Swingin' A's
The Swingin' A's is a nickname for the
While the team did not record the most appearances in a World Series in the 1970s (as the Cincinnati Reds went to four), the Athletics won more titles overall without losing once; of the six teams who made multiple appearances in the Series of the 1970s, the Athletics and the Pittsburgh Pirates were the only ones to never lose. The Athletics were also the first team in the League Championship Series era (since 1969) to reach it in five consecutive seasons, and they were the second team to win three of them in a row (after the Baltimore Orioles); no team would reach the LCS five straight times until the Atlanta Braves of the 1990s. In their five-year span, they averaged 95 wins while winning their division by at least five games each time. They were characterized by utilizing a tremendous pitching staff to hold precarious leads whenever needed; they scored sixteen, 21, and sixteen runs combined in their respective World Series runs but managed to win each time.[2] In the division era, they are the first and only team to have won the American League West five seasons in a row.
Background
At one point in time, the Athletics organization had achieved success in the city of
Bert Campaneris and Rollie Fingers were signed in 1964 and Catfish Hunter was signed in 1965. The newly installed entry draft in 1965 resulted in the drafting of Rick Monday (traded later for Ken Holtzman, Gene Tenace and Sal Bando). Reggie Jackson was drafted in 1966, while Vida Blue and Joe Rudi were drafted the following year.
By the time the team moved to Oakland in 1968, the average age of the roster was roughly 24 years old. That season resulted in 82 victories, which was their first winning season since 1952. The following year saw them compete for the newly formed American League West division for a time (although Finley fired Hank Bauer near the end of the year for John McNamara), with the Athletics finishing second by nine games with 88 wins; it was the first time they had back-to-back winning seasons since the 1947-49 years. While Jackson hit 47 home runs in 1969, a slump in the spring had Finley threaten to send him to the minors, although he would end up hitting 23 that year.[3] An 89-win season the following year resulted in the same finish and the dismissal of McNamara. Named to replace him for 1971 was Dick Williams, who was the tenth manager hired by Finley in ten years of ownership.
Dynasty
Williams had played thirteen years of professional baseball before becoming a manager, which included two seasons with Kansas City. He had one previous managerial job before Oakland with the Boston Red Sox (1967–1969), which he led to the American League pennant in 1967 with his aggressive style of managing. Williams once described his team strategy as "We pitch and we catch the ball.’”[4]
The 1971 team came together to roll to 101 victories, the most victories by the club in four decades. They had the fourth best offense in scoring with 691 runs while ranking in the top five in the league in hits and home runs, although they were the only team to have over 1,000 strikeouts. However, their pitching allowed the second fewest runs in the league with 564, while having a team ERA of 3.05 (with only Baltimore being better). Vida Blue, who had pitched just eighteen games combined in his first two seasons, went 24–8 that year with a 1.82 ERA while having eight shutouts (the latter two were league highs) in 312 innings with 301 strikeouts on his way to both the AL Cy Young Award and the AL Most Valuable Player Award. The Athletics won their division by sixteen games over the Kansas City Royals and thus were matched against the other 101-win team in the AL: the Baltimore Orioles, the defending two-time AL champions. The Orioles, which had swept their ALCS opponents in 1969 and 1970, would trounce the Athletics in a sweep, winning 5–3, 5–1, and 5–3 (the Orioles used just one reliever in the series while the Athletics used four). In November, the Athletics attempted to bolster their pitching by trading away Monday to the Chicago Cubs for Ken Holtzman.[5]
In the
In the 1973 season, the Athletics scored 758 runs, most in the American League. Other teams outranked them in hits and home runs, but Oakland had the most runners batted in. They allowed 615 runs in the season, third least among all twelve teams for a 3.29 ERA. Jackson was named Most Valuable Player that season, having hit .293 with 117 RBIs with 32 home runs (the latter two were league highs). They were matched against the 97-win Baltimore Orioles. The teams split the first two contests in Baltimore before it moved to Oakland. In Game 3, they won in eleven innings before Baltimore responded with a 5–4 win to even the series at two. Hunter was sent to start Game 5 and he prevailed with a complete-game shutout.[7] Their opponent was the New York Mets, who had won just 83 games but had displaced the Reds in five games to get to their second World Series in four years. Oakland won Game 1 2–1, but Game 2 was a nightmare contest that lasted four hours and resulted in a 10–7 victory for New York. The A's had to rally from a three-run deficit after six innings, but it came un-done in the eleventh when second baseman Mike Andrews made two errors that resulted in four runs scored in a 10–7 loss. Finley was so angered by what he saw of Andrews that he attempted to have Andrews put on the disabled list (with a fake injury) that would have had him miss the entire Series. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn stepped in and reactivated Andrews. Game 3 saw them win in eleven innings, but the Mets responded with a 6–1 victory in Game 4 (after Rusty Staub hit a three-run shot in the first) and a 2–0 victory in Game 5 (with Odom outdueled by Jerry Koosman). This was the only one of the World Series where the Athletics faced elimination while trailing. Hunter started Game 6 and held the Mets to one run while outdueling Tom Seaver for the win. Holtzman started Game 7 against Jon Matlack and he helped his cause with a double that got him scored by Campaneris on his subsequent home run (the first one of the Series for the A's) that started a four-run rally. Holtman went five innings before Rollie Fingers and Darold Knowles (the first pitcher to pitch in all seven games of a World Series) stepped in to neutralize the Mets. Jackson was named World Series MVP, having hit .310 with a home run and six RBIs.
Williams had grown tired of Finley and his antics, and he attempted to leave his contract to manage the New York Yankees. However, Finley would not budge on the year owed on the contract, which essentially took him out of the game for the
The Athletics did not seem to have lost a step in the 1975 season. They scored 758 runs, second only to the Boston Red Sox in the AL. They did not have as many hits as other teams, but they ranked second in home runs, runs batted in, and stolen bases. Their 3.27 ERA was second to Baltimore while allowing the least amount of hits while allowing 606 runs (third least). They won the AL West for the fifth straight year in a row by seven games over the Kansas City Royals. They met the Boston Red Sox in the 1975 American League Championship Series. However, the Athletics would be trounced by Boston in three games, losing 7–1, 6–3, and 5–3.
Decline
The Athletics utilized tremendous defense and timely hitting to win their championships, winning twelve World Series games in three years, despite being outscored by a total of 56 to 53.
In the end, the man who merited the most credit for building the key core members that won three championships, ended up being the one associated with its downfall. The disagreements that Finley had with numerous players and managers would come back to haunt him when the reserve clause ended in 1975. Hunter was the first step, as he brought up his breach of contract dispute to arbitration on November 26, 1974.[9] On December 16, arbitrator Peter Seitz ruled him a free agent.[10] Finley had to deal with the fact that any player of his not signed under a multi-year deal would be a free agent after 1976. He decided to try and gut his team before it could be done. It started on April 2, when he traded Jackson and Holtzman to the Baltimore Orioles for three players (most notably Don Baylor).[11] Dark was fired after the end of the 1975 season, with Finley describing him as "too busy with church activities" (this occurred after Dark stated in a church talk that Finley had to accept Jesus Christ as his savior or else he would go to Hell); Finley replaced him with Chuck Tanner.
Finley then tried to sell Rudi and Fingers to the
Despite their success in the early to mid 70s, the Athletics never drew well even when the team made it to and won three consecutive World Series titles, averaging only 777,000 fans per season the only time they topped the 1 million mark in fan attendance was in the 1973 and 1975 seasons. Charlie Finley would sell the team to
Statistics
Season | Record | Divisional finish | Playoffs |
---|---|---|---|
1971 | 101–60 | 1st (West) | Lost ALCS to Baltimore Orioles, 3–0 |
1972 | 93–62 | 1st (West) | Won ALCS vs. Detroit Tigers, 3–2 Won World Series vs. Cincinnati Reds, 4–3 |
1973 | 94–68 | 1st (West) | Won ALCS vs. Baltimore Orioles, 3–2 Won World Series vs. New York Mets, 4–3 |
1974 | 90–72 | 1st (West) | Won ALCS vs. Baltimore Orioles, 3–1 Won World Series vs. Los Angeles Dodgers, 4–1 |
1975 | 98–64 | 1st (West) | Lost ALCS to Boston Red Sox, 3–0 |
Legacy
Four individuals from the group would be inducted into the
Sparky Anderson, who managed the Big Red Machine, described that the best World Series in history was not the 1975 World Series that he managed to victory, saying "I'll always maintain that the best Series I was ever involved in was the 1972 World Series against Oakland. That's because those were the two of the finest ball clubs to go against each other that you'll ever see in I don't know how long.” Reggie Jackson called his team the best in a generation, one that dwarfed his later success with the New York Yankees (who won two titles in the latter half of the 1970s).[14][15]
In 2017, MLB Network released a documentary detailing The Swingin' A's that told the story of the group.[16]
Further reading
- Bruce Markusen (1998). Baseball's Last Dynasty: Charlie Finley's Oakland A's. Masters Press. ISBN 1570281882.
- Jason Turbow (2017). Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic: Reggie, Rollie, Catfish, and Charlie Finley's Swingin' A's. Houston Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 9780544303171.
- Roger D. Launius, G. Michael Green (2010). Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-0802778574.
- Nancy Finley (2016). Finley Ball: How Two Baseball Outsiders Turned the Oakland A's Into a Dynasty and Changed the Game Forever. Regency Publishing. ISBN 9781621575429.
References
- ^ "The 1970s Oakland A's Were 'Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic'". Npr.org. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
- ^ Holmes, Dan (17 May 2021). "The Mod Style of the Swingin' A's - Baseball Egg". Baseballegg.com. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
- ^ "Times Daily - Google News Archive Search". News.google.com. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
- ^ "A's 1970s dynasty built on incredible arms, refusal to be outpitched". Nbcsports.com. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
- ^ "The Day - Google News Archive Search". News.google.com. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
- ^ "1972 World Series Game 7, Oakland Athletics at Cincinnati Reds, October 22, 1972". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
- ^ "1973 American League Championship Series (ALCS) Game 5, Baltimore Orioles at Oakland Athletics, October 11, 1973". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
- ^ "1974 ALCS - Oakland Athletics over Baltimore Orioles (3-1)". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
- ^ Turbow, Jason. "How Catfish Hunter became MLB's first free agent". Si.com. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
- ^ "The Montreal Gazette - Google News Archive Search". News.google.com. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
- ^ Hickey, John. "A Decade of A's Trades: The 1970s". Si.com. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
- ^ "Seven Players Traded to A's," United Press International (UPI), Thursday, March 16, 1978. Retrieved October 22, 2020
- ^ "Finley sells Oakland A's". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Associated Press. August 24, 1980. p. 1C.
- ^ "A's shut down Big Red Machine in thrilling Game 7". Baseball Hall of Fame. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
- ^ "Reggie Jackson claims A's 1970s dynasty better than his Yankees teams". Nbcsports.com. Retrieved 9 January 2022.
- ^ "'The Swingin' A's' highlights dynasty in all its glorious dysfunction". Nbcsports.com. Retrieved 9 January 2022.