe the Reds won the World Series in Game 2 when Scott Scudder and Jack Armstrong stifled that so-called great lineup and LaRussa left Welch in way too long.
 
Agreed - the Reds would lose HR Derby to those A's, but had better pitching, a Hall of Fame SS and leader in Larkin, and Eric Davis was probably the best player in baseball for a couple of years. An upset maybe, but not a huge one.

I remember Eric Davis had a 162 game stretch over 2 seasons (maybe 87-88 ?) where SI wrote a feature piece on him, something like 45-50 HR, 120 RBI, 150 runs scored and 95 SB. What? Canseco and McGwire could not dream of doing that.
This is the beauty of baseball. The Reds were noted underdogs in that series and rightfully so. They got off to the great start, but didn't play fantastic baseball down the stretch. They got timely hits (game two, Joe Oliver's game winner), incredibly hot bats from Billy Hatcher and Chris Sabo, and fantastic pitching from the entire staff. The big debate aftwards was if the A's could have found a way to win game 4, they could had made a run at it, with Davis and Hatcher both out of the series due to injures, Rijo was done until a possible game 7.
 
I was really actually in quite a mental quandry for the 1990 World Series. I had tickets for game 5 back at Riverfront, but I wanted the sweep too. Likely the only time in my life I'd ever go to a world series game.
Usually, World Series is a 2-3-2 format.
 
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