#23: Messy, Ridiculous, and EPIC.

We continue our "25 Greatest Oakland A's Wins" countdown with #23, a return to July 15, 1999 - one of the weirdest games in Oakland A’s and San Francisco Giants history. This messy, ridiculous and epic game included two terrible performances from starting pitchers, five 3-run homers, five double plays, 170 pitches thrown by Giants pitchers, 153 thrown by A’s pitchers, 11 total walks, 12 total strikeouts, and ONE unbelievable walk-off home run!

It had been almost seven years since the A’s had last played October baseball. Over that time frame, the A’s attendance had dropped dramatically. After setting an attendance record of nearly 3 million in 1990 (a record that would stand until the late 1990s), attendance would stay over 2 million until 1993, but from then on, attendance would not get over 1.5 million for a variety of reasons. The 1994 strike drove many baseball fans away from the ballpark, and Oakland was no different.  Adding to the strike's attendance departure, the Coliseum’s renovation in 1996 with the Raiders moving back to Oakland muddied what was a gorgeous ballpark to so many. Finally, mediocre ball clubs that were put on the field thanks to a new ownership philosophy that began trading the key cogs of the great teams of the late 80s and early 90s resulted in a terrible fall from grace.

The 1999 A’s team seemed to be something that could start to change all that. By this mid-July game, the A’s seemed to really have a solid core of good young ballplayers with the likes of Jason Giambi, Miguel Tejada, Eric Chavez, and Tim Hudson starting to flourish. At this point in the season, the A’s were 43-44, and on pace to reach their best season since 1992, but they were still 5 games back from the first place, Texas Rangers. It was the first game after the All-Star Break and the first place San Francisco Giants were coming into town. 

On the mound for the A’s was the veteran, Kenny Rogers. After a tremendous 1998 campaign for the A’s where he finished the year 16-8 with a 3.17 ERA, 1999 was not too kind to Kenny Rogers. This start would be no different for Rogers, as he went 4.1 IP, giving up 9 ER and 2 HRs with Rich Aurilia and JT Snow being the catalysts of “bye, bye, baby” (both being 3-run home runs). This horrible start was given an exclamation point by the 5th inning, where Rogers gave up 5 runs, two coming off a Jeff Kent double, and the other 3 coming from a JT Snow 3-run home run. Rogers would make one more start with the A’s, before he was traded on July 23rd to the New York Mets for a package that included the hero from last week's post, Terrence Long.

Luckily for the A’s, the Giants starter, Shawn Estes did no better. After being spotted a 4-0 lead by Kenny Rogers, Shawn Estes gave it all back by the bottom of the fourth, a 3-run home run by Jason Giambi in the second and a Giambi sacrifice fly in the 4th providing the damage. With Rogers blowing up before Estes and giving the Giants a 9-4 lead in the 5th, Estes was able to survive longer than Rogers did. That was until the 7th inning, Estes appeared to have settled in, retiring 6 of the last 7 batters he had faced since last giving up a run in the fourth. The damage began with Miguel Tejada singling with 2 outs, making it runners on first and third with 39 year old Tim Raines coming to the plate. The former Montreal Expos star singled home Jason McDonald  to make it 9-5, Giants Manager Dusty Baker made the move to the bullpen for the much maligned reliever, Julian Tavarez. And in typical Julian Tavarez fashion, he set fire to the Giants lead as he gave up a 3-run home run to John Jaha to make the score 9-8 Giants. I really don’t remember there ever being a time where Julian Tavarez was considered a quality relief pitcher, 1999 was certainly no different as he ended the year with a 5.93 ERA in 54.2 IP. In this game, he had faced one batter and failed, while at the same time giving all of Estes’ inherited runners to the scoreboard and making Shawn Estes’s final line read: 6.2 IP, 8 H, 7 ER, 7 K’s, 5 BBs in 111 pitches. Alan Embree would go onto replace Tavarez and he’d go onto strikeout Matt Stairs to end the inning with the damage already done, all with two outs.

One overlooked part of this game that shouldn't go unnoticed is the brilliant work by the A’s bullpen, the combination of Brad Rigby, Chad Harville, Buddy Groom, and Doug Jones gave a tremendous performance to A’s Manager Art Howe, and would collectively put together a line of 4.2 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 3 K’s, and most importantly 0 R. The A’s bullpen effectively cleaned up Kenny Rogers’ mess and had given the A’s a chance to come back. 

According to baseball-reference.com, the San Francisco Giants had a 97% chance of winning with 2 outs in the bottom of the 7th,  but after Jaha’s 3-run home run to make it 9-8, that percentage shrunk down to 71%. The teams would fail to tack on from the bottom of the 7th forward, and heading into the bottom of the 9th with the score 9-8 Giants, Giants closer Robb Nen was coming into the game to shut the door on the A’s and earn the save.

Robb Nen would end up tallying 314 saves in his career and was a favorite of Giants' play-by-play announcer, Duane Kuiper. His career ended way too soon, and my first memories of the Giants seemed to always be tied to Robb Nen in some way. This night may be one of the reasons for that, Nen would be facing the A’s 2-3-4 hitters. First up was Miguel Tejada. Miggy would battle with the Giants closer before striking out after 6 pitches for the first out of the 9th. The A’s winning percentage was now down to 12%, next up came Tim Raines, Raines didn’t even bother to take pitches until he got a strike (which is usual protocol when down in the 9th inning) as he torched a pitch into right field for a single and to give the A’s some new life. The 39 year old then did something that made himself seem 15 years younger, on a 1-0 pitch to John Jaha, he stole second base off of Giants catcher Scott Servais bringing the count to 2-0 on Jaha and the tying run to second. Nen would lay an egg to the A’s designated hitter who seemed hotter than a firecracker, as he walked him on four pitches. The tying run was on second, the winning run was on first, and there was only one out.

Next up came the immortal Matt Stairs, the Canadian was only 31 years old at the time and he was definitely loved by A’s fans for his “normal guy” charm. Stairs would not fare well in this clutch situation, as he fanned on four pitches, staring at strike three. Two outs.

A’s fans were starting to fear that they were being teased as the rather unknown Olmedo Saenz was coming to the plate. The Panamanian was beginning to show flashes of promise, but with Stairs’ bad at bat, one could not expect a whole lot. Maybe the A’s could get a single and tie the game? Sure, that would be fantastic. First pitch was a ball, Saenz once again followed the same approach that Tim Raines followed a couple batters before, with the count at 1-0, he stayed aggressive and he belted Nen’s pitch high into the icy Oakland sky.....could it be?

IT SURE WAS. The ball soared over the head of Giants centerfielder, F.P. Santangelo and over the left-center field fence for a 3-run walk-off home run. The A’s had won 11-9, and had overcome a 5 run deficit to win over their Cross-Bay rivals.

The big Panamanian was swarmed at home plate, surely that was the biggest hit in his life to date and to this day. And luckily for Saenz, his family was in the building from Panama, and they had never seen him play in the big leagues before.

The significance of this game goes even deeper. The Giants had enjoyed some late 1990s dominance in Bay Area baseball. The Giants had been putting a good product on the field while the A’s were tumbling in mediocrity. This moment was, in many ways, the sign that a changing of the guard was certainly on the way. The A’s were giving the bay area a glimpse of a team on the rise.

After this game, the Giants went 36-37 to end the year and they finished 2nd in the NL West behind the 100 win, Arizona Diamondbacks. The A’s on the other hand would go 43-31 after that game and would finish second behind the 95 win, Rangers. The A’s were trending up, and they’d go on to win the division the very next year, but we’ll talk about that a little later.

Olmedo Saenz. It was only his fourth home run in an A’s uniform and none were bigger.

Unfortunately, pictures and videos from this game are nearly nonexistent.  If you have some from your own photo albums, please post for everyone to see! Next week, Win #22. Stay tuned!

-- Wes

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#24: The Loud Out On Yawkey

It’s rare to find a game that makes you feel several different emotions all in a matter of 10 seconds. We continue our "25 Greatest Oakland A's Wins" countdown with that kind of game, #24: The Loud Out On Yawkey. 

The date was August 7th, 2002. The A’s were in 3rd place in the AL West standings behind the first place Seattle Mariners and the second place Anaheim Angels. The A’s were 4 games back of the Mariners and had just come off 3 wins, including a resounding 9-1 win over the Red Sox the night before at the hallowed ground known as, Fenway Park. At 65-48, the A’s looked to be in a good position record-wise, but they could not afford to let up with the AL West being so competitive.

On the mound for the A’s on August 7, 2002, was the big rookie right-hander, Aaron Harang. At 6’7”, 260, Harang needed to prove that in addition to his imposing stature, his pitching repertoire was also something to be feared. This would be his first time pitching at Fenway Park in front of the Red Sox’s rowdy fans.

Opposing Harang would be the Red Sox’s 37-year-old, John Burkett. With the Red Sox struggling to keep pace with the first place Yankees, the Red Sox needed a win against a rival wildcard opponent in the A’s.

The game began smoothly for both pitchers. Burkett and Harang both faced little to no resistance through the first three innings. The top of the fourth was one that looked promising for the A’s, as they finally were able to get something going against the Red Sox starter. Jermaine Dye forced a two out walk and then took advantage of Fenway’s big outfield, as he advanced from first to third on a single by John Mabry. With runners on first and third and two outs, Terrence Long struck out looking to end the inning with two runners stranded - no damage accomplished.

The bottom of the fourth brought the game’s first run. The Red Sox's big money slugger, Manny Ramirez took Aaron Harang deep around Pesky Pole in RF leading off the inning to give Boston a 1-0 lead. Harang would go on to strand Cliff Floyd at second to end the inning to stop the bleeding heading into the 5th.

Burkett would force three groundouts against Scott Hatteberg, Mark Ellis, and Ramon Hernandez to give the Red Sox a shutdown inning in the top of the 5th as the A’s still could not string enough hits together against John Burkett.

Harang would pitch out of trouble in the bottom of the 5th as he forced Manny Ramirez to groundout with Trot Nixon at second and Nomar Garciaparra at first. This at bat would prove to be quite important as the match ups with Manny Ramirez would play a large factor in the outcome of the game.

The top of the 6th started out just like the last several innings had for the A’s as Miguel Tejada and David Justice were weakly put out, bringing up Eric Chavez. He would hit a ball deep at third to Shea Hillenbrand, who could not make the play and the ball bounced into left field. Hillenbrand was charged an error with Chavez standing at first and two out. Next up was Jermaine Dye, it has barely been 10 months since he broke his leg during game 4 of the ALDS and Dye continued to look like a shell of his former self. Burkett started the at bat with a 1-1 count, then Burkett grooved an 85 mph fastball a little bit out over the inside part of the plate and Dye crushed it. It was a no doubter off the bat!  The ball soared over the Green Monster and nearly hit the two Coke bottles on the scaffold. The score was now 2-1 A’s, with Hillenbrand’s error looking to be the major game changer. Burkett then retired John Mabry to end the inning, but the damage had been done.

The bottom of the 6th proved to be a big one for Aaron Harang, his pitch count dictated that the end of his start was near and the ever important “shutdown inning” was beckoning as well. Due up first was the recently traded Cliff Floyd. In Floyd’s at bat versus Aaron Harang, Harang induced more weak contact against him as Floyd grounded out to Miguel Tejada. Then came Red Sox catcher and captain, Jason Varitek.  Varitek and Harang had an impressive battle with neither yielding as the count went full at 3-2, then Harang put Varitek away looking after an 8 pitch at bat. That would be it for Aaron Harang, as Art Howe wanted to bring in the aging middle reliever, Jim Mecir. Harang’s line read: 5.2 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 4 SOs, in an appealing performance by the rookie in a hostile environment.

Whenever Jim Mecir was brought in, A’s fans always seemed to have to grit their teeth, he was far from automatic. With two out and nobody on, maybe the A’s fans could rest easier with this one. Mecir would get into a battle with Shea Hillenbrand as the count went 3-2 and lasted 6 pitches, before Hillenbrand weakly grounded out to second to end the inning, giving Mecir the hold, and the A’s the shutdown inning.

Red Sox Manager Grady Little, decided to keep his starter, John Burkett in the game to start the 7th. Burkett made quick work of Terrence Long for the first out, he then walked the 9-hole hitter, Ramon Hernandez on 5 pitches. Burkett then struck out Mark Ellis in a 7 pitch at-bat for the second out. Then came the star of Moneyball, Scott Hatteberg who got a bloop single that landed in front of the Red Sox centerfielder Johnny Damon.  With Hernandez running on contact with two outs, he advanced to third leaving runners at the corners for A’s slugger, Miguel Tejada. Grady Little continued to let his starting pitcher pitch out of trouble but this time, the decision would end up costing Boston as Tejada lined a base hit to right field, Hernandez walked home from third, and Hatteberg sprinted from first to third, it was now 3-1 A’s. That was the last straw for Little, Burkett was finally taken out of the game for the longtime reliever and future A’s reliever, Alan Embree. He forced David Justice to rollover to second to end the inning.

It was time to stretch in Boston and Jim Mecir was told to come out for the bottom of the 7th, A’s fans were left to bite their finger nails for a bit longer in this tight contest. Luckily, Mecir made quick worth of the first two batters he faced and with two outs in the inning and a 3-1 lead, this game started to feel comfortable. The next batter dashed that comfort level real fast as former A's player, Johnny Damon hit a ball into the gap and with his great speed, he hustled all the way to third for a two out triple. Art Howe would make the move for the newly acquired Ricardo Rincon, one of the Moneyball stars, to face the lefty, Trot Nixon. In 2002, lefties were hitting .198 against Rincon and this at bat would validate those stats the fullest, as Trot Nixon struck out with a check swing that is a tell tale sign that Rincon fooled him with his slider and that ended the inning with Damon stranded at third.

The top of the 8th would be mostly uneventful for the A’s, Red Sox reliever Alan Embree struck out the side but gave up a Jermaine Dye single in between but no damage done. It was now time for the bottom of the 8th, another Moneyball star, the submarine throwing, Chad Bradford came in for the A’s facing the tough middle of the order of the Red Sox. First up was Nomar Garciaparra, Bradford made quick work of Nomar as he struck him out on four pitches. Next up came Manny Ramirez, and in typical Manny fashion, he singled while being down 0-2. With Art Howe sensing that this game was starting to unravel, he immediately brought in his closer, Billy Koch. He’d face Cliff Floyd with one out and one on base, everyone knew what you were gonna get from Koch, and that was hard throwing high 90s fastballs that occasionally hit 100 mph. Cliff Floyd had no answer, as Koch made him strikeout swinging on 4 pitches. Now there were two out, and the A’s win probability rose to 87%. Next up to bat, Jason Varitek, and Billy Koch showcased one of his common issues and that was his control. He walked Varitek on four pitches making it runners on first and second with two out. Rickey Henderson came into pinch run for the slow running, Varitek. Rickey was nearing the end of his career but was still playing as a role player. Next up came Shea Hillenbrand, and he was aggressive against Koch as he lined a base hit to left field and normally with Manny running, that wouldn’t score the run but then Eric Byrnes let the ball eat him up and Ramirez came into score, and Rickey Henderson rolled on over to third. It was now 3-2 A’s, with the tying run on third.  Now it was gut check time. Brian Daubach came up next, and swinging at the first pitch, he sharply grounded to the first baseman, Scott Hatteberg who stepped on the bag to end the inning. The bleeding had been stopped.

The A’s ended up loading the bases in the top of the 9th, but Eric Chavez flied out to end the inning, so no insurance runs were brought in. Koch was gonna have to get 3 more outs and complete the 5 out save. The first batter was Carlos Baerga who struck out swinging as he couldn’t catch up to Koch’s fastball. Just when you thought you could relax, Johnny Damon came up and worked the count and forced the walk. With the speedy Damon on first, the threat was definitely real. And with Trot Nixon coming up who owns right handed pitching, it was again time to start biting nails, Nixon got a pitch to hit with count at 1-1 and he lined it into centerfield for a single. It was now first and second with one out, tying run was on second, winning run for the Red Sox was on first. Nomar Garciaparra was up next, and his free swinging tendencies let him down, once again. Koch blew a fastball right by him for the strikeout, and now there were two outs.

Next up, Manny Ramirez. In an epic matchup of the power pitcher vs the power hitter with the game on the line, this is what baseball was all about. 

Manny had already hit one out of the park earlier in the game, would he do it again? With the count at 1-2, the whole stadium knew what was coming from Koch, it was just a matter of what Manny could do with it. Koch fired a 97mph fastball that was up and out over the plate, Ramirez got a hold of it, the crowd rose as one, it was heading into the Red Sox bullpen in right-centerfield, then came Terrence Long...

Out of nowhere, he came flying in, he reached over the short fence, and all in one motion he caught the ball, spun and kept his balance started celebrating… The A’s had won the game! I found two videos, the first is from the Red Sox broadcast HERE of that play and the second comes from ESPN’s Sportscenter highlights that includes Chris Berman’s call from Wednesday Night Baseball.

Billy Koch gave Terrence Long the biggest hug he could ever give anyone, he knew what he had done. Aaron Harang was the winning pitcher, John Burkett was saddled with the loss, and Billy Koch picked up his 28th save of the season. A tremendous victory in what was a tremendous game, and here’s where the victory becomes extra important. The A’s would go onto lose the series finale in Boston, but they took 2 out of 3 from Boston. Then they’d head to the Bronx to face the Yankees, and the A’s proved their mettle by taking two out of three from the first place Yankees on the road. The following Tuesday, the A’s beat the Toronto Blue Jays by as score of 5-4. What seemed like a harmless victory was the beginning of the famous 20 game win streak. And it’s my belief that the magic all started with Terrence Long’s incredible catch, which created, “The loud out on Yawkey.”

Next week, WIN #23. Stay tuned!

-- Wes

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#25: Catfish Hunter’s Perfect Game

We begin our “25 Greatest Oakland A’s Wins” countdown with one of the more remarkable feats in the history of the franchise: Catfish Hunter's Perfect Game.  

By 1968, the A’s had made their move from Kansas City to Oakland after a difficult tenure in KC, riddled with losing and mediocrity. As the move to Oakland was in the works, the A’s slowly began assembling an impressive group of talented young ballplayers, and at front of that group was Jim 'Catfish' Hunter.

Jim Hunter, as he was known at the time, was a 22-year-old, starting pitcher from Hertford, North Carolina. He was nicknamed “Catfish” by A’s owner, Charlie Finley after he was signed out of high school, and quite literally, Finley made up a story about the origin of the nickname so he could be easier to market.

Playing in the Coliseum, the Oakland community was still trying to wrap their head around the A’s as a ball club and were in the process of really getting to know the players. On the night of May 8th, 1968, the first “wow” moment for the Oakland Athletics was about to happen. Going into the game, the A’s were 12-12, which is a record that would resonate with them until the end of the season as they finished 82-80. The Minnesota Twins were the opponent of the A’s at the Coliseum that night, and a small attendance of 6,298 were the lucky few that experienced first hand that night of history in the making.

The game began and from the onset, Catfish looked quite sharp and tidy, while his opposite number, Twins starting pitcher, Dave Boswell looked cool but not as sharp, as he gave up a few scattered hits at the beginning of the ballgame.

The game had the look of a classic pitchers duel, which was quite common during that age of baseball. As the game went on, it was clear that any runs were going to be the decisive blow. 

Catfish was previously scouted as a shortstop in high school, and was an impressive hitter growing up. On that night the North Carolina farmhand would end up being the hero on the mound and in the batters box (the Designated Hitter would not be instituted in the American League until 1973). In his first at bat, Hunter doubled but didn’t come around to score as he was stranded at second, and in his second at bat he flied out to center.

Coming up in the 7th, Catfish was already doing something amazing on the mound, he had retired all 21 batters he had faced, with none reaching base. Surely, he was well on his way to going the distance and pitching a complete game at the least (pitch counts were not tallied at the time). At the plate in the 7th, the score was still 0-0 but A’s Center Fielder, Rick Monday had doubled and advanced on a wild pitch. A’s manager, Bob Kennedy gave Catfish Hunter the bunt sign and it was clear that the squeeze play was on. Catfish got the bunt down, and the bunt was so good that not only Monday scored easily from third, but Catfish also legged out a single. He had certainly taken the game by the horns.

Catfish just got stronger as the game went along, he had already struck out 9 batters heading into the 8th inning, and in the 8th, the Twins once again could not get a baserunner off of Catfish as he forced weak contact on all three batters, and now, Catfish was only 3 straight outs away from a perfect game.

Before he could finish it off, he was going to have to hit again, Twins starting pitcher, Dave Boswell finally ran out of gas in the 8th inning.  Boswell walked Danny Cater with the bases loaded which made it a 2-0 A’s lead and Catfish Hunter coming to the plate, bases loaded. The Twins brought in lefty reliever, Ron Perranoski to face Hunter. Continuing his tremendous night with another base hit, Catfish Hunter's hit brought in two more runs and made the score, 4-0 A’s, which seemed to be a commanding lead.

With the score well in hand, history was now on the minds of everyone in attendance. Three outs away, from history. To listen to the last three outs of this performance, there’s a YouTube video of the A’s radio broadcast from that game featuring A’s broadcasting staple, Monte Moore. I definitely recommend listening to it - the quality of the broadcast and the leap back into history are quite fascinating in themselves!

The Twins decided to pinch hit John Roseboro for the first at bat of the 9th just to kind of give Catfish a new batter to look at.  Like the 24 batters before him, Roseboro was retired after weakly grounding out to second. Hunter was now two outs away.

Next up was the left handed hitting catcher, Bruce Look. He had already struck out twice to Catfish and by the looks of it, he was just trying to make contact. After one ball, a swinging strike, and another ball high and outside, Look gave Hunter a scare by lining a ball foul with the count at 2-1, he got something to hit but he couldn’t straighten it out and once again, Look was in a hole with the count at 2-2. Catfish then threw a fastball right down the middle and rung him up for the strikeout. Hunter was now one out away.

The pitcher's spot was up next for the Twins, and Rich Reese was pinch hitting for the relief pitcher, Perranoski. Reese to his credit, hung in there with Catfish as he fouled off several pitches and even worked the count to 3-2, Hunter then got Reese looking at that critical moment, and the perfecto was complete!!!

It was only the 14th perfect game in major league history, and it was the first perfect game thrown in the American League in 46 years. His pitching line read: 9.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 11 SO. That alone is a legendary performance, but when you also factor in his great day at the plate as well, 3-4 with 4 RBIs, and the case is made for  one of the greatest individual performances in MLB history.

Regardless of the standings, this victory was the birth of star, a man who would play an integral part in 3 World Series Championships for the A’s over the next 6 years and a man who would garner four 20 game win seasons for the A’s and win the 1974 Cy Young award, as well as make All-Star game appearances in 1970, 1972, 1973, and 1974 with the A’s. 

Catfish Hunter made his debut with the Kansas City A’s in 1965 at the age of 19, and his last appearance was in the World Series with the Oakland A’s in 1974. His total numbers with the A’s organization read a record of 161-113 with a 3.13 ERA and an FIP of 3.54. He’d go onto sign one of the first free agent contracts in MLB history with the New York Yankees who opened up the checkbook for Catfish and as he said in his Hall of Fame induction speech, “Made it so I could retire…” He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1987 and his number 27 is now retired in Oakland. He is arguably the greatest pitcher in Oakland Athletics history.

The game itself, was the first real milestone game in Oakland and created a buzz that would build as the seasons after went on. The year 1968 showcased the young talent that the A’s were forming as their core, and Jim 'Catfish' Hunter was at the forefront.

Next week, WIN #24. Stay tuned!

-- Wes

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