updated 5:30 p.m. ET April 1, 2007

CINCINNATI - With President Bush watching from a luxury box in Cincinnati, the Chicago Cubs scored 16 runs in their season opener a year ago.

And, it was nothing new.

The Cubs have mastered the art of the fast start, scoring 16 runs in each of their last two openers. They’ve won their last four in all.

Of course, finishing has always been this franchise’s problem.

In their latest bold move to end their cursed streak, the Cubs dumped manager Dusty Baker and brought in Lou Piniella to try to lead them to their first World Series championship since 1908. Cincinnati is a good place to get started.

The Reds led wire-to-wire under Piniella in 1990 and swept the mighty Oakland Athletics in the World Series. Former owner Marge Schott chased him away two years later, and the franchise has never been the same.

Piniella has been back to Cincinnati a couple of times for interleague games, managing Seattle at Cinergy Field in 2002 and Tampa Bay at Great American Ball Park in 2005. Now, he’ll become more of a regular visitor.

“It’s always great going back to Cincy, though,” Piniella said. “It’s really a neat town, a great baseball town.”

The Cubs always feel great in Cincinnati — for that first game, anyway. They beat the Reds 7-4 to open the 2004 season, won at Arizona 16-6 a year later, then put up the same mind-boggling number of runs in a 16-7 victory at Great American last year.

That was the first game under new Reds owner Bob Castellini, who persuaded President Bush to come to town and throw a ceremonial first pitch. The president’s visit was a big moment for the new owner and a disconcerting one for Reds starter Aaron Harang.

The Secret Service mapped out Bush’s visit to the minute and restricted the players’ movements. As a result, Harang couldn’t do his customary pregame warmup for his first opening-day start.

“You can’t be certain places at certain times,” Harang said. “The whole schedule was set out. I had to make sure I had all my stuff done before he came into the clubhouse, then I couldn’t leave until after he left the clubhouse.

“I had to break it up. That kind of threw me off a little bit.”

It turned out to be the worst moment in Harang’s best season. The right-hander tied for the NL lead with 16 wins and led the league in strikeouts last year. He had a hard time forgetting that first game: Matt Murton homered in a five-run first inning that started the Reds’ historically bad day.

Cincinnati hadn’t given up so many runs in a season opener since 1877, when they lost to Louisville 24-6 during the third month of Rutherford B. Hayes’ presidency.

“I know what I have to do,” Harang said. “It’s definitely not going to be as hectic. I don’t have to work around one other person. I’m definitely on my schedule. I’m looking forward to another opportunity to go out and pitch the way I can.

“That was one of my few sour notes last year. I can’t dwell on it. It’s a new season and let’s get us on a roll right off the bat.”

The Cubs’ first-game magic hasn’t translated over the long term. They won only 78 more games after scoring 16 runs in the 2005 opener, and finished at the bottom of the NL Central last year with 66 wins.

They fired chief executive officer Andy MacPhail, decided not to bring back Baker, and went one of baseball’s biggest spending sprees. The Cubs committed more than $300 million to free agents and players already on the roster, including a $136 million deal for Alfonso Soriano.

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Despite the infusion of new money, the Cubs open the season with an old problem: Mark Prior and Kerry Wood still aren’t right. The starting tandem that gave them so much hope is out of commission again — Wood on the disabled list with a sore shoulder and Prior pitching in the minors.

“No, it’s not a distraction, it really isn’t,” Piniella said. “They’ve been important cogs here in this organization for a long time. I can understand the interest. We said coming in that if we got them ready by opening day, it would be a bonus for us. Unfortunately, it hasn’t happened. But it doesn’t mean that they can’t help us sometime this summer.”

Right-hander Carlos Zambrano will start the Cubs’ opener for the third year in a row, hoping to finally get beyond his first-game problems. Chicago has scored 16 runs in each of Zambrano’s two openers, but he failed to get the win because he couldn’t make it through the fifth inning of either game.

“Now everybody tells me I’m the ace of this team, and I appreciate that,” Zambrano said. “I have to earn that.”

An opening-day win would be a good start.

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