#6 Miggy Magic

It’s rare to see one player carry a baseball team on his back, but through the final games of “The Streak” it seemed that Miguel Tejada was doing just that. Whenever the A’s needed a hit, he was there to provide it. And to go along with Miggy’s emotion seen in the dugout, it was clear that he was the heart and soul of the 2002 Oakland Athletics.’

We continue our 25 Greatest Oakland A's Wins weekly countdown by returning to September 1, 2002 for game number 18 of The Streak. Going into this game, the A’s had already won 17 in a row and with every win, a new record was broken. The A’s had already set the franchise record after the 15th win, and now that they had won 17 in a row, the American League record of 19 was well within their sights. 

With Mark Mulder on the mound for the A’s, and the struggling Joe Mays starting for the Twins, they had to like their chances to increase their win streak to 18. A crowd of nearly 38,000 would be on hand for this Sunday afternoon game, and it was going to be hot all day, the temperature at game time would be 76 degrees which can feel like close to 90 in the Oakland sun.

The first inning would call for both starting pitchers to get out of early jams. Mark Mulder would give up a two out single to Torii Hunter and then a walk to Matt LeCroy before getting Corey Koskie to ground into a force to end the threat. Joe Mays would really walk the line in his first inning of action, Ray Durham would stay hot for the A’s by singling, then Scott Hatteberg would double sending Durham to third. Miguel Tejada would then hit an odd infield single that Durham wasn’t able to score on. With the bases loaded and nobody out, Mays would strikeout the side. He’d get the trio of Chavez, Dye, and Mabry to end the threat.

Mark Mulder would rack up plenty of strikeouts in his next two innings of work, clearly Mulder had his stuff on this afternoon. Mays on the other hand was throwing a lot of pitches and in the bottom of the third, Mays would start the inning by walking Scott Hatteberg on 7 pitches. Then Miguel Tejada would make Mays pay by smashing a towering home run to left to give the A’s a 2-0 lead. The home run was Miggy’s 30th of the year. It was clear that Miggy had reached his breakout season.

Mark Mulder continued to be flawless. He’d give up a walk to Corey Koskie in the 4th, but he quickly erased this blemish by picking Koskie off in smooth fashion. Joe Mays appeared to have settled down as he found two scoreless innings of work in the 4th and 5th. Heading into the 6th with the score still at 2-0, the back and forth would start with both lineups seeing the starting pitchers for the 3rd time.

It would start with Torii Hunter doing what he usually did to the A’s, with Christian Guzman leading off with a single. Torii Hunter launched a towering home run of his own to tie the game at 2, just like that. Mulder would go onto retire the side after that big blow, and luckily for him, the A’s would answer. It would be John Mabry providing yet another one of his unexpected blasts, which seemed to be the norm during the whole entire streak. The blast was of the opposite field variety, and it soared over the out of town scoreboard into the Left Field Bleachers. The A’s were now back in front at 3-2. And they weren’t done yet, the rookie Mark Ellis would hit a line drive single to keep the rally going. Then Terrence Long would nearly get ahold of a Joe Mays pitch but instead it was just a loud out. Ramon Hernandez would hit a soft ground ball to the third baseman that was hit too softly to be a double play ball, Hernandez was thrown out at first, but Ellis advanced to second with two outs in the inning. It was there that the newly acquired, Ray Durham stayed hot and laced a single to right field, Ellis would score easily and Durham would try to be extra aggressive by trying to stretch the hit into a double which didn’t end well, Durham was thrown out at second to end the inning but it was now a 4-2 A’s lead. In hindsight, Durham should’ve stayed at first, especially with the top of the order of the A’s lineup coming up and since Mays was absolutely getting lit up at that point, it was important to keep grinding him. And for all we know, maybe Ron Gardenhire the Twins Manager was going to pull Mays anyway, but now we’ll never know.

Mark Mulder went out for the 7th inning with once again, another 2-run lead. And in typical Mark Mulder fashion, he threw an economical, 9 pitch, 1-2-3 inning. It was clear that the A’s bullpen wasn’t gonna play much of a factor in this game, and with the way the game had gone the day before, that was a relief. The A’s had won the game 6-3 over the Twins, but it was at the expense of A’s relievers, Ricardo Rincon and Jim Mecir getting rocked in relief of the late Cory Lidle. Luckily, the Twins bullpen got rocked as well, so the A’s had to like their chances with Joe Mays leaving the ballgame (even though they rocked him pretty good too).

Ron Gardenhire brought in the veteran right hander, Michael Jackson (no relation) in to face the A’s in the 7th to face the A’s 2-3-4 hitters and Jackson induced 3 fly ball outs to get the A’s down in bottom of the 7th. Now in the 8th inning, Mulder continued to show precision. He did walk the first batter, but then he got Christian Guzman to hit into a 1-6-3 double play before getting Torii Hunter to hit an infield pop fly to end the inning with the A’s 3 outs away from number 18.

Gardenhire would bring in Tony Fiore to pitch to the A’s in the 8th, and once again, the A’s could not add onto their lead, despite getting John Mabry to second.

Now it was time for the 9th inning, and with Mark Mulder at 101 pitches, Art Howe had a decision to make. With A’s closer, Billy Koch warming up in the bullpen, the decision for managers would usually be to bring in the closer with a clean inning. In this case, Koch had thrown 23 pitches the night before, and the night before that he had also thrown 8 pitches. That, coupled with Mulder’s dominance shown throughout his outing, it became a no-brainer for Art Howe who decided to send Mulder out for the 9th inning seeking a complete game.

With Matt LaCory’s 12 career Major League home runs coming into this game, I don’t think Mark Mulder was expecting any issues with him on a power standpoint. All this confidence was immediately chucked onto 880 when LaCroy launched a ball over the jagged edge in left-center for a solo home run to cut the lead to 4-3. The alarm bells were starting to go off - if Mulder can’t finish, who do we put in? The usage of Billy Koch throughout the year was entirely puzzling, Koch would constantly go into non-save situations and as a result, Koch would seem to fizzle out later in the year (most notably, in the playoffs). And for this reason, it was imperative that Mulder would shut the door on the Twins with no drama attached. Corey Koskie was the man who came up next, and this was a guy who had some notable pop in his bat, and on a 1-1 pitch, Koskie launched one into the left field staircase to tie the game and now, it was really time to panic. Howe came right out of the dugout and took the ball from Mulder and out came Billy Koch to try and keep the score level.

A daunting task awaiting the A’s, if the Twins could get another run across Twins closer Eddie Guardado would come into the game. He had been an All-Star that season, and Guardado would lead the league in saves at the end of the year.

At first, Billy Koch showed no signs of fatigue from being overworked. An 8 pitch at bat with Jacque Jones ended with Jones grounding out to Mark Ellis. Then another 8 pitch at bat ensued, this time with Doug Mientkiewicz, and Billy Koch would gas Mientkiewicz for the second out of the inning.

Then came the gut punch, Michael Cuddyer came to the plate. And before you readers start envisioning the Michael Cuddyer who was a pretty solid pro in the late 2000s, end that mindset, now. This was 23 year old, Michael Cuddyer. A Michael Cuddyer who had only 2 Major League home runs coming into this game, and with Billy Koch rearing back throwing near 100 mph, Cuddyer decided to go for it all by swinging at the first pitch, he connected.

The ball flew over the left-center field fence and now the Twins were ahead 5-4. The streak was about to be in jeopardy, a colossal meltdown by the A’s in the 9th inning was about to end this incredible run of form. And they weren’t out of the mess yet, Billy Koch clearly had lost all of his competitive edge and this was clear as he walked Tom Prince on four pitches. Luis Rivas was up next, and somehow, Tom Prince would steal second even though he’s a catcher. The A’s were in shock it seemed, but luckily the insurance run would not come across the plate, Rivas hit a short fly ball to right, Jermaine Dye was able to run it down and now it was time for the bottom of the 9th.

Eddie Guardado came strolling to the Coliseum mound, he had gone to Franklin High School in nearby Stockton before taking his talents to San Joaquin Delta College and was drafted in the 21st round of the 1990 MLB Amateur Draft by the Minnesota Twins. He’d make his Major League debut for the Twins in 1993, where he’d start 16 games that season. He’d start only 9 more games the rest of his career before being made a permanent reliever in 1996. It was this season, that Guardado led the league in games pitched with 83. He’d establish himself as a solid lefty that was quite durable and reliable. And because of this, he was nicknamed “Everyday Eddie.” In 2001, Ron Gardenhire made Eddie Guardado the closer and he never looked back, on this day, he was 3 outs away from getting the Twins a big victory over the hottest team in baseball.

Due up for the A’s was Ramon Hernandez, Ray Durham, and Eric Byrnes. Guardado would start the inning with a bad omen, Hernadez forced 8 pitches out of Guardado and this forced a walk. Right away, Howe pointed to Randy Velarde to come in and pinch run for Ramon Hernandez’s slow catcher’s legs. Next up came Ray Durham, hitting right handed. And Durham would continue to swing the bat well, hitting a line drive to the opposite field into right field, Velarde would stop at second and with two on and nobody out, the A’s were back in business and the crowd had now recovered from Cuddyer’s gut punch.  The fans remembered what team they were watching. With Guardado being a lefty, Howe pinch hit Olmedo Saenz for Eric Byrnes. And on three pitches, Guardado got Saenz looking for the first out of the inning.

Then came the next man up, and that man was Miguel Odalis Tejada. Nicknamed Miggy by many of us, and La Gua Gua (which apparently is supposed to be a minibus in Central America) in his home country of the Dominican Republic. A’s fans went crazy at the sight of their MVP candidate. He had already hit a towering home run earlier in the game, and at this point in time, nothing seemed to be out of the reach of Miggy. Eddie Guardado forced the count to 1-2 on Tejada before this happened… it’s time to let the A’s television play-by-play man at the time give his call about what happened next.

“Tejada to left field… well struck! Miguel Tejada has done it! Miguel Te—( Ray Fosse makes a noise of “ROHHHHH” in the background)jada HAS HIT A 3-RUN WALK-OFF HOMER TO WIN THE GAME! 18 IN A ROW!”

In my opinion, this is the greatest call of Greg Papa’s tenure as A’s television play-by-play man. It captured the moment in the best way possible, it’s one that I remember as a 9 year old watching it in my living room. I remember running into the hallway not believing that it was real. See it HERE.

The pitch was low and away, it didn’t matter. Miguel Tejada connected with it, and now the A’s were only two wins away from history. Tejada was mobbed at home plate and the mobbing went in the direction of the Twins dugout, in the middle of the scrum, Billy Koch was one of the biggest guys in there celebrating as if to say, “Thank you for saving me.” and the last to make it to the scrum was A’s manager, Art Howe. He slowly walked to his players in a look of almost surprise and disbelief about what he had just seen.

In my opinion, this win is my personal favorite of the streak just because it defined everything the 2002 A’s were about and it also gave Miguel Tejada his MVP moment. I love win number 20, and more on that later, but this one was my favorite.

A few days later, the A’s would go for win number 21, and in the Metrodome, Brad Radke would shut the A’s down and the A’s would lose 6-0 to the Twins. In some ways, this was a foreshadowing of what was to come in the playoffs, the A’s would lose in 5 games to the Twins in the ALDS and in many ways, The Streak was a moment of false hope. However, let’s not take away from this great win, because it will always be something that I can remember and instantly  smile. Miguel Tejada is my favorite A’s player from my viewing experience and this was one of the reasons why. He was full of life and an exciting homegrown talent. See the rest of the highlights HERE.

Miggy is on the left, this is classic stuff from his teenage days.

Stay tuned, we're down to the top 5! #5 is coming next week!

-- Wes

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#7 Finally

Championship moments. They happen and they’re never forgotten. They're the most magical moments in sports. The moment that every athlete dreams about as little kids and every fan dreams about before every season. 

We continue our weekly 25 Greatest Oakland A's Win countdown by returning to October 28, 1989 for game 4 of the 1989 World Series. The A’s had a 3 game lead, and much can be said for the earthquake that happened between games 2 and 3 but in this post, we will do our best to give a tribute to one of the greatest teams ever, the 1989 Oakland Athletics.

With the way game 3 had gone (see #17), the A’s offense had clearly not gone dormant during the earthquake layoff. One could make the argument that some pitchers had struggled with the time off, but in these types of games, the A’s were confident. 

For the Giants, the veteran, Don Robinson would start in game 4. Giants manager, Roger Craig would select Robinson to start instead of “Big Daddy” Rick Reuschel which was a surprise to many. Reuschel had been rocked in game number two, but Robinson hadn’t pitched since game 3 of the NLCS which was a relief appearance for Robinson.

For the A’s, Mike Moore would take the hill and Dave Duncan’s latest pitching miracle had a chance to put the cherry on top of a tremendous season that saved his career. He had dominated the Giants in game two and was probably feeling the same confidence throughout his warmup tosses.

The man who had tortured the Giants all series long was the greatest leadoff hitter to ever play the game, Rickey Henderson. And to start the game, he’d do something he had done more than anyone and that was hit a home run to leadoff the game. Which is why I call this feat a “Rickey Henderson.” Robinson started off the at bat with two balls to Rickey, clearly feeling the pressure of Rickey’s low to the ground frame. Robinson then threw Rickey a “get me over” fastball and Rickey punished him. Henderson finished his big swing with smooth “flip throw” over his head and then continued the pimping by taking a Sosa-like hop as Kevin Mitchell watched it fly over the left field wall and now it was 1-0 Oakland, before everyone got to their seats.

Al Michaels said that it would’ve been a normal fly ball any other night, though judging by Rickey’s reaction, I’m not sure how accurate that statement is. Rickey became the 8th different player to homer for Oakland, and shockingly, Mark McGwire was the only Oakland A not to homer in the starting lineup. See Rickey’s homer HERE.

Robinson would retire Lansford, Canseco, and McGwire to keep the damage at 1 run. For Mike Moore, things looked a little concerning right off the rip when the Giants leadoff hitter, Brett Butler laid down a bunt for a hit and made it in safely. Moore would induce a ground ball from Ken Oberkfell that created a forceplay at second and brought order to the inning. Will Clark would then drive a ball to deep center but Dave Henderson would get to it for the second out. Kevin Mitchell would ground to Carney Lansford who flipped it to Tony Phillips to complete the A’s shutdown inning.

It was clear right away in the second inning that Don Robinson was not going to last long in this critical contest. Dave Henderson continued his tremendous series by doubling to left field, Henderson would then advance to third on a flyout from Steinbach. And with the infield in, Henderson wouldn’t be able to score on Tony Phillips’ ground ball to the right side of the infield for the second out. With the pitcher in the on deck circle, Roger Craig would intentionally walk Walt Weiss to get to the A’s starting pitcher, Mike Moore. Moore would then punish Craig’s no-brainer decision by lining a ball to centerfield, Brett Butler was playing shallow and he couldn’t get to it, it would bounce all the way to the wall, Henderson would walk home and Walt Weiss would score from first standing up. It was now 3-0 A’s, and Mike Moore became the first American League pitcher to get a hit in a World Series game since 1979 and it was a big as it gets.

Next up came the Giants bugaboo, Rickey Henderson and once again, Rickey would provide his magic by lining a ball past Matt Williams into left field, Mike Moore would round third and Kevin Mitchell’s throw would not force Moore to slide and now it was 4-0 A’s. And that would be it for Don Robinson, Roger Craig would come out to take the ball from him and he’d give it to Mike LaCoss. LaCoss would barely get out of a bases loaded jam and Tony La Russa was feeling all the more comfortable in the A’s dugout.

Mike Moore would work around a Matt Williams leadoff single and the Giants continued to not have an answer for him. For the time being, LaCoss and Moore would stifle the lineups they were facing. In the bottom of the third, a notable play occurred to end the inning, with Will Clark at the plate, Brett Butler was on first and with two outs, Roger Craig sent Butler and Steinbach gunned him down to end the inning to continue the frustration for the Giants as they could not get anything going.

It wasn’t until the top of the 5th where the action restarted again, a one out single from Jose Canseco would be the catalyst. With two outs in the inning, Canseco flashed his speed by stealing second and that would prove vital, Dave Henderson would walk to make it first and second with two outs. And it would be Terry Steinbach who’d hit a deep drive down the right field line, it would drop down and Steinbach’s catchers legs were not enough to slow him down as he would end up at third for a two-run triple to make it 6-0 A’s. Then Tony Phillips would get an extra base hit of his own by hitting it over the head of Kevin Mitchell that allowed Steinbach to walk home and make the score 7-0 A’s.

Mike Moore continued to dominate the Giants lineup by completing yet another shutdown inning. Jeff Brantley would come in for the Giants in the 6th and the A’s proved once again that new arms weren’t stifling their run producing capabilities. Rickey Henderson would join the cycle watch by hitting a leadoff triple into the gap in right-center. And from there, Carney Lansford would provide the RBI with one of his classic contact singles and now it was 8-0 A’s which would bring their win probability to 100%. Surely, there was no way the Giants could come back.

Mike Moore would finally show signs of vulnerability in his last inning of work, with an 8 run lead, Kevin Mitchell gave the Giants fans something to clap for by launching a 2-run home run over the left field wall to make it 8-2 A’s. Kelly Downs would get a one-two-three inning in the top of the 7th. And in the bottom half, La Russa brought in his trusty middle reliever, Gene Nelson who would get rocked. He’d walk Terry Kennedy and then would give up a two-run home run to Greg Litton and just like that the lead was now cut in half. Sensing the game was starting to find a state of chaos, La Russa brought in his usual setup man, Rick Honeycutt. And right away, Honeycutt would get rocked around as well by giving up a triple to the pinch hitter, Candy Maldonado. Then Brett Butler would continue his solid day at the plate by lining a double that would allow Maldonado to come in and make it 8-5 A’s. Roger Craig would pinch hit with Robby Thompson in the place of Ken Oberkfell and as a result, Thompson made his manager look good by lining a single that would easily allow Butler to score and make it 8-6. A game that seemed over was now a game almost getting away from the A’s, and with Will Clark and Kevin Mitchell coming up for the Giants, La Russa now had something to worry about. He left Honeycutt into face the left-handed, Will Clark and he was able to force Will Clark into a lazy flyout for the second out of the inning. Then came Kevin Mitchell, and La Russa came out to bring Ken Burns in to face Kevin Mitchell. A 6 pitch battle would ensue with the Candlestick crowd getting louder and louder as the at bat went on, and when the at bat finally ended, Kevin Mitchell would hit a deep drive to left, at first it looked like it could go over the fence but then Rickey started to circle showing that there was going to be a play. He made the catch, and when he did, Rickey threw his arms out as if to say, “We’re good, we got this.” The inning was over, and order seemed to have been found once again.

Roger Craig would bring in Craig Lefferts to face the A’s top of the order, he’d start by getting Rickey Henderson to groundout, denying Rickey of the cycle. Carney Lansford would get an infield single by challenging Greg Litton. Then Lefferts would lose it by walking Jose Canseco on four pitches, that at bat would force Craig to bring in his bullpen ace, Steve Bedrosian. The Bed Rock would face Mark McGwire in a pivotal situation, and he’d get McGwire to foul out for the second out of the inning. Bedrosian hadn’t pitched in two weeks, and it might’ve been to blame for what happened next, an 8 pitch at bat would follow with Dave Henderson and Hendu would earn the walk after fouling off several pitches, which would load the bases for Terry Steinbach. Terry Steinbach would earn a walk of his own, as Bedrosian refused Craig’s orders to throw out of the stretch on 3-2 and Steinbach pumped his fist because he knew how big that run would be. It was now 9-6 A’s, and the A’s seemed to have retained the momentum in the game. The inning would end with Will Clark making a catch right in the lap of the commissioner, Fay Vincent.

Todd Burns would stay in the game for the A’s and I don’t think any A’s fan would predict that Todd Burns would be handling the baseball with the A’s being 6 outs away from a World Series title. This was the situation though, with Dennis Eckersley starting to throw in the bullpen with Matt Young. Burns would get Matt Williams to line out to Tony Phillips at second, then he’d get Terry Kennedy and Greg Litton to flyout to Dave Henderson in center. So there you had it, Todd Burns turned out to be the most vital reliever in this game with his inning and a third. And with Dennis Eckersley surely to pitch the 9th inning, the Giants could feel that the magical run was about to end.

Walt Weiss, Dave Parker and Rickey Henderson would be set down in order by Steve Bedrosian. And now it was time for the bottom of the 9th at Candlestick Park, and as expected, La Russa brought in his Hall of Fame closer, Dennis Eckersley. Leading off would be Donnell Nixon and he’d try to bunt for a hit on Eck, it was a good bunt but Tony Phillips was there to make a great play on the ball and throw out Nixon for the first out of the inning. Next up was Jose Uribe and on the first pitch, he flew out to Rickey Henderson and just like that, the A’s were one out away from the top of the baseball mountain. The Giants last hope represented Brett Butler, and on the second pitch, Butler hit it to the 3.5 hole and sure enough, even though McGwire couldn’t get it, Tony Phillips could and he flipped it to Eckersley who was covering first, which seemed fitting as he stepped on first with Butler racing down the line, Eck looked at the umpire for the call, he raised his fist and that was it, the A’s were World Series Champions!

Eckersley gave the fist pump of a lifetime, after the embarrassment of 1988, he and his teammates had redeemed themselves and had finally reached the pinnacle of glory.

Eck’s teammates swarmed out of the dugout to a mixed reaction from the Candlestick crowd, the A’s fans in attendance immediately made their cheers known while the Giants fans stood in silence for one moment before exuding a combination of boos and groans.

After the game, Dave Stewart was named World Series MVP for his tremendous performances in games one and three. If you’d like to watch this game, see the video HERE. Al Michaels is on the play by play with a younger Tim McCarver who actually seems a lot better than how I remember him in the 21st Century. There’s only one way to end this post, and that’s with A’s radio broadcaster at the time, Lon Simmons and his call of the final play of this game. 

“The one strike pitch, swung on, bounced! Off McGwire’s glove, Phillips has it! Throws to Eckersley in time! Another great play by Tony Phillips. AND THE A’S HAVE WON THE WORLD SERIES IN A SWEEP!”

Stay tuned, #6 will be here next week.

-- Wes

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#8 The Original Double Whammy

The 1972 World Series is, in my humble opinion, one of the most overshadowed and underrated Fall Classics for one reason and one reason only. The two teams of the 1970s were unquestionably the A’s on the American League side and the Cincinnati Reds on the National League side. When you have the two best teams from the decade square off, you’d think that would be remembered, but it really isn’t.

We continue our 25 Greatest Oakland A's Wins weekly countdown by returning to October 14, 1972 for game one of the 1972 World Series. The game that would set the tone for the entire series and how the whole series would be played. 

The Cincinnati Reds were known as the “Big Red Machine” ‘at that time and with players like Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, and Pete Rose their lineup was feared throughout the lead and that earned them the nickname. Sparky Anderson was the manager for the Reds and with Dick Williams managing the A’s, an interesting series between two brilliant baseball tactician was about to take place.

The Oakland A’s had fought a long, grueling series against the Detroit Tigers to get here, and the great talent that the A’s had drafted in the late 60s was finally molding into the team many thought they could be. Reggie Jackson, the A’s war slugger would be injured for the World Series after scoring the tying run in the deciding game 5 against Detroit, due to his injury, the Reds became the heavy favorites to win it all.

With Jackson’s injury, the A’s knew that they were going to have to win in low scoring ballgames, so the pitching was going to be the key factor in winning it all. Tasked with this job in game one would be the A’s veteran lefty, Ken Holtzman. For the Reds, the 24 year old, Gary Nolan would get the ball from Sparky Anderson.

The Cincinnati crowd filled Riverfront Stadium to capacity and created a great atmosphere, and no one on the A’s staff was better to combat this than Ken Holtzman. Especially since last time he pitched at Riverfront, Hotlzman threw a no hitter. The game began with both pitchers dealing 1-2-3 innings, Holtzman letdown the formidable trio of Rose/Morgan/Tolan in order to set the tone for entire evening. Campaneris, Rudi and Alou would also go down quietly.

The action would immediately pick up in the second inning, Nolan would get the first two outs of the inning quickly but a two out walk to George Hendrick appeared harmless at first, but Gene Tenace made Nolan pay in a big way. Nolan threw Tenace a fastball out over the play and Tenace launched the ball to deep right and it would sail over the right field fence for a two-run home run to silence the Cincinnati faithful, make it 2-0 A’s and the blast would make A’s owner Charlie Finley the only person in the whole stadium cheering. See it HERE. It was Tenace’s first World Series at bat and clearly he was dumb enough to know any better and made the A’s forget about Jackson for a moment.

Right away, the Reds would strike back. Johnny Bench, Tony Perez would single to lead off the inning, and then Denis Menke would walk to load the bases with nobody out. Dick Williams ordered the A’s to concede the run, playing the percentages and luckily for the A’s, Cesar Geronimo would pop out for the first out of the inning. The A’s would then move to double play depth, and the A’s would get the ground ball they were looking for, Campaneris would flip to Dick Green who fired it over to first but the relay was not in time and the Reds had pulled one back and it was now 2-1 Oakland. Holtzman would then strikeout his opposite number to end the inning with no more damage done.

The third would be uneventful, with the exception of both teams providing different ways of dealing with would-be, base stealers. Johnny Bench aka “The Human Shotgun” gunned down the speedy Campaneris to stifle the A’s rally in the third. And in the bottom half, Holtzman’s veteran savvy would serve him well as he picked off Bobby Tolan who was trying to steal second.

Action would then pick up in the bottom of the fourth, Holtzman would continue to have his issues with the Reds middle of the order as Bench got things going with a walk, then Tony Perez would line a sharp single, that allowed Bench to hustle over to third to make it runners at the corners. A groundout from Denis Menke would provide the RBI for the Reds that would even the score at 2-2. Maneuvering from Holtzman with the pitchers spot coming up would keep the score at 2-2.

The tie wouldn’t last long, Gene Tenace would come up second in the inning and with one out in the inning, Tenace would drive himself in with a no doubter shot down the left field line that Tenace himself would admire in a way that is reminiscent of Mike Napoli. Out of nowhere, Tenace had himself a two homer game in the World Series. And it was as big as they come.

Holtzman would set down the Reds top of the order in order, once again to complete the shutdown inning. His day would only include one more batter and Johnny Bench would continue his great game by smacking a leadoff double that appeared to Dick Williams to be the sign that it was time to make use out of the A’s bullpen. And with Rollie Fingers being the guy to come in, no one would really criticize this decision. Fingers foiled the Reds rally with devastating sliders on the outside corner of the plate to get Perez and Menke, and as a result, Bench would stay stranded at second.

Sparky Anderson would go to his bullpen in the 7th as well, bringing in Pedro Borbon and both bullpens would put on pitching clinics the rest of the way. In the bottom of the 7th, Fingers would give up a leadoff single to Reds speedster, Dave Concepcion. Sparky Anderson wasted no time in sending Concepcion on a steal attempt, Dick Williams started to notice Concepcion’s giant lead, so he called a pitch out and Williams could do no wrong, Tenace gunned out Concepcion to stifle the Reds rally, once again. With two outs in the 7th, Fingers would walk Pete Rose and out came Dick Williams again with the first sign of trouble as he called for the A’s heralded bullpen ace for the 1972 playoffs, Vida Blue. Blue would prove wild at first, throwing a wild pitch and walking Joe Morgan but he’d get Bob Tolan to foul out to the catcher and in the process, settle him down.

Clay Carroll would keep the score the same for the Reds in the 8th, and they knew they needed that, especially with Vida Blue in the game. Vida would prove clinical in the 8th inning, inducing two fly ball outs and striking out, Denis Menke to end the inning. The A’s were 3 outs away from a game one victory and things were looking rather set in stone, even with a one run ballgame. 

In the bottom of the 9th, Vida Blue stayed in the game, looking to complete the 7 out save in impressive fashion. He’d give up a leadoff single to Hal McCrae, Dave Concepcion would then drop down a bunt to get the runner to second with one out, Julian Javier would then groundout to Dick Green which allowed the runner to get to third with two outs in the game and with the ever dangerous Pete Rose coming to the plate. On this day, Charlie Hustle would fail in crunch time and the A’s had completed the 3-2 victory to take game one of the series. 

A tremendously managed game by Dick Williams ultimately  made the difference to go along with the major heroics from his catcher, Gene Tenace. And as a result, this clip from Anchorman is quite relevant.

The series would get even more interesting, but we’ll get to that later.

Stay tuned, #7 is coming up next week!

-- Wes

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#9 The Brink of History

The Streak. It was one of the most incredible set of regular season games ever seen before, and it was then touched upon in the film, “Moneyball”. Everyone remembers #20, and we’ll get to that game later on in this countdown but the movie seemed to gloss over the other great wins of the streak. Even with all the great calls of Bill King and Ken Korach that were mixed into a nice montage in the movie, it was not enough to capture the essence of “The Streak.”

This week, we continue our 25 Greatest A's Wins weekly countdown, by returning to September 2, 2002 for win #19 of The Streak. This is one of the games that often gets overlooked but deserves a lot of respect because it showed just how amazing this entire run was. No deficit ever was too much for the A’s in those games. For example, another game that really stands out for me was win #12 in Detroit, where the A’s were down 7-3 in the 8th inning and would score 5 runs in the inning thanks to a home run by Greg Myers to get things going and a big hit from John Mabry to give the A’s the lead. Then Jermaine Dye would provide the dagger in the 9th with a two-run homer and then Billy Koch would nail down the save. See the highlights of that game HERE.

The game on September 2, 2002 was bigger because the A’s knew they were chasing history, and that itself adds to the pressure to comeback in games like that. The A’s ace known as Barry Zito was on the mound that day and Zito starts always seemed to be A’s victories that year, Zito would go onto win the Cy Young Award that season in his best season as a major league player. Zito would be going for win number 20 on this day. For the Royals, the rookie, Runelvys Hernandez would be starting for the Royals. This would be a game that would be a mismatch on paper but of course, the game wouldn’t go according to plan.

The A’s would have the newly acquired, Ray Durham leading off for them as the DH with Mark Ellis at second. To go along with Dye, Long, and Justice in the outfield. Scott Hatteberg would get the start over John Mabry at first. The usual suspects would fill in the rest of the infield with Miguel Tejada and Eric Chavez. And of course, Ramon Hernandez would be behind the plate.

September 2, 2002 was a really hot day in Oakland, 84 degrees to be exact and it was clear from that forecast that the offense was gonna be there.

The 1st inning would go the same for both pitchers, each would tally a strikeout and would get a one-two-three inning. It wasn’t until the top of the 3rd that the action really started, Barry Zito would be a victim of one of the 64 home runs that Neifi Perez hit in his 12 year Major League career to lead off the inning. Then former Oakland A’s catcher, AJ Hinch hit a first pitch solo home run to complete the back to back jacks for the Royals, it was now 2-0 Royals and A’s fans were stunned that Zito was having a rough start to the afternoon.

The Royals would end up getting a first and second situation with one out but Zito would get out of the jam. The Royals’ Hernandez would prove successful in his first go around through the A’s order. Then Zito would continue to face trouble in the 4th, one out singles from Aaron Guiel and Neifi Perez would bring more trouble to the game and then an error from Miguel Tejada on a ground ball from AJ Hinch would make the bases loaded. Luis Ordaz would then hit a deep fly ball to Jermaine Dye that would be deep enough to score the run and make it 3-0 Royals in the form of an unearned run. The next batter would be the Royals best hitter, Carlos Beltran and in his at bat, AJ Hinch would steal second base easily taking away the force and providing more drama to the inning. Then Beltran would provide the big blow by hitting a ground ball up the middle into center field, both runners would score and now the scoreboard read: 5-0 Royals. And it was clear that the A’s were in a world of trouble and their winning streak would be tested once again. Joe Randa would then provide another single in the inning that would send Beltran to third, but Raul Ibanez would ground into a force that would stop the bleeding.

The A’s would continue to show they had no answer for Runelvys Hernandez in the 4th by going down one-two-three. Zito on the other hand would finally have a clean inning in the 5th which would prove to be critical for the A’s and their comeback chances. Leading off the bottom of the 5th for the A’s would be Jermaine Dye who’d lead the inning off with a single in the form of a ground with eyes. Now the A’s had a sign of life. The next batter would be the old veteran, David Justice who’d make that sign of life a lifeline by clubbing 2-0 mistake fastball from Hernandez over the 330 foot sign, down the line in RF for a two-run home run and the crowd was now back in the game. With the way the crowd reacted to the home run, you just knew the A’s were gonna make a game of it, it was just one of those games. That type of belief doesn’t come around often, but when it does, you just know it. Ellis, Long, and Hernandez would all groundout to end that inning but the ballgame was now back on.

Barry Zito would end his afternoon in the 6th inning by working around a leadoff single from Neifi Perez who had had Zito’s number all afternoon.  Zito would get Luis Ordaz to line out and get Beltran to groundout. It was a quality start for Barry Zito because 3 of the 5 runs he gave up were unearned but it was not a good start from him, nevertheless.

The bottom of the 6th would be the inning that would show the incredible magic that the 2002 A’s were providing. A leadoff walk from Ray Durham suggested that Hernandez’s stuff was starting to waver, and Scott Hatteberg would make that a reality. The Royals outfield alignment showed no respect to the hitting abilities of Hatteberg and he made them pay by hitting a drive to the gap in right-center and with the speed of Ray Durham, he’d score standing up and now it was a 5-3 ballgame with Hatteberg standing up at second and nobody out. Then Miguel Tejada would continue his amazing run of form by lining a base hit to left, Ron Washington would hold Hatteberg at third and now the A’s really were in business. Royals manager Tony Pena would come out to make the pitching change and bring in Scott Mullen in to face the rest of the A’s dangerous middle of the order.

First, Mullen would face Eric Chavez and this is when the A’s really tee-d off. Being extra aggressive, Eric Chavez swung at the first pitch and grounded a ball up the middle into centerfield that would allow Hatteberg to walk home to make it 5-4 and now the A’s had first and second and still there were nobody out. Jermaine Dye would then fly out to right for the first out of the inning but that would not stifle the rally, the next batter would be David Justice. And the A’s would provide my favorite play in all of baseball, the double steal. Chavez and Tejada took off for second and third, respectively and made it easily. The dynamite was now in place, and on a 3-2 pitch, David Justice hit the detonator by lining a 3-2 off speed pitch into right field and the crowd in Oakland burst into a state of euphoria.  The fans somehow got even louder when the ball would go through the legs of Royals right fielder, Aaron Guiel. Tejada and Chavez scored on the play and David Justice ended up at second thanks to the error from Guiel.  Now it was 6-5 A’s. The A’s had come all the way back from being down 5-0 like it was nothing, and the “washed up” David Justice had 4 RBIs in the game.

Mullen would then intentionally walk Mark Ellis and then Mullen would strikeout Terrence Long and get Ramon Hernandez to stop the bleeding but the damage had certainly been done and the Oakland A’s fans were savoring the moment of another magical 2002 A’s moment.

It would be the submarine reliever, Chad Bradford who’d come in for the A’s in the 7th. Bradford would be facing the Royals middle of the order. In typical Chad Bradford form, he’d get Joe Randa to hit a soft ground ball for the first out of the inning. Raul Ibanez would not be as kind as he’d get a sharp single and an error from Mark Ellis (I know, I’m shocked too) would provide some raised eyebrows. It was now first and second with one out, and Art Howe came out of the dugout to bring in the prized lefty, Ricardo Rincon. Rincon would face Michael Tucker and he’d get Tucker to foul out near the A’s bullpen for the second out of the inning. Tony Pena would pinch hit with the dangerous, Mike Sweeney and Art Howe would counter by bringing in Jeff Tam. Tam would get Sweeney to fly out to center and now the A’s were 6 outs away from number 19.

Jeremy Affeldt the current Giants reliever would come in for the Royals and he’d have no trouble with the A’s top of the order by getting a one-two three inning.

In the top of the 8th, Jeff Tam would stay in the game and Neifi Perez would be leading off trying to make himself 4 for 4 on the day. He’d bunt for a hit on Tam’s first pitch and Perez would beat the throw. Pena would pinch hit with Brent Mayne for AJ Hinch. Mayne would add to the collective blood pressure by hitting a ground ball that would get into the 3.5 hole and with Perez’s speed he would be able to motor on over to third and make it first and third with nobody out. That base running would prove to be huge for the Royals in the next at bat. Luis Ordaz would come up and then he’d hit a sharp ground ball to Miguel Tejada who’d flip to Mark Ellis, who fired to first to complete the 6-4-3 double play. The A’s had conceded the run that would tie the game but they had done so by stifling the Royals rally.

Affeldt would stay in the game for the Royals in the bottom of the 8th, and he’d put in another strong inning of work. Jermaine Dye would get on base thanks to an error by Kit Pellow and Dye would even make it to second thanks to a wild pitch, but the A’s would fail to score.

A’s closer, Billy Koch would be the man the A’s would lean on in the 9th inning. He’d give up a lead off single to Raul Ibanez to start the inning. Luis Alicea would pinch hit for Kit Pellow and to make matters worse, Koch would walk Alicea on four pitches. First and second with nobody out, and now there were some nervous groans in the stands. Pena would order Michael Tucker to put down a sac bunt and he’d oblige. The bunt was good enough to move Ibanez and Alicea to second and third. With the Royals slugger, Mike Sweeney coming to the plate, Koch would intentionally walk him and take their chances with Neifi Perez despite his 4 for 4 day at the plate. Perez stayed aggressive, he swung at Koch’s first pitch and it was a ground ball right at Miguel Tejada next to second base. Miggy stepped on second and fired to Scott Hattberg and the A’s had pulled a Houdini to keep the game tied.

Jason Grimsley would come in to replace Affeldt in the 9th, Grimsley would make news a few years later for the wrong reasons. In 2006, federal agents would raid Grimsley’s house and find that he was distributing PEDs. His team, the Arizona Diamondbacks would release him the day after it was reported and he’d never play again. On this day in September 2002, he’d be tasked with trying to make sure that Miguel Tejada would not get to the plate to bat. And right away, Grimsley would find trouble. It would be Terrence Long leading off the inning, and in a five pitch battle, Long would launch the early fireworks in the inning. He’d line a pitch down the left field line and it would land in the outfield. It was clear that T-Long was gonna get extra bases, but then Long rounded second and he’d make it to third for a leadoff triple.

The A’s had their winning run 90 feet away. And because of it, Royals manager decided to take evasive action. Greg Myers would pinch hit for Ramon Hernandez and Myers wouldn’t get an opportunity to get the bat off his shoulder as Pena ordered Grimsley to intentionally walk him. Next up was Ray Durham, and Pena would repeat the same order to Grimsley. The bases were loaded for Scott Hatteberg with Miguel Tejada waiting in the on deck circle, the Royals at this point, were almost guaranteed to face Miggy. Scott Hatteberg wanted to do it himself though, and Pena would make another interesting decision. Pena would order one of his outfielders to come into the infield to make it difficult for the A’s to win on any ground ball. Just any fly ball to the outfield to the medium depth would certainly end the game. Easier said then done, Hatteberg would battle with Grimsley and on the 6th pitch of the at bat he’d hit a ground ball to Luis Ordaz the second baseman. Ordaz fired the ball to home for the first out of the inning but Hatteberg would make it to first base, and the bases were still loaded.

There was a momentary groan from the crowd but that groan would quickly dissipate after the next batter’s name was announced. It was Miguel Tejada, and quickly, the crowd standing as one, started chanting, “MVP! MVP! MVP!” thanks to Tejada’s heroics in win #18 (more on that later) to go along with the tremendous season he was having. And on the first pitch from Grimsley, Miggy rewarded the fans with a line drive up the middle that didn’t have a chance of being caught! The ball easily touched down in the outfield and Long touched home, the A’s had won! 

It was number 19 and now they were tied with the 1947 New York Yankees for the American League record of the longest winning streak ever. The crowd broke into a state of euphoria, Art Howe and the rest of the A’s bench stormed onto the field to mob their hero.

Another incredible win from an incredible team that simply could do no wrong. To see highlights from this great game, click HERE. This was one of Miguel Tejada’s best moments from the season, and he’d end up with the 2002 American League MVP after the year was done.

And this win set up for a shot at history in the game on September 4, 2002, which we’ll talk about later in this countdown.

Next up is #8, stay tuned!

-- Wes

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