John Erardi - Wire-to-Wire Reds: Sweet Lou, Nasty Boys, and the Wild Run to a World Championship

Copyright

2010 John Erardi and Joel Luckhaupt

All rights reserved.

Published by Clerisy Press

P.O. Box 8874

Cincinnati, OH 45208-8744

www.clerisypress.com

Cover and interior designed by Stephen Sullivan

Edited by Jack Heffron

ISBN 978-1-57860-465-4

The photographs in The Wire-to-Wire Reds appear courtesy of the following: The Associated Press: The Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum: (NLCS program). Photos taken by Zia Portrait Design; The Cincinnati Enquirer: Front cover (top center, bottom left, bottom center). Back cover.

All other photos appear courtesy of The Cincinnati Reds.

Printed in the Canada

Distributed by Publishers Group West

First edition, second printing

John

To Chris and Gina, who after years of guiding me through one book crisis after another with their tech-savvy, emerge from backstage.

To Barb, whose good humor made another book-writing lark possible.

And to Big Daddy, who when I told him in 1966 that Id just seen a blind former big leaguer named Specs Toporcer walk onto the field at an old-timers game, told me how as a kid he had watched Specs play and opened my eyes to everything.

Joel

To Sara and Alex, who didnt know what they were getting into when I asked if they minded if I helped to write this book. Your support made it possible.

To Dad and Mom, who never made me believe that I couldnt do anything I put my mind to.

Foreword

by Marty Brennaman

T he 1990 World Champion Reds are my favorite team ever, and that includes the Big Red Machine.

And Lou Piniella may well be my all-time favorite manager, which is really saying something, considering how much I liked Sparky Anderson, Pete Rose, and Dusty Baker.

Its hard to believe that were talking twenty years ago, isnt it? That, to me, is shocking. But Ill say this: The timing for this book is perfect. Nobody gave that team a chance to win. If Lou says he thought that team could win the division, hes a damn liar. I certainly didnt think it could. And not only did they win, they went into first place on opening night and never vacated it. They caught people early by surprise, and by the time people in the division and the league woke up, it was too late.

Lou had a quality you dont see in many people. He was extremely intense, and yet he had a very pleasant way about him off the field. He was very personable, amiable, approachable. The fans picked up on that quickly, almost instantaneously. He has said on more than one occasion that Cincinnati was his favorite place of all the places hes ever been as a player or a manager. Anita, his wife, felt the same way.

The fans loved the way he got after it; they were starved for it. That incident where he picked up the base and threw it? People loved it. They loved him. They hadnt seen that in a manager in a long time. Every now and then Sparky Anderson would do something like that, but to continually have a quick trigger and go out there and battle like hell for your team and throw your hat and kick the dirt at home platelets face it, a lot of that was show businessbut it still was the essence of what this guy was about.

I believe that one reason this team played so hard for him is that he showed by his actions that no single individual was more important than pulling out all the stops to win a game. Hed pinch-hit for guys with no regard for their egos because he was trying to win. Over the years Ive dealt with managers, and privately Id say to them, Why didnt you pinch-hit for so-and-so? The answer would be, I cant pinch-hit for him. Hes a regular player. If I pinch-hit for him in that situation, I lose him.

You know what? Lou wasnt worried about losing a guy. He did what he felt was needed to win a game, everything else be damned. His personality was so overwhelming that players knew hed cut his arm off to win. And they knew that if he pinch-hit for them, no matter who they were, Hes not doing it as a slight to me; hes doing it because he genuinely feels the pinch hitter has a better chance of hitting this pitcher right now than I do. Beyond that, Lou didnt care.

Do I believe this team underachieved in the years leading up to 90? Yes. Theyd finished second for four straight years, and in 89 came all the injuries and Pete Rose being suspended and banned for gambling. Four straight second-place finishes? At some point, youve got to get lucky and win.

If there was a knock on Peteand Im sure Pete would disagree with thishe was in a tough spot as a player-manager. He could only go out and argue so much for his players because he was in the lineup playing. Lou didnt have that problem. I heard players complain when Pete was managing: Why the hell should I care? He doesnt go out there and fight for us. But, with Lou, every single guy on that club knew he had their back. Thats important. You get inside a players psyche, and theyll tell you: If I know my manager is going to come out here and fight for me and defend me, then Ill bust my ass every second. But if I know I got a guy sitting in the dugout whos going to be passive, and Im hung out to dry by myself arguing my cause, Im not going to care as much. Thats just the way it is.

The players also saw how painful it was to Lou when the team lost. This wasnt a guy who paid lip service to how badly he wanted to win. He went out every night legitimately and unequivocally expecting to win, believing he could go 1620. Most managers want to win, but there arent too many who will turn over a food table after getting beat. Thered be food on the ceilings and on the wallsLou just didnt care. He was aggressive with a capital A. He didnt rein it in. When he put on that uniform every night, it was batten down the hatches. Most of the players, if not every one of them, had never experienced a guy like that. They respected it and played like it.

But the reason its my favorite team is because Ive never been around a team that had better chemistry. Blacks, whites, Hispanics, no cliques. Everybody had each others back. They had the best coaching staff Ive ever been around. Everything about that team fit. And when Billy Hatcher came in here in spring training of 90, he and Lou grew into a level of respect that perhaps nobody else achieved. Ever since Billy retired and Lou moved on, Lous had Billy with him almost everywhere hes been.

Not only did the 90 team have good starting pitching, they had three guys in the bullpen who were absolutely nuts. They all threw a thousand miles an hour, and all three would bury a fastball in your ribs if you looked at them funny.

Norm Charlton is the one I call the true Nasty Boy. People were legitimately afraid of him. That collision he had with Mike Sciosia? Sammy Perlozzo was throwing up the stop sign at third base, and Norm never even looked at him. After the collision, Charlton got up and walked away, and Scioscia was a little slow getting up. That epitomized it. Rob Dibbles a big guy; Randy Myers wasnt big, but he threw hard. Norm Charlton? Hed fight you.