January 15, 2015 – In Nasty Boys: The 1990 Cincinnati Reds, the second installment of the new original series MLB Network Presents, host Bob Costas marks 25 years since the 1990 Cincinnati Reds completed a World Series sweep of the defending champion Oakland A’s, bolstered by three wild relief pitchers known as the “Nasty Boys”: Norm Charlton, Rob Dibble and Randy Myers. The episode premieres on MLB Network on Tuesday, January 20 at 9:00 p.m. ET.
Featuring interviews at home with Charlton, Dibble and Myers, the hour-long show looks back at their eccentric personalities and how their hard-nosed, aggressive attitude to each opponent matched the amount of talent on the team, which never spent a single day of the 1990 season out of first place.
The episode also includes interviews with several members of the 1990 Reds staff, including manager Lou Piniella, Hall of Fame shortstop Barry Larkin, right fielder Paul O’Neill, infielder Ron Oester, catcher Joe Oliver and starter Tom Browning, plus Hall of Fame award-winning broadcaster Marty Brennaman, Hall of Fame award-winning writer Hal McCoy, Cincinnati Enquirer sportswriter John Erardi, and former Cincinnati mayor and talk show host Jerry Springer, who each recall the team’s clubhouse antics, including the “Reds Hot” rap song, and their incredible on-field success.
A preview clip of Nasty Boys: The 1990 Cincinnati Reds can be viewed here.
Highlights from Nasty Boys: The 1990 Cincinnati Reds
On the 1990 Reds team:
Rob Dibble: For us, there wasn’t a team we didn’t dislike. … It wasn’t just Randy and I and Norm. There were a lot of lunatics on that team.
Norm Charlton: [From] 7:05 to 11 o’clock or however look it took, [we were] dead serious. After that, “Katy, bar the door.”
Barry Larkin: Our fans loved us because we went out there and we put [a] blue collar-brand of baseball on that field every single day.
Paul O’Neill: I remember getting off to an unbelievable start. As a young player that had never been in that position, you don’t want to pinch yourself and don’t want to wake up.
Marty Brennaman on Lou Piniella: The very first time he met with that team, he told those guys, “We have the talent to win a World Championship here and I’m not going to be happy with anything less.”
Jerry Springer: The 1990 team was really the first people’s team because they were regular characters. Nuts, but regular.
On the “Nasty Boys”:
Larkin: Those three guys, I thought they were the most valuable piece of the ‘90 team.
Randy Myers: With us three, stuff could happen in the first five innings, but from six on, it ain’t happening.
Charlton on Myers: Randy used to sit and read the sports page in his locker on the floor with his legs spread, like he was doing yoga or something, and he’d have salami and cheese there and he’d cut it with a machete.
Marty Brennaman: If they happened to hit you, and you wanted to take issue with it, they would all walk halfway to the plate so you didn’t have to go all the way out there. They were all three extremely tough guys.
O’Neill: In most bullpens, you match up lefties against lefties, and righties against righties. Lefties or righties don’t hit Rob Dibble. Lefties or righties don’t hit Norm Charlton. These guys weren’t matchup pitchers. You really could’ve drawn any one of them out of a hat to be the closer.
Larkin on Dibble: Dibbs didn’t just want to get you out. Dibbs wanted to strike you out, and a lot of times I felt like he wanted to embarrass you.
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