The Earthquake Series: 1989 Athletics Versus Giants

It was the World Series for which Bay Area fans had long been waiting. The matchup of the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants in the Battle of the Bay. The first time that teams from the same geographical area had met in the Series since the battles in the mid-1950s of the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

But when it was finally over, the Loma Prieta earthquake would be what everyone in and out of the area would remember.

The Series was important for both teams because it meant bragging rights in the area. But, it was most important for the As who felt they had something to prove. The previous season they had won an Oakland record 104 games but had been upset by the Los Angeles Dodgers in a five-game World Series. They were favored again in the ’89 Series and this time they were determined to live up to their favorite role.

Though the 1989 team won five fewer games, this A’s team was better than the year before. In the off-season, General Manager Sandy Alderson had signed free agent pitcher Mike Moore. Moore fit nicely into the No. 2 starter role with 19 wins, two behind Dave Stewart’s 21 and two ahead of Bob Welch’s 17.

In mid-season, Alderson had brought Rickey Henderson back in a trade with New York, and Rickey gave the team a great complement to their sluggers, Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire. Injuries had limited Canseco to just 65 games, but by the time the postseason arrived, he was healthy and the A’s attack was at its most potent.

The Series opener in Oakland was all A’s as Stewart pitched a five-hit shutout, not allowing a Giants runner to get as far as third until the ninth inning, and the A’s backed him with 11 hits, including homers by shortstop Walt Weiss and designated hitter Dave Parker.

“That was probably my best game of the year,” Stewart remembered years later. “I didn’t even have my usual struggle in the first inning. I had great stuff and great control all the way.”

Moore was almost as good in the second game, giving up just one run in the first seven innings before giving way to Rick Honeycutt. As closer Dennis Eckersley, arguably the best of all time, shut down the Giants in the ninth in the 5-1 A’s win.

The Giants were only slightly more competitive in this game, with the game tied at 1-1 going into the bottom of the fourth.

Canseco began with a walk off Giants starter Rick Reuschel. Dave Parker followed with a drive that just missed being a home run, inches below the top of the right field wall, the double scoring Canseco. Dave Henderson walked and McGwire struck out, and then Terry Steinbach hit a three-run homer. The game could have been called at that point.

Parker jumped up and down with joy as he was coming home on Steinbach’s homer. “I figured this was pretty much it for me in the Series,” he said, “so I was savoring the moment.” As the designated hitter, Parker would not be in the lineup for the games at Candlestick, and he was obviously assuming the As would be able to wrap up the win within the next three games without returning to Oakland for more games.

Nonetheless, as the Series transferred to Candlestick, Giants manager Roger Craig remained optimistic. “We had had the best home record in the league that season,” he said later, “so I thought we could get back in it at home.”

Baseball soon became irrelevant, though. Shortly after 5 o’clock on October 17, as pre-game ceremonies were being held at Candlestick, the Loma Prieta earthquake hit. Power went out at the ballpark — first the main system and then the backup generator. Players quickly gathered in the middle of the field with their families, so they wouldn’t be hit by anything falling from the stands. In the stands, about a third of the spectators in the upper deck left, but others stayed where they were. Surprisingly, there was no panic.

In the upper deck a section had been set aside as an auxiliary press section, with working tables and television monitors. Writers and spectators who walked into the area looked at the monitors and saw shots of the large gap in the Bay Bridge, which had buckled and broken from the shock. Obviously, there would be no game today, nor for a long time to come.

Though the ‘quake had been centered about 80 miles south of Candlestick, there was extensive damage throughout the area. In addition to the Bay Bridge, the double-decked Cypress Freeway in Oakland had collapsed, and sections of highways in San Francisco and approaching it from the south were heavily damaged. The Series was credited with saving lives. Many people who would otherwise have been commuting on the Bay Bridge and surrounding highways were either at Candlestick or home preparing to watch the game on TV.

Houses built on fill in San Francisco’s Marina district had collapsed. Many buildings in downtown Oakland, including the City Hall and other government buildings, suffered damage that would not be repaired for years, if ever.

Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent said the Series would continue but he gave no date. There was discussion that the remainder of the Series might be played at the Oakland Coliseum, which had suffered no structural damage, but after Candlestick was thoroughly examined, it was decided that the Series could be continued there.

In the interim, players felt as confused and lost as everybody else. “I spent a lot of time working with earthquake victims,” said Stewart, an Oakland native. “I was relieved when we finally played baseball again, because it took my mind off all the tragedy.”

Eleven days passed between the second and third games, the longest break in World Series history, and that time allowed A’s Manager Tony La Russa to go back to Stewart and Moore for the next two games, bypassing Bob Welch. Ironically, Welch, who had developed an affection for San Francisco on road trips while he pitched for the Dodgers, lost his home in San Francisco’s Marina. He was the only player on either team to live in San Francisco, and he did not return after the earthquake.

Dusty Baker, then a coach for the Giants, thought the A’s ability to go back to Stewart settled the issue for them. “Not that facing Bobby Welch was exactly a walk in the park,” said Dusty later, “but in those days, Stew was just about unbeatable in a big game.”

Stewart wasn’t nearly as sharp in this game as in his first start—”I was able to focus all right, but I just ran out of gas.” But the A’s hitters were awesome, with five homers (tying a Series record for one game), including two by Dave Henderson in a 13-7 win.

“It just seems like we play better when Stew pitches,” said Steinbach. “It’s not like we don’t play good for the other guys, but when Stew is pitching. we just feel like something good is going to happen.”

It was more of the same in Game 4. Rickey Henderson led off the game with a home run, and the A’s got off to an 8-2 lead behind Moore. Moore got a two-run double in the second, the first hit for an American League pitcher in World Series play in 10 years. When Moore came out after six innings, the Giants rallied and closed the gap to two runs, but the A’s still won the game, 9-6.

So the A’s had swept the Series and were World Champions again for the first time since 1974, but the post-game celebration was muted. “We couldn’t be too happy,” said La Russa, “knowing how much others were suffering.”

There has never been a more dominant team in the World Series. In baseball legend, the 1927-28 Yankees have always been thought of as the best team in history, as they swept two consecutive World Series. In 1927 the Yankees outscored Pittsburgh, 23-10. In 1928. they outscored St. Louis, 27-10. But the 1989 A’s scored 32 runs, a record for a four-game Series, and outscored the Giants by 18 runs.

“This showed that the best team did not win last year (when the A’s lost to the Dodgers),” said Parker. “We’ve had the best record in baseball the last two years. Everybody thought we should win last year but we fell short. This year, we were not to be denied. These players turned into man-eating tigers when the games resumed.”

Stewart was named the Series MVP but said he wanted to share it with Rickey Henderson, who had hit .474. The A’s hit nine home runs, another record for a four-game Series.

This A’s team was the best in baseball since the great Cincinnati Reds team of 1975. It had everything: pitching, power, speed, and defense. The proof was the World Series, yet, the A’s dominance had a hollow ring in the wake of the earthquake’s destruction.

GLENN DICKEY writes for the San Francisco Chronicle Sports. Reprinted from the A’s Magazine, courtesy of Jim Bloom, Oakland Athletics Baseball Club.