It's been 19 years since a lot of us were at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. We're here Sunday to cover the Bengals and the Raiders and the entire field is covered with turf. But you can see areas where new turf meets the old, and it's evident that baseball is also played here.
Our last visit was October 19 and 20, 1990. The Reds had just stunned the baseball experts by grabbing the first two games of the World Series from the heavily-favored Oakland A's. The A's had Bob Welch who had won 27 games, Dave Stewart who had won 20 and Dennis Eckersley who had saved 48. Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco had combined for 76 home runs. Throw in Ricky Henderson and you had a team that seemed ready to win a second straight world title.
The Reds didn't let the A's back in the series. Chris Sabo hit two home runs and the Reds scored seven runs in the third inning of game three. Tom Browning and the Nasty Boys produced an 8-3 win.
Game four was on a beautiful Saturday night and Jose Rijo and Randy Myers combined on a two-hitter. That's the game that Eric Davis was injured in the first inning trying to make a sliding catch. He suffered a lacerated kidney. Billy Hatcher was also injured, so Herm Winningham and Glenn Braggs had to help win the decisive game. The Reds fell behind, but in the eighth inning, they loaded the bases. Braggs drove in one run with a groundout and then Hal Morris brought in another with a sacrifice fly.
The most enduring memory is Todd Benzinger squeezing a short fly ball to right field to end the game and the World Series. Hard to believe that was 19 years ago.
The Coliseum was rebuilt in the mid 90's, but it's infrastructure is still mid 60's, when the stadium was first built.
Sunday we'll watch football here. The Bengals will try to win five straight games on the road, something the franchise has never done before. So maybe we'll see history again.
