July 11, 1987: A’s rookie Mark McGwire homers twice, including game-winner, to beat Brewers

When the Oakland Athletics and Milwaukee Brewers squared off on July 11, 1987, at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, the baseball world was more focused on an event that would take place in the same venue three days later: the 58th All-Star Game.

But there was another reason to pay attention to the Saturday afternoon contest – the amazing rookie season of A’s first baseman Mark McGwire.

He did not disappoint.

McGwire, who was named to the American League All-Star team, walloped two home runs and an RBI single against the Brewers. His second home run came off Milwaukee reliever Dan Plesac, the Brewers’ lone representative in the coming exhibition. That round-tripper also carried the A’s to a come-from-behind 6-5 win.

Less exciting was another McGwire hit – a line drive in batting practice that struck teammate Tony Phillips above the left wrist, fracturing his left ulna. Phillips did not return to the lineup until August 27.

Scoring opened in the home half of the second inning, when McGwire, hitting cleanup, homered on a low line drive to left off Milwaukee starter Bill Wegman.

There was no further scoring off Wegman or A’s starter Joaquín Andújar until the fifth inning. However, there was excitement in the fourth inning, when Brewers infielder-designated hitter Paul Molitor, who was on the disabled list but in the dugout, and first baseman Greg Brock were ejected by home-plate umpire Joe Brinkman for arguing strike calls. In Brock’s case, he was the hitter. Reporter Tim Wendel wrote: “Brock got the heave-ho when he threw his bat and helmet after a called third strike.”1

In the fifth, the Brewers tied the game when left fielder Rob Deer hit his 20th home run of the season. An inning later, A’s right fielder Mike Davis untied the game with his 20th, a solo shot. José Canseco, hitting in front of McGwire, doubled to left and stole third. McGwire singled to right to drive in Canseco.

The Brewers took a 5-3 lead in the top of the seventh on two-run homers by shortstop Dale Sveum, who grew up in nearby Contra Costa County, and center fielder Robin Yount.

Davis doubled to lead off the A’s half of the eighth inning and scored on a two-strike single up the middle by Canseco, the next batter. Up came McGwire, who homered to left, giving the A’s a 6-5 lead.

Wendel wrote that the home run “looked like footage from ‘The Natural.’”2

Plesac, whose 17 saves were tied for the American League lead, told reporters, “We were trying to pitch him up and in. I didn’t quite get it in. I’ll tell you one thing: He got all of it.”3

A’s reliever Dennis Eckersley pitched the eighth and ninth innings to pick up the win.

McGwire’s game winner was his major-league-leading 33rd home run in a season in which he would set a rookie record with 49. Beat writer Ron Bergman wrote: “The 28,399 Coliseum fans insisted on a curtain call for McGwire’s 33rd, and most dramatic, homer of a season just four games more than half over.”4

Of the curtain call, Bergman reported that McGwire said he did not know what to do until teammate Reggie Jackson advised him to simply tip his cap.

McGwire added: “Reggie knows all about those curtain calls. He’s taken so many in his life. So I came out and tipped my cap.”5

Columnist Dave Newhouse wrote: “Despite 33 home runs and 68 RBI, McGwire is no more full of himself than he was as a relatively unknown rookie in spring training.”6

Jackson had a lot to say about McGwire after the game, in comments captured by Newhouse, who wrote: “Reggie Jackson was reliving Mark McGwire’s latest heroics when his arms broke out in goosebumps.”

“‘Look,’ Jackson told others, holding up his arms as proof. Witnesses stared in wonderment.”

Newhouse added, “We’re talking about a 41-year-old future Cooperstown inductee who has hit 559 career home runs, plus three more in one World Series game, plus a gargantuan shot against a Tiger Stadium light tower in an All-Star Game.”

“And he gets goosebumps over a rookie?”7

Jackson added: “I pulled McGwire aside after the game and told him ‘I’ve seen you hit a lot of home runs, but this is the first time I’ve gotten goosebumps.”8

Newhouse also described A’s manager Tony La Russa’s reaction to McGwire’s game-winning homer. “When McGwire drilled All-Star Dan Plesac’s first pitch high into the left-field seats for his second home run of the game, the manager felt as if he were standing on the Hayward Fault when a major earthquake erupted.”9

Besides being an All-Star, McGwire won the American League Rookie of the Year award and finished sixth in the league’s Most Valuable Player voting. Along with his league-leading home run total of 49, he drove in 118 runs and had a batting average of .289, a league-leading .618 slugging percentage, and an OPS of .987 – good enough for an OPS+ of 164.

The Brewers, managed by Tom Trebelhorn, finished the 1987 season third in the American League East with a record of 91-71. Molitor was fifth in the league’s MVP voting while starting pitcher Teddy Higuera was the sixth-place finisher in the Cy Young race.

The A’s, in their first full season under La Russa, finished third in the American League West with a record of 81-81. Pitcher Dave Stewart won 20 games and was third in AL Cy Young balloting.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author accessed Retrosheet.org and Baseball-Reference.com for pertinent material and the box scores.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK198707110.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1987/B07110OAK1987.htm

Notes

1 Tim Wendel, “McGwire Shatters Brewers, Fellow A,” San Francisco Examiner, July 12, 1987.

2 Wendel.

3 Ron Bergman, “2 McGwire HRs in Bittersweet A’s Win,” Oakland Tribune, July 12, 1987.

4 Bergman. Author’s note: The game was the team’s 86th of the season – five games more than half-over.

5 Bergman.

6 Dave Newhouse, “Reacting to McGwire,” Oakland Tribune, July 12, 1987.

7 Newhouse.

8 Newhouse.

9 Newhouse.