1974 World Series: ‘The Twilight of the Gods’

Richard Nixon may have been the greatest baseball student to occupy the presidency. In 1936 Nixon, 23, saw his first big-league game. “I don’t remember much about it,” he said, “except that the date was July 4, the Washington Senators lost a doubleheader at Griffith Stadium, and a rookie named DiMaggio put one in the seats.” In 1957 the now Vice President Nixon took part in an on-field tribute to the Senators’ Roy Sievers. Overcome, Sievers broke down. In 1959 the VP spent time with Casey Stengel at an All-Star Game party in Pittsburgh. Stengel, a Democrat, was so wowed by Nixon’s baseball knowledge that he left, saying, “That boy there may make me a Republican.” In the mid-1960s, Nixon was approached to be both director of the Players Union and to succeed Ford Frick as commissioner, declining because, as he later said, “I had other plans” – winning the presidency in 1968. In 1969, 1970, and 1972, Nixon hosted an All-Star gala at the White House, threw out the first ball at the All-Star Game in Cincinnati, and outlined his all-time All-Star baseball team with son-in-law David Eisenhower, respectively. Sadly, on August 9, 1974, Nixon made history of a different sort, becoming, due to the Watergate scandal, the only man to resign the presidency of the United States.

For Nixon, 1974 bade adieu to his office. For the Oakland A’s, 1974 bade faint adieu to an incredible baseball dynasty. Under Stengel, the 1949-53 New York Yankees had won five World Series in a row. The 1972-74 A’s were the first team since then to win even three straight – a “three-peat,” many said. In 1973-74, Nixon felt power ebbing. In 1974 a close student of the A’s could see their dynasty ebbing. “We were still a great team,” said longtime announcer Monte Moore, “but not quite as good as we’d been in the past.” Let us revisit, to use the title of Wagner’s opera The Twilight of the Gods – the last year the A’s ruled baseball before free agency, among other things, ended Oakland’s reign. At the time, it was riveting. Looking back, it is remarkable.

The A’s faced 1974 with a new manager with an old past. In 1946-60, Alvin Dark hit .289, was a three-time All-Star, and helped the Braves and Giants win the pennant – 1948 (Braves) and 1951 and 1954 (Giants). He was a clutch player, tooled  in basics. Hired as 1961 Jints skipper, Dark took the 1962 team within a foot of winning the Series. Later he led the Indians before A’s owner Charles O. Finley made him A’s skipper for a second time, the first being 1967. His new hiring in 1974 revived a decade-old Newsday story by Stan Isaacs quoting Dark as saying black and Hispanic players were “not able to perform up to the white player when it comes to mental alertness.” The quote might have been expected to harm Dark among A’s players Reggie Jackson, Bert Campaneris, Billy North, Vida Blue, and Blue Moon Odom, among others. It didn’t, partly because Dark and Willie Mays said he was misquoted.

By 1974’s spring training, the crisis had faded.  Mays, befriended by Dark as a solitary 1951 rookie, backed the new manager.  Inexplicably, Finley on occasion shelved 1973 defensive star Dick Green in a mad campaign to rotate seven second baseman, solidify the A’s up the middle, and add extra power. None worked. Green easily played the most games at second – 100. Another Finley flight of fancy was “designated runner” Herb Washington, whose infamy crested in October. He had no baseball experience since high school, yet “Hurricane Herb” graced 92 games, never batting, scored 29 runs, stole 29 bases, but was thrown out 16 times. “Thus, the strange vagaries,” said Moore, “of the Swinging A’s.”

A better first for the 1974 A’s was another rookie who grew up a Giants fan in Half Moon Bay, California, near San Francisco, at 10 played the board game Strat-O-Matic, at 16 broadcast to himself at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, and for 40 years and counting aired the A’s, then Rangers, Red Sox, Orioles, and post-1996 Giants. Jon Miller has announced ESPN TV’s or Radio’s 1990-2011 Sunday Night Baseball, All-Star Game, LCS, Division Series, and World Series, winning two cable ACE Awards and the Hall of Fame’s 2010 Ford C. Frick Award for broadcast excellence. If play dulls, he may mimic Vin Scully in English, Spanish, and Japanese. 

Miller was 22 when Monte Moore hired him. In 1974 spring training he was nervous, wanting to impress. Ultimately Monte’s vitae welded the 1972-74 Series, a 3,001-game iron streak, and 1962-1977, 1987, and 1989-92 A’s, NBC’s, and USA’s Game of the Week. The Oklahoman brooked Finley’s designated runner, mechanical rabbit, and orange baseball to call Hunter’s perfect game, Billy Martin’s Billy Ball, and later Bash Brothers Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire. Their common chord was Moore. In 1974 he was on the air as Jon critiqued his own play-by-play: “Not exciting enough, nothing’s happening,” Miller thought to himself. He didn’t want to disappoint Monte.

Thus, the rookie began to practice sotto voce “Ground ball, right at the shortstop! Unbelievable!  He could have hit the ball anywhere! But what a miracle – he hit it right to him!” Jon’s play-by-play was exciting enough: It also sounded as if he should be committed. Moore looked at him, disbelieving, before turning off his mike: “What hell are you doing?” he asked. Between innings Miller expressed his fear: He was boring; nothing was happening. “That’s ridiculous,” Moore said. “We hired you because you’re the best guy for the job. You sound great.” Jon then exhaled.

By autumn 1974 Finley had owned the A’s for 13 years “and had more broadcasters than managers – and he had more managers than any team,” said Miller. Charlie had fired Harry Caray, Bob Elson, and Bob Woods – announcers who are in or should be in Cooperstown. Other teams had or would fire Hall of Fame Voices like Mel Allen, Red Barber, Jack Buck, Bob Prince, Milo Hamilton, Ernie Harwell, and Curt Gowdy. That fall Finley inexplicably fired Miller. “Man, was I happy,” Jon said, much later, tongue-in-cheek. “Are you kidding? To be associated with those guys?! My stock rose in the whole baseball industry.”  

Miller’s big-league industry debut was April 4, 1974: a 7-2 rout of Texas in Arlington. For the A’s, mediocrity crested on May 7, Baltimore winning, 9-3, to make Oakland 12-15. The A’s then won five straight games, a skein repeated in late May and early June, to rise to 30-21. A six-game winning streak in July made the two-time champions’ first-place AL West record 54-39. After July 31 the swinging and missing A’s never won or lost more than three games in a row. If you erase July’s 20-8 record, Oakland played only six games over .500. Worse, it was 25-28 in one-run decisions. “They weren’t barn-burners,” said Rangers voice Merle Harmon, whose 84-76 second-place team played .525 baseball, “but we weren’t Murderers Row.”  

The A’s won their fourth straight West Division title, but by only five games over Texas. Their 90-72 record was Oakland’s worst since 1970. Catfish Hunter had a league-low 2.49 ERA, tied for victories at 25-7 and tied for second in shutouts with six, was third in winning percentage and fifth in innings pitched and fewest hits per game, and won the Cy Young Award. Ken Holtzman ranked third in walks a game. Rollie Fingers led the league game in games (76) and tied for fourth in saves (18). Vida Blue was 17-15 with a 3.25 ERA; Holtzman 19-17, 3.07; Rollie, 9-5, 2.65. The staff affirmed the Coliseum as a single, walk, steal, then sacrifice fly for a run park. On the one hand, the A’s led the league in fewest home runs, hits and walks allowed, best earned-run average (2.95), and lowest rival on-base percentage and batting average. On the other, on July 19 they were no-hit by Cleveland’s Dick Bosman. “We had maybe the best pitching of our three titles,” said Hunter. They needed it, batting a second-lowest in the league .247, partly compensating with a league-high 164 stolen bases.

Billy North and Bert Campaneris placed first and fourth league-wide with 54 and 34 steals, respectively. Reggie Jackson was again a one-man parade: second-best in home runs (29) and slugging average (.518), third in runs (90), and fifth in on-base percentage (.396). Joe Rudi led in doubles (39) and total bases (287) and was third in runs batted in (99) and fourth in slugging average (.484).  Gene Tenace topped in walks (110) and was third in home runs (26).  Sal Bando’s 103 RBIs trailed only Texas’s Jeff Burroughs’ 118. Jeff was the AL MVP, followed by Rudi, Bando, and Jackson dividing the runner-up vote. Four A’s regulars topped 20 dingers: Jackson, Tenace, Bando, and Rudi. Four hit at least .260: Rudi, Campaneris, Jackson, and North. By contrast, three others hit less than .212: Tenace, Dick Green, and catcher Ray Fosse. “Their defense was so good, especially Green’s,” said Moore, “that we needed – and had – the pitching to carry it.”

Six A’s – Bando, Campy, Fingers, Hunter, Jackson, and Rudi – made the league All-Star team. Yet in a sense, the ’74 A’s were a semi-deadball voyeur’s dream. For one thing, they fought. Jackson and North wrestled in the Tiger Stadium clubhouse, Reggie hurting his shoulder. Fosse, trying to separate them, suffered a crushed disc in his neck, spending three months on the disabled list. For another, they played a high percentage of close, low-scoring games, drawing only 845,694, 22nd of 24 big-league teams. Oakland clinched the AL East in late September. The A’s began their fourth straight LCS on October 5, losing to Baltimore, 6-3, at the Coliseum before 41, 609. Hunter’s superb control was a double-edged sword: no walks, but home runs by Paul Blair, Brooks Robinson, and Bobby Grich. Next day 42,810 saw Holtzman counter, 5-0. Bando and Fosse hit homers, Sal after Grich dropped his foul pop. “That’s how we are,” Bando rhapsodized. “It’s never wise to give us a second chance.”

At Baltimore, Bando homered again as Vida Blue tossed a two-hit third-game jewel: A’s win, 1-0. For a change, A’s attendance dwarfed their rival’s. Blue’s complete game was witnessed by 32,060. Game Four at Memorial Stadium drew 28,136 to see O’s starter Mike Cuellar go wild. In the fifth inning he walked four straight A’s to allow a run. Cuellar left having walked nine – with a no-hitter. In the seventh Bando walked and Reggie Jackson drove off the wall to score him. Two innings later a walk and two singles scored the O’s first run: 2-1. Fingers then fanned Don Baylor to wave Oakland’s third straight pennant. Their World Series opponent, Los Angeles, finished 102-60, had a National League-best 2.98 ERA, and scored an NL-highest 798 runs.

“I want my team to think baseball the way my wife shops,” joked Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda. “Twenty-four hours a day.” Bill Buckner and Steve Garvey batted .314 and .312, respectively, Garvey having 200 hits and 111 RBIs. Jimmy Wynn had 32 homers, walked 108 times, and knocked in 108 runs. Andy Messersmith and Don Sutton won 20 and 19 games, respectively, Sutton having a .679 win percentage. Davey Lopes stole 59 bases. Reliever Mike Marshall pitched in a nonpareil 106 games, had 21 saves, and was Most Valuable Player.  The A’s clubhouse needed therapy. The Dodgers reeked of happy talk. Lasorda preached harmony and Dodger Blue and his seafood diet. “I eat all the food I can see.”

Fingers and Odom fought a day before the World Series opened. Five stitches closed a cut on Rollie’s head. “The record is 15,” he laughed, “held by many.” In Game One, Jackson homered in the second inning at Dodger Stadium. In the fifth Ken Holtzman, not having batted all year, doubled and scored on a wild pitch and Campaneris’s suicide bunt. In the bottom half, LA scored its first run on a single and errors by Campy and Jackson. The A’s scored again in the eighth on a Campaneris single, North sacrifice, and Cey error on a Bando grounder: 3-1. Jackson then flied to center field. “[Bando] should come in and score,” said NBC’s Vin Scully, doing the Series with Moore and Curt Gowdy. “[Joe] Ferguson took it [from center fielder Wynn], with the better arm. Here comes the throw! They got him! Oh, what a play” – final: A’s, 3-2.

Next afternoon a “cerulean blue sky,” quoting Scully, hung like a canopy over Dodger Stadium. Amnesia momentarily hung over the A’s: The world champions had forgotten how to hit. LA fronted, 1-0, on a walk and Bill Russell’s and Steve Yeager’s singles. In the sixth Ferguson pricked Blue for a two-run blast: 3-0, Dodgers. Oakland awoke in the ninth, Rudi singling Bando and Jackson home. Marshall relieved Sutton and struck out Tenace, whereupon Herb Washington pinch-ran for Rudi, Scully, Dodgers announcer since 1950, warned Washington on air that “he’d better be careful. Marshall has a terrific move, especially for a right-hander,” at which point Mike picked Washington off first. Marshall then retired Angel Mangual to end the game. “The Dodgers with a one-run lead,” said Curt. Scully: “Screwball!” “Gowdy: “That’s it, getting him [Mangual!”] – Series tied.

Back at Oakland, the A’s grabbed a 3-0 lead by the fourth on Ferguson’s error, Rudi’s single, and Campy’s hit. LA countered with solo homers by Buckner and Willie Crawford – another 3-2 verdict, Hunter beating Al Downing. In Game Four, behind two games to one, the Dodgers led, 2-1, entering Oakland’s sixth inning. The A’s then coalesced three walks, a wild pitch, a sacrifice bunt, two singles, and a groundout into four runs, Fingers getting his second straight save. Ultimately, the owner of the most famous mustache in America appeared in every Series game but one, got a victory, added two saves, and was voted the fall classic’s Most Valuable Player. 

Trailing three games to one, the Dodgers sent forth Don Sutton against Blue in their win-or-go-home final.  In the first two innings Oakland fronted, 2-0, on Bando’s sacrifice fly and Fosse’s homer. The Dodgers tied in the sixth on Wynn’s sacrifice fly and Garvey’s RBI single.  Next inning Marshall stopped warming up to watch the Coliseum crowd hurl trash at left fielder Buckner. He continued watching while the trash was collected. “In a case like this,” said Rudi, leading off, “you expect the pitcher to throw a fastball.” Marshall did. Rudi swung, finding the left-field stands: The A’s led, 3-2. Presently Jackson threw Buckner out at third base, trying to stretch a double, to begin the eighth inning “Von Joshua is up,” said Gowdy with two out in the Dodgers ninth. “If the A’s win, we’ll go immediately to the Oakland A’s locker room and the presentation. Here, it could be – he [Tenace] caught it – and the A’s are world champions! Rollie Fingers put ’em down one-two-three! The Oakland A’s are the first team since the New York Yankees to win three world championships in a row!”

In 1933, the first year of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, a cartoon said of its agenda, “We have had our revolution, and we like it.” A revolution now began in baseball. For nearly 100 years, a reserve clause had bound players in perpetuity to a club unless they were traded, sold, or released. Under Hunter’s contract, Finley paid half of his $100,000 salary into a life-insurance fund – deferred compensation. In October 1974 Catfish charged that Finley had failed to honor it – thus canceling the entire pact, including the reserve clause. Panicked, Finley tried handing Hunter a $50,000 check. Hunter refused; Peter Seitz, a professional arbitrator from New York, ruled the contract void. “Come on, Cat! Get it all, man,” yelped Reggie Jackson. Straightaway a bidding war commenced over baseball’s first free agent.      

“Three straight titles! Take that away!” Finley had bellowed. Seitz did, letting Hunter negotiate with any major-league team. On December 31, 1974, New Year’s Eve, baseball’s best pitcher signed with the Yankees – to quote Barry Maguire’s 1965 famous song, forging Finley’s, and thus the A’s, “Eve of Destruction.” Hunter’s pact was worth $3.75 million, slightly more than triple the game’s next highest-paid salary. The decision meant that after a certain time spent with a team, athletes could play an “option year” and then accept another offer. Economic capital claimed loyalty, affection for a team or area, even long-term common sense. Ultimately, mom and pop were overwhelmed by short-term greed.

In 1975 a big-league record four pitchers threw a combined regular-season no-hitter: Blue, Glen Abbott, Paul Lindblad, and Fingers. That year the A’s dynasty officially ended, Boston sweeping Oakland in the League Championship Series, 7-1, 6-3, and 5-3. On October 17 Dark, only the third skipper to win both a National and American League pennant – the NL, 1962’s Giants – was axed. More crucially, the Dodgers’ Andy Messersmith and Expos’ Dave McNally challenged the reserve clause’s automatic-renewal proviso by playing a full year without contracts, then demanding freedom. The late 1975 landmark case was decided by a three-man arbitration board, Seitz casting the decisive vote to make Messersmith and McNally free agents.

“I am confident,” Seitz said, “that the dislocation and damage to the reserve clause can be avoided or minimized through good-faith collective bargaining between the [two] partners” – the clubs and players. One by one, the A’s left Oakland: in late 1975, Jackson for Baltimore; 1976, Bando for Milwaukee; 1977, Campy for Texas, Tenace and Fingers San Diego. Finley simply let them go. In 1976, he tried a peremptory strike, selling Rudi and Fingers to Boston for $2 million. “Anything to get money to be able to compete,” Finley said. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn vetoed the deal as sure to make the A’s noncompetitive. “He’s trying to bankrupt me, drive me out of baseball,” said Charlie, calling Kuhn “the village idiot.” Eventually, Finley was forced to sell. Time and the rules had changed.

Baseball’s next dynasty wore pinstripes and played in the House That Ruth Built. “I know they’re the Yankees,” said Jackson of the 1996-2001 Bronx Bombers, “but no one should ever forget what we did in 1972 through ’4.” Remembering them, prize Catfish pitching and Campy running and Reggie swinging – even now, a distant night, under a cloudless sky, with the moon jumping over the Bay.

Oakland forged baseball’s greatest non-Yankees dynasty of the last three-quarters of a century. As a Red Sox fan since youth, I had watched the Olde Towne Team futilely engage the “three-peat” 1972-74 A’s. It remained for Boston’s 1975 postseason to put the final nail in the dynasty’s coffin. I recall most of all knowing that when you defeated the Swinging A’s, you beat the very, if not always the merry, best.

 

Sources

Virtually all material, including quotes, is derived from Curt Smith’s books Voices of The Game, Storied Stadiums, Voices of Summer, The Voice, Pull Up a Chair, A Talk in the Park, and Mercy! A Celebration of Fenway Park’s Centennial Told Through Red Sox Radio and TV (published, in order: Simon & Schuster 1992; Carroll & Graf 2001 and 2005, respectively; the Lyons Press, 2007: and Potomac Books 2009, 2010, and 2012, respectively.) 

Books

Fimrite, Ron, The World Series: A History of Baseball’s Fall Classic (New York: Time Inc. Home Entertainment, 1997).

Lowry, Philip, Green Cathedrals: The Ultimate Celebration of All Major League Ballparks (New York: Walker & Company, 2006).

Silverman, Matthew, Swinging ’73: Baseball’s Wildest Season (Guilford, Connecticut: The Lyons Press, 2013).

Thorn, John, Peter Palmer, and Michael Gershman, Total Baseball: The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball (Kingston, New York: Total Sports Publishing, 2001).

 Websites

Baseball-reference.com