A Defense of the '89 A's

Editor's Note: With all the McGwire news lately, the Husband of Half of OAD ("Hohooad") has stepped into the breach to defend the A's of 1989.

In light of Mark McGwire’s recent revelations and the ubiquituous posting of Canseco/McGwire Bash Brother photos on ESPN.com and other outlets, I thought it was high time to defend the sanctity of the 1989 World Series Championship.   Some commentators (ok, my buddy and his brother) now claim that the ’89 trophy is “tainted” by the Bash Brothers.  Do the Bash Brothers accurately define the ’89 A’s?
 
As a kid watching Monte Moore and Ray Fosse broadcast that glorious season on TV, the characters and images that I remember most are Dave Stewart and his devastating scowl and forkball, Eckersley and his finger-pointing, Hendu and his gap-toothed grins during every single at-bat, Rickey and his lime-green batting gloves, Carney Lansford and his frenetic bat-waggle, Dave Parker and his giant on-deck-circle sledge hammer, Mike Moore’s slouched shoulders and Timothy McVeigh-ish countenance, Rick Honeycutt and his handy back-pocket ball-scuffing nail file, Gene Nelson’s Eck-apeing mullet and ‘stache, Terry Steinbach’s dorky extended batting helmet face-protector flap, and Mike Gallego’s rich and robust curly mullet.  I hardly even remember Jose or McGwire!    There’s a good reason for this:  Canseco only appeared in 65 games that year, racking up a scant 227 plate appearances.   Canseco was a beast in ’88 , but his impact on 1989 was minor.  McGwire had a solid season in ’89, but it’s questionable whether he was even using that year.  In his statement, he claims to have only started in the ’89-’90 offseason, and his physique wasn’t any noticeably different from his rookie year in 1987.  Plus, McGwire was just one guy in a lineup of guys in their prime.  Even if McGwire was using steroids in ‘89, then one guy among 9 seems par for the course in the “Steroid Era.”   

The only thing that tainted that championship was the Loma Prieta earthquake, which overshadowed one of the most dominant beatdowns in WS history.  1989 was a great year for an A's-loving 4th grader like me: hypercolor t-shirts, spandex bike shorts, Batman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the NES, and the A’s reminding us for the fourth time that they are the only championship-caliber baseball franchise in the Bay Area.

When I dwell on “tainted” championships, I look back on the Red Sox of ’04 and ’07, with both Manny and Ortiz up to their eyeballs in PED’s, not my beloved '89 A's.

Comments

[Mike S]

I'd have to agree with this. Us kids started seeing players get larger after the 1989 world series and I remember the steroid use talk coming out in 1990 but it seemed like it was just a common part of the sport and pretty much disregarded (much like it is in NFL today). I'm not sure when McGwire started, but I met a few players from 1989-1990 during the height of the baseball card craze. Dennis Eckersly and Todd Zeil (Cardinals catcher in 1990 as I recall) most notably did not appear to be using steroids at all. I also met Terry Steinbach and he was not a tiny scrawny guy like web sites claim, but I don't remember him being humongous in the arms either. Any pro league player that has been working out of course will have much larger arms than even I have today. These two catchers were very great guys to meet. Very pleasant to talk to and didn't appear to be like angry or anything like that associated with steroid use. It kinda seems like the steroid users were few big time players and yes I didn't notice Canseco much at all in 1989 even at games I went to he was a barely noticable player in the lineup. All I can remember is a little bit of outfielding.

I think we should entirely blame the media for the witch hunt. Nobody had to listen to and follow Canseco this much. It does seem like he is out for fame, contrary to what a lot of places say.

The only bad memory though is that when I paid to have Eckersley sign a baseball card, he entirely ignored me and signed off and kept talking to some random moron at the baseball card show. I since sold one of my Eckersley autographs primarily due to that, but just the other day I realized that I actually bought two. So I still have one. But over time I got older and it doesn't matter that much any more. The card is fine in my collection but I don't place any more value on it than my folded up Eckersley card that I found on the street near school. Not to try to be a jerk or anything because I do like 1989 Upper Deck baseball cards even if they are a bit tattered. Those cards were a buck a pack back then and that was a lot of money for a kid.

I have a handful of autographs from Terry Steinbach. He was a real cool, calm guy to meet. As was Todd Zeile. I still remember Zeile had quite a grip when he shook my hand and he was very modest when I mentioned that my classmate told me that he thought that he would be the next Johnnie Bench.

Anyway good read, they should put this kind of stuff in the press instead of the crap they fork out to us every day.

[gyfs]

great post - second paragraph is very funny.

Individual records are tainted by steroids but team accomplishments are different since all teams have cheaters - though it is unclear whether other teams had as many users in the late-80s as the A's, which is before the time period usually referred to as the "Steroids Era."

Couple notes on Canseco - while he only had 227 ABs, he hit 17 homers and had an OPS+ of 147 so he definitely had an impact on the season. More importantly, in the ALCS he hit .294 with an OBP of .400 and in the WS he hit .357 with a .500 OBP. These are not trivial contributions to the season or the postseason success.

Anyway, enjoyed the post and good luck to the A's this year. Should be wide open in the AL West.

[ragadelik]

greatest team ever assembled.