Danny Jackson

CINCINNATI -- Baseball history runs deep along this stretch of the Ohio River, where professional ball has lived since infancy and where the Cincinnati Reds assembled one of the game's greatest teams in the 1970s.But the Big Red Machine doesn't live here anymore.The Reds will be host to the Oakland Athletics in Game 1 of the 87th World Series tonight at Riverfront Stadium, but they do so with the sort of measured humility that comes from knowing the best team in baseball when they see it.The A's are the closest thing to the Big Red Machine to pass this way since Little Joe and Pete and Johnny and George and Sparky were in their glory.

CINCINNATI -- The Cincinnati Reds' wire-to-wire run has stretched through the National League Championship Series.With a gripping 2-1 victory Friday night against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Reds ended a captivating series in six games. Next in the October hunt of a team that hasn't spent a day out of first place this season is a World Series match with the Oakland Athletics."I told Marge [Schott, the Reds owner] that I didn't come here to manage, I came to win," manager Lou Piniella said.