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I grew up watching the '88 and '89 A's, and their success, especially in 1989, came more from their superb pitching and the speed of Rickey Henderson than from power displays. It's probably too late to dislodge the Bash Brothers image from memories of that A's dynasty, but over the next few hundred words, I hope to at least show that power was not the crucial element behind Oakland winning the Loma Prieta World Series.
Thirty-three, 22, 17, 15: those are the home run totals for the A’s top four players in 1989, and no one else broke into double digits. Mark McGwire led the way, then came Dave Parker, Jose Canseco, and finally Dave Henderson.
Of the three pennant-winning A’s teams, 1988-90, the 1989 A’s had easily the least powerful offense: 127 homers and a .381 slugging percentage, against 156 homers and a .399 slugging percentage in 1988, and 164 homers and a .391 slugging percentage in 1990. The 1989 A's produced 712 runs, compared with 800 runs in 1988 and 733 runs in 1990.
With Carney Lansford and Rickey Henderson leading the way, Oakland did post a .331 OBP, good for third in the A.L., but the .381 slugging percentage was 10th in the league. For comparison's sake, the Red Sox led in slugging with .403, and the Angels had the most homers, with 145. The A's 37 intentional walks were just a dozen more than the 25 given to Detroit, for the fewest in the league, while the Red Sox, again, led the category with 57. The A’s offense just didn’t put up the numbers fans associate with a muscle-bound team.
Pitching was the major reason for the A’s success in 1989. The staff had 20 shutouts, tied with the Angels for most in the A.L., and the four main starters (Dave Stewart, Mike Moore, Bob Welch, and Storm Davis) went 76-35. Stewart and Moore combined to go 40-20 and placed second and third in the Cy Young voting, with Dennis Eckersley tied for sixth, and the trio placing in the top 20 for the MVP vote. (McGwire, who finished 25th, tied with Chili Davis and Mookie Wilson, was the only Bash Brother to place in the voting.)
Mike Moore is hardly remembered when the 1988-1990 A’s teams get discussed, but in 1989 he registered all three complete-game shutouts for the A’s, posted a 2.61 ERA (good for third in the AL), and gave up three runs in the postseason while winning three games, including two over the Giants in the World Series.
The entire staff registered a 3.09 ERA, giving up 576 runs (3.56 runs per game). Along with the 20 shutouts, the A’s gave up one run 17 times and two runs 29 times. They lost five of those 66 games, and that 61-5 mark is your key to the 99-63 season. Of course playing half its games at the Coliseum, and so many of those in the heavy night air rolling off San Francisco Bay, helped flatten the A’s ERA.
But if you look through the individual games of 1989, you find that the pitchers were great at home and on the road. They gave up 292 runs in road games, just eight more than the 284 given up at the Coliseum. It’s easy to blame, or credit, the Bash Brothers and steroids for making the A’s victors in 1989, but just examine the numbers: it wasn’t so.
And it's clear some of the '89 A's resent the steroids association. Dave Stewart, leader of the A's staff, said this about using steroids: “Me? Hell no. I never thought about it. I retired at a normal age and had aches and pains you’re supposed to have. For a guy who came out of nowhere to win 20 four years in a row, it was very important for me to not allow anything or anybody to take that back from me.”
At the reunion, Stewart said Canseco "was a bad teammate" who "concentrated more on himself than the team. I don't think Canseco ever said 'we.' "
And: "Truth be told, I'm glad Canseco is not here. I think anybody, if they were being honest, would say that."
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