The Hunt for a Reds October: Cincinnati in 1990 by Charles F. Faber and Zachariah Webb (review)

Charles F. Faber and Zachariah Webb’s The Hunt for a Reds October tells the story of the World Series–champion 1990 Cincinnati Reds in the context of Cincinnati’s history with professional baseball. The authors’ introduction provides much of this context and demonstrates Cincinnati’s importance to the development of Major League Baseball. It covers baseball in Cincinnati beginning just before the Red Stockings, baseball’s first openly all-professional team, was founded in 1869. Faber and Webb explore each of the four World Series–winning Reds teams before 1990 and conclude that the 1919 Reds would have been likely to win the World Series even if eight Chicago White Sox players had not thrown that series. The authors’ first chapter explores the history of the city of Cincinnati and completes the contextual background of the 1990 Reds.

Beginning with the second chapter, Faber and Webb discuss the 1990 Reds. To explain that team, however, they first analyze the troubled 1989 Reds. In the middle of the 1989 season, team manager Pete Rose received a lifetime ban from the game for betting on baseball. Perhaps distracted by matters off the field, the 1989 Reds did not play up to expectations. In the off season, Reds’ owner Marge Schott hired a new general manager, Bob Quinn, and a new field manager, Lou Piniella. Faber and Webb argue that, despite Schott’s racial insensitivity (to put it mildly), she made smart decisions in hiring both Quinn and Piniella, who were instrumental in the success of the 1990 Reds.

Relying primarily on newspaper accounts, in the last four chapters Faber and Webb detail the 1990 season beginning with the lockout-shortened spring training and ending with the Reds’ victories over the Pirates in the National League Championship Series and the highly favored A’s in the World Series. The Reds led their division from the first day of the season to its last, eliminating much of the drama of a pennant race. To compensate for a dramatic race, perhaps Faber and Webb could have offered opposing players’ views on the 1990 Reds to further their portrait of the team. Interspersed throughout their analysis of the season, Faber and Webb offer interesting biographical sketches of all of the players who appeared in a Reds uniform in 1990. The book concludes with an epilogue covering the Reds from 1991 through 2014 and several useful statistical appendices about the 1990 season.

Despite clearly being Reds’ fans, Faber and Webb offer a largely unbiased account of the season. However, a more critical analysis of race relations in Cincinnati could have provided insight into how Reds’ fans reacted to the numerous nonwhite Reds’ stars and to Schott’s own views on race. Additionally, conducting interviews with Piniella or players on the team could have shown how important the 1990 season was to their careers. Overall, Faber and Webb offer a compelling and enlightening examination of the last World Series–winning Reds club.