No Rose, No Problem : Piniella Has Reds Playing Up to Expectations This Season

Many of the Cincinnati Reds watched on television in the players’ lounge at Riverfront Stadium as Pete Rose pleaded guilty to two counts of filing false income tax returns.

What they saw was reminiscent of the circus summer of 1989, when their former manager was seldom out of the camera’s eye as baseball conducted its gambling investigation and eventually suspended Rose for life.

“Last year was a nightmare,” first baseman Todd Benzinger recalled. “It was dispiriting and disruptive and couldn’t be avoided.

“We’d come into the clubhouse all fired up over a win, and all the questions were about Pete again. The game was secondary. It was very tough, very frustrating.”

The feelings festered again as the Reds watched the clubhouse television. This time, however, there was a remedy at hand.

This time, Benzinger said, “we could turn the TV off and forget about it. Pete is a great guy, but we just can’t worry about him anymore. We’re trying to win games.”

Not just trying but doing it. As Rose faces a possible prison sentence, the Reds seem to feel as if they’ve been paroled.

They opened the season with a club-record nine consecutive victories and wrapped up April with baseball’s best record at 13-3. They talk about having fun, building chemistry, responding to the hands-on motivation of Manager Lou Piniella--who was escaping himself, so to speak, from the shackles of George Steinbrenner.

After being hounded by the New York Yankee owner, Piniella has become the Reds’ top dog, though it is uncertain whether owner Marge Schott has broken this news to her renowned St. Bernard, Schottzie.

She seems to believe it, however.

“We had the Pete and Marge Show for four or five years,” Schott said. “Now we have a real team effort, and I’m very pleased. In my heart, I think we should have already won a couple championships, but now I think we have the enthusiasm and attitude to do it.”

Relief pitcher Rob Dibble put it another way, saying there was a need for intervention when the Rose inquisition began affecting the team’s performance.

“People here were living in the past,” he said. “All they talked about was the Big Red Machine. It was Pete this, Pete that, as if they were still hoping he’d swing a bat, and he never did anything to stop it. It bordered on the pathetic.

“We needed to establish our own identity, and Lou has put the focus back on the players.

“There’s an unselfishness now because there’s genuine respect (among) the players, coaches and manager.”

Said Piniella: “What I think has happened here is that the players were embarrassed by finishing fifth last year and are determined to make amends.”

And can they?

“We’re not rebuilding. We’re not looking two or three years down the road,” Piniella said. “I mean, I didn’t come here specifically to manage again but to win. We have enough talent to win now.”

It has long been thought that the Reds have the best talent in the National League West. Under Rose, however, they finished a frustrating second four consecutive times, then were 75-89 last season when the problem of his personal situation was compounded by a series of injuries that sidelined shortstop Barry Larkin, third baseman Chris Sabo and pitchers Danny Jackson and Jose Rijo, among others, for all or most of the second half.

The Reds were leading the division as late as June 10, then lost 31 of their next 41 games. Rose was suspended Aug. 24 with a managerial record of 426-388. Among the raps:

--A man who could fill a reporter’s notebook at the drop of a question failed to communicate or motivate, as if his mere presence would provide inspiration and guidance.

--A man who collected more hits than anyone in baseball history failed to help his hitters, unlike Piniella, “who can break down a swing from head to toe,” according to Sabo, who has been one of four Reds among the league’s top 10 in hitting.

Said Benzinger: “Pete was an idol of mine, and I came over (from the Boston Red Sox) thinking he would bring the same intensity and desire to managing that he did to playing; but that just shows the difference between managing and playing, because he didn’t.

“I don’t know if it was because of everything that went on last year, but his style was definitely a surprise and a disappointment.”

Style?

“I know it’s hard to believe, but Pete wasn’t a strong communicator,” relief pitcher Norm Charlton said. “His style was to say, ‘Here’s the bats and balls, guys, go get ‘em.’ ”

Center fielder Eric Davis, limited to 131 games last year because of injury and back on the disabled list because of a strained knee ligament, said the Reds can’t use Rose’s personal crisis as an excuse for last year, pointing out that they survived it while leading much of the first half.

“And I definitely think we would have won if the clubhouse hadn’t become a hospital ward,” he said.

Nevertheless, Davis said there has been a dramatic change in attitude and preparation under Piniella. “We’re doing things we haven’t done before,” he said.

Among them: More work with charts and scouting reports and more meetings among various units, such as pitchers and fielders, to go over opposing hitters and plot defense.

“Lou is quicker to correct mistakes,” Davis said. “He keeps everyone in the game.

“Last year on the road, the bus to the park would be filled. Guys waited until the last minute because they dreaded going. Now there are only two or three guys on the bus because everybody goes early. We’re having fun doing what we’re supposed to do.”

Rose could not be reached for comment. He recently told the Cincinnati Post:

“This is Lou’s team, but I helped develop those guys. This is something I took five years out of my life to build.

“You have to remember that when I took over the Reds, they were a Titanic. I took them to second place four times. And you can’t expect to win a division title with 12 guys on the (disabled list).”

The Reds are in their prime and probably are stronger than at any time in Rose’s tenure.

“There’s not a club in this league that can beat you in as many ways as we can,” Sabo said.

Items:

--The Reds led the National League in April with a .306 team batting average, getting at least 10 hits in 12 of 16 games while scoring a league-high 94 runs. This despite a .189 start by Davis, who is expected to be sidelined another three weeks.

--They stole 29 of 35 bases, with the off-season addition of outfielder Billy Hatcher providing a sixth player capable of stealing 20 or more.

--The development of 25-year-old Jack Armstrong (5-0) has strengthened the rotation and allowed the Reds to bring Jackson and Rijo back slowly from 1989 injuries. Jackson returned to the disabled list after being hit on the left arm by a line drive last Sunday, but it is not considered serious. Rijo gave up only four hits in seven innings of a 6-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies Monday, his first win since June. Jackson and Rijo won 36 games in 1988.

--The bullpen in April was 5-1 with eight saves and 68 strikeouts in 60 2/3 innings. The off-season acquisition of Randy Myers, who reads Soldier of Fortune magazine, hurls plastic grenades in the clubhouse and wears a camouflaged T-shirt under his uniform, has contributed an emotional spark and enhanced the eccentricity of a bullpen rich in characters.

Myers, Charlton and Dibble are the self-proclaimed Nasty Boys, and they are all of that when delivering 95-m.p.h. fastballs.

Said Dibble: “Lou thinks we over-throw at times, but he’s just never seen three guys on the same team capable of throwing 95 (m.p.h.).”

Myers came from the New York Mets, who thought he spent too much time in the weight room and opted for the stability of John Franco in return.

From the Reds’ perspective, the move was seen as another cost-saver by Schott, because Franco would have been eligible for free agency after the 1990 season.

But General Manager Bob Quinn, who also came from the Yankees and replaced fired Murray Cook in October, disputed the financial factor.

“We traded Franco because our scouts felt Randy Myers hadn’t reached his full potential,” Quinn said. “And because Lou and myself felt we couldn’t go to a veteran pitcher like Franco and ask him to share the closer role. We felt Myers and Dibble could be comfortable with it, which they are.”

Thus, Piniella has high-octane alternatives in left-handed Myers and right-handed Dibble, with left-handed Charlton another option.

“John is a great pitcher,” Charlton said of Franco. “But in a tight spot, he was like ice out there. With Randy, you can see the fire coming out of his head. He brings out the best--or worst, if you want to call it that--in Rob and me. All three of us are adrenaline pitchers. We go on a full tank all the time.”

Franco received a three-year, $4.8-million contract from the Mets. Myers was forced to go to arbitration with the Reds and lost.

He is receiving $875,000 rather than the $1.1 million he sought.

Business is business with Schott, but there are signs that she has come to grips with the industry’s financial realities and recognizes the potential damage if the stream of front-office and scouting defections, flowing from her monetary meddling, continued.

She allowed Quinn to sign nine scouts to multiyear contracts. She approved the signing of Davis to a three-year, $9.3-million contract and the trading of two minimally salaried players for Hatcher, who earns $690,000.

Piniella has a red phone on his desk, as he did at Yankee Stadium. It’s a hot line to the owner, but he smiled and said, “Here there’s an excuse for it because it fits the color scheme.”

And so far, Piniella has heard only plaudits when it rings.

“Marge and I seem to have a good relationship,” he said. “I sit down with her once a week to explain what’s going on with the team.”

Piniella managed the pitching-thin Yankees in 1986 and ‘87, winning 90 and 89 games, respectively, before being replaced by Billy Martin, whose fifth stint as Yankee manager ended with the hiring of Dallas Green, who has since been replaced by Bucky Dent. Last year, Piniella was a special adviser to Steinbrenner and a commentator on Yankee telecasts.

He received several managerial feelers and might have gone to Toronto, except that Steinbrenner, wanting to be indemnified by a division rival, asked a steep price in players to let Piniella out of his contract, and the deal broke down.

When Quinn and the Reds then offered a three-year contract, Steinbrenner gave his blessing, and Piniella jumped, ending a 17-year association with the Yankees.

“I have a lot of attachments and will continue to root for New York,” Piniella said. “I like the owner, but he was very difficult to work for. The players have to know the manager is in control, and under George the manager can lose control very quickly.

“I could have stayed, but I didn’t want to be known as one of George’s guys. I needed to get out on my own. I didn’t want to be thought of as a recycled manager. I didn’t want to run the risk of having Roman numerals after my name. I mean, managing the Yankees once was all right. The second time (when he came back briefly to replace Martin in ‘88) was unnecessary, and a third time would have been absurd.”

Piniella was criticized for not handling his pitchers properly, but he was dealing primarily with a staff of rejects and retreads.

“What pitchers?” he said. “We won 90 games in ’86 with only one pitcher (Dennis Rasmussen) who won more than 10 games, and I don’t think that’s ever been done before. In the two years I managed (the Yankees), nobody gave me 200 innings. It was said I had a quick hook, but I had an old staff that didn’t get a second wind. When they started to get hit, I had to get them out. It was also said I didn’t handle (Dave) Righetti right. Well, he set a major league record with 46 saves the first year I managed and came back with 31 the next.

“Sure, I made mistakes, but it was the first time I ever managed, and I definitely served that apprenticeship under trying conditions. I mean, managing the Yankees for 2 1/2 years is like managing five or six (years) anywhere else. I’m prepared now. I wouldn’t have come (to the Reds) if I didn’t think the team could win and I could help it win.”

And as for the pressure of replacing Pete Rose, Piniella said there was just as much pressure replacing Martin.

However, he has made one adjustment as Rose’s successor. He isn’t wearing the No. 14 he always wore with the Yankees, because 14 was Rose’s number.

“It belonged to a special guy in Cincinnati, and that’s the way it will stay,” he said. “I chose 41 because I’m the 41st manager in Reds history, and it’s the reverse of 14.”

It is not the only thing that seems to have been reversed here.