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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