Lou Remembers 1990

Lou Piniella can believe that it has been 20 years since he took the Reds from wire-to-wire to win the World Championship in a sweep of the Oakland Athletics.

"I can believe its been 20 years, I really can. It was awhile back. It was a lot of fun," Piniella said before the Cubs manager led his current team against the Reds.

"We had good starting pitching. We had a really nice bullpen. We had very professional players on the field. It was a total team effort. It was a very athletic team."

The Reds won the first nine games after a late start of the season, caused by a work stoppage. Cincinnati spent 178 calendar days in first place.

"We played a very exciting post season against Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh had a good baseball team. Then on to Oakland and we swept Oakland," Piniella said.

"We got after it pretty good. I remember I let the guys play. We built up a good lead and I was able to rest the team all summer long. Nobody really made a big charge at us. We had a rested team for post season."

The Reds museum has a tribute to the team at the Museum adjacent to Great American Ball Park.

"The next time we come into town, I'll have to go enjoy it," Piniella said.