Quote:After more than two seasons out of baseball, the Cincinnati Reds hired Johnson 44 games into the 1993 season. As was the case with the Mets, Johnson revived the Reds almost immediately. He led the team to the National League Central lead at the time of the 1994 players' strike and won the first official NL Central title in 1995. However, early in the 1995 season, Reds owner Marge Schott announced Johnson would not return in 1996, regardless of how the Reds did. Schott named former Reds third baseman Ray Knight (who had played for Johnson on the Mets championship team) as bench coach, with the understanding that he would take over as manager in 1996.

Johnson and Schott had never gotten along, and relations had deteriorated to the point that he had nearly been fired after the 1994 season. By most accounts, the final straw came because Schott did not approve of Johnson living with his fiancée Susan before they were married. According to The Washington Post, Schott had decided before the 1995 season even started that it would be Johnson's last one in Cincinnati. Johnson finished with a record of 204 wins and 172 losses in the regular season and three wins and four losses in the post-season.