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1990 World Champion Cincinnati Reds: Where are they now?

Ah, October 1990. I was in 7th grade, and the Reds went wire-to-wire to capture the NL West, winning 91 games to finish five games ahead of the 1988 World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait a few months before, setting off the events that would result in the (first) Persian Gulf War. (Which until the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, would continue to be known primarily by its jingoistic "code name", Operation Desert Shield/Storm.)

(Given that an entire generation has grown up in the interim between 1990 and 2009, I find the need for parenthetical comments such as the one above...or this one...to be aggravatingly necessary, as you'll soon see...it's surprising how much the world can change in just 20 years. Don't even get me started on the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union.)

Anyhow, the Reds then beat the then-formidable Pittsburgh Pirates (they of the Bonds-Bonilla-Van Slyke outfield) to win the NL Pennant. The Pirates had won 95 games that season; Barry Bonds would leave for San Francisco after the next season, which would be the last time the Bucs could boast of a winning record.

(For you youngin's, this all took place before the advent of the three-division league, the wild card, and interleague play, which were all inaugurated between 1993 and 1997 with the addition of the Marlins and Rockies and in 1998, the Rays and Diamondbacks to MLB.)

They would then face the heavily-favored, defending World Champion Oakland Athletics, winners of the AL Pennant over the Boston Red Sox.

Oakland, who'd won 103 games that season, had a lineup which boasted the "Bash Brothers" of Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire (both later revealed to be juicers), and who also had future Hall of Famers Dennis Eckersley and Rickey Henderson, among other solid players such as Dave Stewart, Willie Randolph, Dave Henderson, and Harold Baines.

Did the Reds' wire-to-wire performance, or besting of an excellent Pittsburgh team, get them an ounce of credit from the kids at my school? Hell, no, it didn't: most of them had jumped on the "Bash Brothers" Bandwagon the year before, Nike and others having promoted the living shit out of them with posters and other paraphernalia. That nobody outside of Ohio gave the Redlegs a snowball's chance in hell didn't help, either.

(You couldn't just publicly jump off a bandwagon once you'd jumped on, this fact being twice as true on the sandlot as it is around watercoolers across America. This simple truth is best illustrated by smugly-depressed people throughout the state of Ohio still wearing the Maize and Blue of Michigan to this day, despite U of M football being at its nadir. )

And there was a large degree of logic to these disloyally pragmatic predictions: We had a decent rotation, but mostly made up of journeymen from other teams, along with longtime Red Tom Browning and "ace" Jose Rijo. We had a few bona-fide stars such as Eric Davis, Barry Larkin, and arguably Chris Sabo and Billy Hatcher. But there was nothing there, on-paper, to menace the Mighty A's; just a ballclub that had played well beyond its supposed potential all year long.

No matter that we had the famous "Nasty Boys" bullpen; the A's were going to trounce the Cincinnati Nine, everyone who was anyone said so, from the professional gamblers on down to the playground prognosticators.

The managerial match-up was perhaps the most played-up aspect of the Series, coming into Game One, pitting the ever-colorful "Sweet Lou" Piniella against the A's Tony LaRussa; the two men had a history together going back to American Legion ball.

To this day, I'd swear that myself and longtime Chicago Tribune columnist Mike Royko who cited the Ex-Cubs Factor "created" by Chicago freelance journalist Ron Berler, were the only ones calling for a Cincinnati upset.

Of course, the results are history: the 1990 World Series was a four-game sweep; to date, the last such sweep of an AL team by an NL team in history.

Billy Hatcher would record seven straight hits en route to a blistering .750 World Series batting average. The MVP award went to Jose Rijo, who'd notched 2 wins in the sweep. (Game Four was also notable for a clutch sliding catch by outfielder Eric Davis that resulted in a lacerated kidney, and caused him considerable trouble in the next few seasons.....and that, before his later battle with cancer!)

Of course, me and my "Nasty Boys" t-shirt got to lord it over the other kids for a couple weeks; I remember doggedly wearing that damn t-shirt well into wintertime, rubbing it in the face of they who had no faith in their home team; they who'd jumped the bandwagon and lost.....at least until the OSU-Michigan game that year.

(For those of you from outside Ohio, take note that there is a considerable Michigan Wolverine fan base within the borders of Ohio, which is not reciprocated in Michigan. Michiganders, for all their (ahem) other flaws, are commendably loyal to their teams.)

So, the point of this entire exercise in Wonder Years style reflection is this: the 20th Anniversary of that World Championship squad is next year, Cincinnati having had only a spare few postseason appearances since then, and nothing better than a break-even record in the last several years.

Hell, even Oakland is known to today's fans mostly as a "small-market club" that makes the most of its scarce resources, the glory days of the 60's, 70's, and 80's now a fading memory.

So this morning, I got to wondering.....the 1990 Cincinnati Reds: Where Are They Now?

A few hours later, and with a few notable exceptions, I had these answers:

1B Todd Benzinger: Manager of Single-A Dayton Dragons (Reds)
2B Mariano Duncan: 1B Coach, Los Angeles Dodgers
SS Barry Larkin: MLB Analyst, Bench Coach, Team USA, 2009 WBC
3B Chris Sabo: Attending Chase College of Law, Northern Kentucky University
C Joe Oliver: Varsity Coach, Pine Castle Christian Academy
LF Billy Hatcher: 1B Coach, Cincinnati Reds
CF Eric Davis: Retired
RF Paul O'Neill: Analyst, YES Network
1B/LF/RF Hal Morris: Scout, Pittsburgh Pirates
OF: Glenn Braggs: no info
2B Ron Oester: Infield Instructor, Chicago White Sox
2B/3B/SS Luis Quinones: Hitting Coach, Single-A Oneonta Tigers
OF Ken Griffey, Sr: Roving Instructor, Cincinnati Reds
2B Billy Bates: No info
OF Herm Winningham: No info
C Jeff Reed: Hitting Coach, Elizabethton Twins (Rookie League)
P Tom Browning: Retired, last served in 2007 as Pitching Coach for Rookie-Advanced Billings Mustangs (Reds)
P Jose Rijo: Retired, last served in 2008 as Special Assistant to Washington Nationals GM Jim Bowden
P Jack Armstrong: Retired; son playing for Vanderbilt and Wareham Gatemen of the Cape Cod League
RP Rob Dibble: Sportscaster/Analyst, XM Radio, FoxSports, color voice Washington Nationals on MASN
RP Norm Charlton: last served as Bullpen Coach in 2008, for Seattle
RP Randy Myers: Retired, no further info
RP Tim Layana: Died 7-26-1999, injuries from car accident
RP Tim Birtsas: Retired, no data
SP/RP Scott Scudder: Head Coach, North Lamar (High School) Panthers
SP Danny Jackson: Retired in 1997, no further data
SP/RP Rick Mahler: Died 3-2-2005, heart attack

Special Mention:
SP Chris Hammond: Head of Chris Hammond Youth Foundation (Not on 1990 CIN Postseason Roster; appeared in only 3 games; first MLB season)

....cue "Joe Cocker's Rendition of "With a Little Help from My Friends".....

Historian's Note: There are a few other players I left off; for the most part, I looked up only players who appeared on the postseason roster.

Can you fill in one of the blanks? Please leave a comment below!