Memories for '90 Reds
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Former Reds stars Tom Browning and Ron Oester are no different from other baseball fans. They, too, love a winner.
Their "winner" was the 1990 Reds, the last Cincinnati team to win a World Series title.
The '90 Reds swept a vaunted Oakland Athletics team featuring Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco in four games.
A display of the team's memorabilia opens today at the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum, and the squad will have its first reunion Nov. 5-6.
Last week, with the baseball playoffs barely under way, The Enquirer invited Oester and Browning to the theater at the Reds' Hall of Fame to talk about that team and rummage through some memorabilia.
The two, one from here (Oester) and one who has made his home here (Browning), are as one would expect grizzled veterans to be. Both are graying. Both have picked up some weight.
And both seem about 15 years younger when the conversation turns to 1990.
Oester and Browning are forever linked to the good ol' days when the Reds still were playing baseball into late October.
Has it really been that long ago since this franchise had a true ace (Jose Rijo), a veteran starting rotation, a lockdown bullpen, terrific defense and eye-popping speed (components all World Series teams have had in varying degrees, and sweep-teams tend to have had in across-the-board abundance)?
Oh, for the days when every trade worked (Tim Leary and Van Snider to the Yankees for Hal Morris; Mike Roesler and Jeff Richardson to the Pirates for Billy Hatcher; Ron Robinson and Bob Sebra to the Brewers for Glenn Braggs and Billy Bates). When young pitchers came out of nowhere (Jack Armstrong), rookie catchers played like veterans (Joe Oliver), the farm system produced well-rounded players who could do it all (Barry Larkin, Eric Davis, Paul O'Neill) and other players got sprinkled with magic dust (Chris Sabo).
Browning and Oester weren't asked to compare then to now, only to remember. Here's how some of the give-and-take went:
On whether the 1990 Reds could have won the pennant if former Cincinnati manager Pete Rose had not gotten into trouble and instead had remained the team's skipper:
Oester: I think Pete taught us how to win (from August 1984 through 1988), but whether we could have done it (in '90) with Pete, I don't know. ... Almost everything (Reds manager) Lou (Piniella) did that season worked.
Browning: You knew why Lou was there. He made no bones about it. In his first meeting with us in spring training, he said: "There's too much talent on this team not to have won yet. This is our year, so let's go out there and win it. I'm here to win too, and I don't care if you like me." And that was it!
Oester: I don't think Lou cared about what people thought of what he did. Lou was an intimidator; he tried to intimidate you, and he did. He got the most out of you. Pete didn't manage by intimidation.
Browning: Pete had things he liked to do off the field. Lou was just consumed with baseball, night and day. But for all Lou's intimidation, you could talk to him. He had no problem walking into that clubhouse and talking to anybody.
On Randy Myers' stun gun:
Browning: Yeah, he had this stun gun. He had it out one day and was fooling around with it, and Lou came by and said, "What is that, Randy?" Randy said, "It's a stun gun." And Randy zapped Lou in the leg with it and knocked him on his (butt). And Lou's on his (butt) and yells up, "(Bleep bleep), Randy, did you have to shoot me with it?"
Oester (laughing): I don't think Randy would have done that to Pete.
Browning (laughing): No, no, he wouldn't have done that to Pete.
On Piniella:
Oester: He was hard on pitchers, especially young pitchers. Like the time he yelled out in the dugout when Tim Birtsas was on the mound, "(Bleep bleep), you mean to tell me we've got nobody in the minors who can pitch better than this (bleep bleep)?"
Browning: It made you wonder what he (Piniella) was saying about you when you were out there, because you'd hear what he was saying about the other guys. Sometimes you didn't have to wonder. He didn't care who you were. He buried me a couple of times in front of my teammates.
I was getting my (butt) kicked in Atlanta. We were up five nothing and they (the Braves) came back and tied it, and I took my bat into the tunnel and beat the hell out of it, and Lou yelled to me, "I'd be (upset) too if I was throwing that (garbage) up there!"
On all the characters on that '90 team (Myers, Sabo, Mariano Duncan etc.):
Browning: And Quinones. Luis Quinones. Quinones was an entertainer.
Oester: Oh, God, yeah.
Browning: His antics. He'd yell at pitchers after they got him out: "Challenge somebody!" Just the way he said it. It was funny.
Oester: He'd put on the full catcher's gear and walk up and down the dugout during the game, and you'd look at him and have to laugh.
On who set the tone in the clubhouse:
Browning: The Nasty Boys (the dominating Reds relief pitcher threesome of Myers, Rob Dibble and Norm Charlton). Randy was the vocal guy. He'd always pull out the sheet with the magic number on it and say, "Let's knock this one off tonight." And that's what we'd do. He kept the calendar. He carried it with him. Every time we won a game, he'd tear the magic number out. And they'd put that song on (in the clubhouse after the game), "U Can't Touch This." After I heard that for about the 100th time, I guess I started believing we really were going to do it.
Oester: But even at 9-0 (to start the season), it wasn't like, "This is ours. All we have to do now is show up." I thought we had a chance, but you never know with injuries. If Eric (Davis) or Barry (Larkin) went down, we'd have been in trouble. We knew we had a good team, but I don't think we were ever cocky.
Browning: We all hung together. No black or white. Everybody usually at the same place. ... (Jose) Rijo caught fire at the end, and he was our lead dog. And we mirrored our coaches. We had a lot of fiery guys - Sabo, O'Neill.
Oester: Billy Hatcher. Without him, I don't think we'd have won it. He played harder than anybody, and he had that great personality, got along with everybody, loved to joke around. He was the catalyst.
On the time Oester (aka "O") shaved his head, July 30 in Los Angeles, in an attempt to end the Reds' eight-game losing streak:
Oester: We'd just lost to the Dodgers and Lou came in throwing and kicking (stuff) and slammed his door. And I'm sitting there watching and everybody's like, panicked, and I just said, "Hey, we're (51/2) games in first place; we're in the driver's seat; the Dodgers have to catch us."
We looked like we were playing not to lose instead of playing to win. I (challenged) the Nasty Boys. I said, "You guys were talking about shaving your heads - why not now?" Dibble says, "If we lose 10 in a row, we'll shave our heads." I said, "Ten in a row? We're not losing 10 in a row! If you think that way, shave my head!" And that's when Eric came over and shaved my head with electric clippers, right down to my scalp.
(Note: The Reds beat the Dodgers the next night to end the losing streak. Over the next 14 games, they went 8-6 and built their lead to 8.5 games.)
On teams in the 2005 playoffs that remind them of the '90 Reds:
Oester: The Chicago White Sox. They remind me a lot of our team then. They got off to the great start. ...
Browning: They came out of nowhere to dominate it, just like we did. Then Cleveland got on their tail, just like the Giants and Dodgers got on our tail. The (night) we clinched, we sort of backed into it because the Dodgers lost (while the Reds were in a rain delay) and the next day we played lousy and Lou told us, "I'll be damned if I'm going to let this team go into the playoffs in a losing posture." So, he started getting on our (butts) again in a less stressful way and we were ready to go when the playoffs arrived.
On the Bash Brothers, Canseco (who has admitted he was using steroids) and McGwire (whom Canseco has said also used steroids):
Browning: I think we probably went into the World Series scared to death. We were watching (the A's) in (batting practice) hitting balls into the red seats (at Riverfront Stadium) and deep into the green ...
Oester: I think we were nervous but not scared. I think if you're scared, you can't play. ... A lot of guys said stuff (to calm us down). (Batting coach) Tony Perez might have been the key.
Browning: He was the rock.
Oester: If you (as a hitter) said something to Tony after you made an out, like "I stink," he'd say, "Yeah, you do stink!" And that would make you laugh. He wouldn't try to make you feel good by something he said. But he'd make you laugh and that took the pressure off. ... He was a great buffer between Lou and us.
On team owner Marge Schott:
Browning: We were her "kids," and she took care of us. Yeah, we (griped) about some things, but she took care of our wives and that was great for us (married players).
Oester: (Among the players), nobody disliked Marge. It was more like, "What kind of crazy thing is she going to do next?"
Browning: Remember the time our game in Philly ended at 4 o'clock in the afternoon and our flight wasn't leaving until about 10 o'clock?
Oester: You mean the time they (the Reds brass) arranged for us to eat at (Bookbinder's restaurant) and guys were ordering shrimp entrees for appetizers and $150 bottles of wine?
Browning: Yeah, the bill was over $6,000. I think that Steve Schott (Marge's cousin and the Reds' vice president of operations) is the one who set it up. ... We never had to wait for a plane again.
Source: http://news.enquirer.com/
Former Reds stars Tom Browning and Ron Oester are no different from other baseball fans. They, too, love a winner.
Their "winner" was the 1990 Reds, the last Cincinnati team to win a World Series title.
The '90 Reds swept a vaunted Oakland Athletics team featuring Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco in four games.
A display of the team's memorabilia opens today at the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum, and the squad will have its first reunion Nov. 5-6.
Last week, with the baseball playoffs barely under way, The Enquirer invited Oester and Browning to the theater at the Reds' Hall of Fame to talk about that team and rummage through some memorabilia.
The two, one from here (Oester) and one who has made his home here (Browning), are as one would expect grizzled veterans to be. Both are graying. Both have picked up some weight.
And both seem about 15 years younger when the conversation turns to 1990.
Oester and Browning are forever linked to the good ol' days when the Reds still were playing baseball into late October.
Has it really been that long ago since this franchise had a true ace (Jose Rijo), a veteran starting rotation, a lockdown bullpen, terrific defense and eye-popping speed (components all World Series teams have had in varying degrees, and sweep-teams tend to have had in across-the-board abundance)?
Oh, for the days when every trade worked (Tim Leary and Van Snider to the Yankees for Hal Morris; Mike Roesler and Jeff Richardson to the Pirates for Billy Hatcher; Ron Robinson and Bob Sebra to the Brewers for Glenn Braggs and Billy Bates). When young pitchers came out of nowhere (Jack Armstrong), rookie catchers played like veterans (Joe Oliver), the farm system produced well-rounded players who could do it all (Barry Larkin, Eric Davis, Paul O'Neill) and other players got sprinkled with magic dust (Chris Sabo).
Browning and Oester weren't asked to compare then to now, only to remember. Here's how some of the give-and-take went:
On whether the 1990 Reds could have won the pennant if former Cincinnati manager Pete Rose had not gotten into trouble and instead had remained the team's skipper:
Oester: I think Pete taught us how to win (from August 1984 through 1988), but whether we could have done it (in '90) with Pete, I don't know. ... Almost everything (Reds manager) Lou (Piniella) did that season worked.
Browning: You knew why Lou was there. He made no bones about it. In his first meeting with us in spring training, he said: "There's too much talent on this team not to have won yet. This is our year, so let's go out there and win it. I'm here to win too, and I don't care if you like me." And that was it!
Oester: I don't think Lou cared about what people thought of what he did. Lou was an intimidator; he tried to intimidate you, and he did. He got the most out of you. Pete didn't manage by intimidation.
Browning: Pete had things he liked to do off the field. Lou was just consumed with baseball, night and day. But for all Lou's intimidation, you could talk to him. He had no problem walking into that clubhouse and talking to anybody.
On Randy Myers' stun gun:
Browning: Yeah, he had this stun gun. He had it out one day and was fooling around with it, and Lou came by and said, "What is that, Randy?" Randy said, "It's a stun gun." And Randy zapped Lou in the leg with it and knocked him on his (butt). And Lou's on his (butt) and yells up, "(Bleep bleep), Randy, did you have to shoot me with it?"
Oester (laughing): I don't think Randy would have done that to Pete.
Browning (laughing): No, no, he wouldn't have done that to Pete.
On Piniella:
Oester: He was hard on pitchers, especially young pitchers. Like the time he yelled out in the dugout when Tim Birtsas was on the mound, "(Bleep bleep), you mean to tell me we've got nobody in the minors who can pitch better than this (bleep bleep)?"
Browning: It made you wonder what he (Piniella) was saying about you when you were out there, because you'd hear what he was saying about the other guys. Sometimes you didn't have to wonder. He didn't care who you were. He buried me a couple of times in front of my teammates.
I was getting my (butt) kicked in Atlanta. We were up five nothing and they (the Braves) came back and tied it, and I took my bat into the tunnel and beat the hell out of it, and Lou yelled to me, "I'd be (upset) too if I was throwing that (garbage) up there!"
On all the characters on that '90 team (Myers, Sabo, Mariano Duncan etc.):
Browning: And Quinones. Luis Quinones. Quinones was an entertainer.
Oester: Oh, God, yeah.
Browning: His antics. He'd yell at pitchers after they got him out: "Challenge somebody!" Just the way he said it. It was funny.
Oester: He'd put on the full catcher's gear and walk up and down the dugout during the game, and you'd look at him and have to laugh.
On who set the tone in the clubhouse:
Browning: The Nasty Boys (the dominating Reds relief pitcher threesome of Myers, Rob Dibble and Norm Charlton). Randy was the vocal guy. He'd always pull out the sheet with the magic number on it and say, "Let's knock this one off tonight." And that's what we'd do. He kept the calendar. He carried it with him. Every time we won a game, he'd tear the magic number out. And they'd put that song on (in the clubhouse after the game), "U Can't Touch This." After I heard that for about the 100th time, I guess I started believing we really were going to do it.
Oester: But even at 9-0 (to start the season), it wasn't like, "This is ours. All we have to do now is show up." I thought we had a chance, but you never know with injuries. If Eric (Davis) or Barry (Larkin) went down, we'd have been in trouble. We knew we had a good team, but I don't think we were ever cocky.
Browning: We all hung together. No black or white. Everybody usually at the same place. ... (Jose) Rijo caught fire at the end, and he was our lead dog. And we mirrored our coaches. We had a lot of fiery guys - Sabo, O'Neill.
Oester: Billy Hatcher. Without him, I don't think we'd have won it. He played harder than anybody, and he had that great personality, got along with everybody, loved to joke around. He was the catalyst.
On the time Oester (aka "O") shaved his head, July 30 in Los Angeles, in an attempt to end the Reds' eight-game losing streak:
Oester: We'd just lost to the Dodgers and Lou came in throwing and kicking (stuff) and slammed his door. And I'm sitting there watching and everybody's like, panicked, and I just said, "Hey, we're (51/2) games in first place; we're in the driver's seat; the Dodgers have to catch us."
We looked like we were playing not to lose instead of playing to win. I (challenged) the Nasty Boys. I said, "You guys were talking about shaving your heads - why not now?" Dibble says, "If we lose 10 in a row, we'll shave our heads." I said, "Ten in a row? We're not losing 10 in a row! If you think that way, shave my head!" And that's when Eric came over and shaved my head with electric clippers, right down to my scalp.
(Note: The Reds beat the Dodgers the next night to end the losing streak. Over the next 14 games, they went 8-6 and built their lead to 8.5 games.)
On teams in the 2005 playoffs that remind them of the '90 Reds:
Oester: The Chicago White Sox. They remind me a lot of our team then. They got off to the great start. ...
Browning: They came out of nowhere to dominate it, just like we did. Then Cleveland got on their tail, just like the Giants and Dodgers got on our tail. The (night) we clinched, we sort of backed into it because the Dodgers lost (while the Reds were in a rain delay) and the next day we played lousy and Lou told us, "I'll be damned if I'm going to let this team go into the playoffs in a losing posture." So, he started getting on our (butts) again in a less stressful way and we were ready to go when the playoffs arrived.
On the Bash Brothers, Canseco (who has admitted he was using steroids) and McGwire (whom Canseco has said also used steroids):
Browning: I think we probably went into the World Series scared to death. We were watching (the A's) in (batting practice) hitting balls into the red seats (at Riverfront Stadium) and deep into the green ...
Oester: I think we were nervous but not scared. I think if you're scared, you can't play. ... A lot of guys said stuff (to calm us down). (Batting coach) Tony Perez might have been the key.
Browning: He was the rock.
Oester: If you (as a hitter) said something to Tony after you made an out, like "I stink," he'd say, "Yeah, you do stink!" And that would make you laugh. He wouldn't try to make you feel good by something he said. But he'd make you laugh and that took the pressure off. ... He was a great buffer between Lou and us.
On team owner Marge Schott:
Browning: We were her "kids," and she took care of us. Yeah, we (griped) about some things, but she took care of our wives and that was great for us (married players).
Oester: (Among the players), nobody disliked Marge. It was more like, "What kind of crazy thing is she going to do next?"
Browning: Remember the time our game in Philly ended at 4 o'clock in the afternoon and our flight wasn't leaving until about 10 o'clock?
Oester: You mean the time they (the Reds brass) arranged for us to eat at (Bookbinder's restaurant) and guys were ordering shrimp entrees for appetizers and $150 bottles of wine?
Browning: Yeah, the bill was over $6,000. I think that Steve Schott (Marge's cousin and the Reds' vice president of operations) is the one who set it up. ... We never had to wait for a plane again.
Source: http://news.enquirer.com/
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