1989 World Series

1989 {{{country}}} Series
File:1989 World Series.png
Team (Wins) Manager(s) Season Oakland Athletics (4) Tony La Russa 99–63, .611, GA: 7 San Francisco Giants (0) Roger Craig 92–70, .568, GA: 3
Dates	October 14–October 28
MVP	Dave Stewart (Oakland)
Umpires	Rich Garcia (AL), Paul Runge (NL), Al Clark (AL), Dutch Rennert (NL), Vic Voltaggio (AL), Eric Gregg (NL)
Hall of Famers	Athletics: Dennis Eckersley, Rickey Henderson. Giants: none.
Broadcast
Television	ABC
TV announcers	Al Michaels, Tim McCarver and Jim Palmer
Radio	CBS
Radio announcers	Jack Buck and Johnny Bench
Streaming
Oakland Athletics over Toronto Blue Jays (4–1)
NLCS	San Francisco Giants over Chicago Cubs (4–1)
Series

The 1989 World Series was played between the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants. The Series ran from October 14 through October 28, with the A's sweeping the Giants in four games. It was the first World Series sweep since 1976, and is best remembered for the Loma Prieta earthquake, which occurred on October 17 before Game 3 was to begin, and caused a 10-day disruption in play. Fay Vincent presided over the Series, his first as Commissioner of Baseball after the sudden death of his predecessor Bart Giamatti over a month earlier. This Series is also known as the "Earthquake Series," "Bay Bridge Series," and "The Battle of the Bay." It was the first World Series in which the losing team never had the lead and never had the tying run at the plate in its final turn at-bat.

Background

The San Francisco Giants won the National League West division by three games over the San Diego Padres then defeated the Chicago Cubs, four games to one, in the National League Championship Series. The Oakland Athletics won the American League West division by seven games over the Kansas City Royals then defeated the Toronto Blue Jays, four games to one, in the American League Championship Series.

Summary

AL Oakland Athletics (4) vs. NL San Francisco Giants (0)

Game	Date	Score	Location	Time	Attendance
1	October 14	San Francisco Giants – 0, Oakland Athletics – 5	Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum	2:45	49,385
2	October 15	San Francisco Giants – 1, Oakland Athletics – 5	Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum	2:47	49,388
3	October 27†	Oakland Athletics – 13, San Francisco Giants – 7	Candlestick Park	3:03	62,038
4	October 28	Oakland Athletics – 9, San Francisco Giants – 6	Candlestick Park	3:07	62,032

†: Game 3 was originally slated for October 17 at 5:15 pm; however, it was postponed when an earthquake occurred at 5:04 pm.

Matchups

Game 1

Saturday, October 14, 1989 at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, California

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
San Francisco	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	1
Oakland	0	3	1	1	0	0	0	0	X	5	11	1
WP: Dave Stewart (1–0)   LP: Scott Garrelts (0–1) Home runs: SF: None OAK: Dave Parker (1), Walt Weiss (1)

The first game of the Bay Bridge Series saw Athletics ace Dave Stewart take on the Giants' Scott Garrelts. Before the contest, a tribute to late Commissioner Bart Giamatti was held, with Giamatti's son Marcus throwing out the first pitch and the Whiffenpoofs from Yale University (Giamatti's alma mater) singing the national anthem.

In the bottom of the second, Oakland took a lead it would never relinquish, when Dave Henderson walked, took second on a Terry Steinbach single, and scored on another single by Tony Phillips that moved Steinbach up to third. Walt Weiss then sent a soft ground ball toward first, but Giants first baseman (and NLCS MVP) Will Clark threw the ball low and to the right, and the sliding Steinbach knocked the ball out of catcher Terry Kennedy's mitt. Kennedy was charged with an error, and Rickey Henderson then singled Phillips home, making the score 3–0 for Oakland.

A's designated hitter Dave Parker led off the Oakland third by tattooing a solo home run off Garrelts, and Weiss added one of his own leading off the fourth. This was more than enough for a dominant Stewart, who hurled a five-hitter to give the Athletics a 5–0 lead and a 1–0 edge in the Series. "We ran into a buzz saw," Clark said of Stewart's pitching.

Game 2

Sunday, October 15, 1989 at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, California

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
San Francisco	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	4	0
Oakland	1	0	0	4	0	0	0	0	X	5	7	0
WP: Mike Moore (1–0)   LP: Rick Reuschel (0–1) Home runs: SF: None OAK: Terry Steinbach (1)

The ceremonial first pitch in Game 2, featuring Oakland's Mike Moore taking on San Francisco's Rick Reuschel, was thrown by Little League World Series MVP and future NHL star Chris Drury.

In the bottom of the first, the Athletics went to work, as Rickey Henderson walked, stole second, then scored on a double to right field by Lansford. The Giants pushed across their first run of the Series in the top of the third, when Kennedy singled and was forced out at second by José Uribe. A single by Brett Butler advanced Uribe to third, and he then scored on a sacrifice fly by second baseman Robby Thompson.

However, the A's took the lead right back in their half of the fourth. After José Canseco drew a walk, Parker drove a line shot off the wall that was both an inch from being foul and an inch from being a home run. Parker, who momentarily stood at the plate to watch the flight of the ball, began running as soon as the ball hit the wall, and it seemed that Giants right fielder Candy Maldonado's return throw had nabbed Parker at second. But second base umpire Dutch Rennert called Parker safe, while Canseco scored all the way from first. After Dave Henderson walked and Mark McGwire struck out, Steinbach drove a Reuschel pitch into the left field seats, scoring both Parker and Henderson. The Giants had no answer for Oakland's relievers, and the A's took a 5–1 victory and a 2–0 lead in the Series.

During a pre-game interview on ABC, A's manager Tony LaRussa mentioned that he thought that Terry Steinbach was going to hit a HR. LaRussa was only to be proven correct with Steinbach's fourth inning blast that chased Rick Reuschel from the game.

The Loma Prieta earthquake

The Loma Prieta earthquake struck on October 17, 1989 at 5:04 p.m. Game 3 was scheduled to start at 5:35 p.m. at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, and thousands of people were already in the stadium when the quake occurred. Because of the coincidence of timing, it was the first major earthquake in the United States ever to be broadcast by live television. Experts credit the timing of the World Series as a lucky break that prevented massive loss of life and a possible firestorm in the city. Also key in reducing the loss of life was the fact that many people had left work early or were staying late to participate in after-work group viewings and parties, reducing the traffic that would otherwise have been on the collapsed freeways (initial expectations were that hundreds of people had died in the collapse of Interstate 880 in Oakland; the final death toll from that event was 42). A blimp that had been covering the game was used to coordinate emergency efforts.

Although the city's emergency water system failed due to ruptured water mains, volunteers helped connect hoses from San Francisco's fireboat, the Phoenix, to fight fires with pumped salt water from the nearby bay.

At the time the earthquake hit, the announcing team for ABC Sports, Tim McCarver, Al Michaels, and Jim Palmer immediately grabbed what they perceived to be the armrests; it turned out that they grabbed each others' thighs, leaving each of them with bruises; recounting this incident years later, Michaels would boldly admit his strong belief that had the earthquake lasted much longer than 15 seconds, he would have been killed. The ABC Sports team remained in their broadcast booth and appeared composed once a backup generator restored power. By contrast, the broadcasting team the CBS Radio booth next door, consisting of Jack Buck, Johnny Bench, and John Rooney, ran out as soon as the earthquake started. Bench ran to a spot underneath a steel grate, to which Buck quipped, "If you would have moved that fast when you played, you wouldn't have hit into so many double plays." The ESPN live coverage of the Series (ESPN and ABC at the time produced separate broadcasts) was interrupted during then-television analyst Joe Torre's pre-game report on the field. Their equipment van was the only one with a generator, and they continued their live coverage with Chris Berman. Separately from the broadcast, Peter Gammons and Oakland Athletics pitcher Bob Welch were walking by the Marina Middle School in order to get a residency pass when they spotted a slightly unshaven man with a white wind-breaker waiting in line for his pass, who turned out to be Joe DiMaggio, who was concerned over the status of his sister, Louise. Gammons shared this story during a 1999 SportsCenter Flashback special chronicling the 1989 World Series.

In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, ABC aired a rerun of Roseanne (and later, The Wonder Years) before Ted Koppel began anchoring news coverage from Washington, with Michaels acting as a de facto reporter. The Goodyear Blimp (which was already aloft for the game) provided video of structural damage and fires within the city. The ABC opening for this telecast (leading up to Al Michaels informing the viewers of the earthquake) was used at the beginning of a 1990 television movie (documenting the Loma Prieta earthquake) called After The Shock.

As for the World Series itself, Fay Vincent decided to postpone Game 3 (although he didn't tell anyone before doing so, resulting in an umpire protest) initially for five days, resulting in the longest delay in World Series history. The Series was postponed for another five days (until October 27) because of delays in restoring transmission links. Then-San Francisco mayor Art Agnos wanted to wait a month before resuming the World Series, with Vincent responding to Agnos by telling him that he might move the World Series elsewhere if the delay would be that long.

Players for the Oakland Athletics returned home, but had to travel via San Jose, adding an extra 90 minutes because some roadway sections of the Bay Bridge had collapsed. Not long after returning, José Canseco (still in full uniform) and his wife Esther were spotted filling up their car at a self-service gas station. As noted in his later book Juiced, Canseco noted that someone wrote an article portraying him as forcing his wife to pump the gas, but that in reality, she told José to let her do it because if people saw him in his full uniform, it would cause a scene.

Game 3

Originally scheduled for Tuesday, October 17, 1989 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California; rescheduled to October 27 after the Loma Prieta earthquake

See also: Al Michaels and Fay Vincent

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Oakland	2	0	0	2	4	1	0	4	0	13	14	0
San Francisco	0	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	4	7	10	3
WP: Dave Stewart (2–0)   LP: Scott Garrelts (0–2) Home runs: OAK: Dave Henderson 2 (2), Tony Phillips (1), José Canseco (1), Carney Lansford (1) SF: Matt Williams (1), Bill Bathe (1)

At the start of Game 3, some emergency responders who had aided during the earthquake, including police officers and firefighters, were honored and threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

Dave "Hendu" Henderson just missed hitting three HRs for the A's as his first inning shot bounced off the top of the wall for a double.

Giants catcher Bill Bathe became the fifth National League player in World Series history to hit a home run in his very first at-bat. Bathe's teammate Matt Williams noticed Bathe wobbling when the earthquake started. Apparently, Bathe was looking in the stands to search for his family.

When Game 3 was originally scheduled for October 17, the scheduled starting pitchers were Bob Welch for the A's and Don Robinson for the Giants. Meanwhile, Ken Oberkfell was slated to start at third base for the Giants, with Matt Williams moving over to shortstop instead of the benched José Uribe. Also, Pat Sheridan was slated to take over for Candy Maldonado in right field for the Giants. Maldonado told ESPN that he was in the clubhouse getting ready when the earthquake hit. The first person he saw in the midst of all of this was his teammate, Don Robinson, who told Maldonado that he sensed that an earthquake was occurring.

This game set a record for most combined HRs hit in a World Series game (7) as well as tying a record for most HRs hit by a single team (5) in a World Series game (the New York Yankees won Game 4 of the 1928 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, which like this series, would end in a sweep).

Game 4

Saturday, October 28, 1989 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Oakland	1	3	0	0	3	1	0	1	0	9	12	0
San Francisco	0	0	0	0	0	2	4	0	0	6	9	0
WP: Mike Moore (2–0)   LP: Don Robinson (0–1)   Sv: Dennis Eckersley (1) Home runs: OAK: Rickey Henderson (1) SF: Kevin Mitchell (1), Greg Litton (1)

At the time, October 28 was the latest end date for a World Series, even though the series only lasted the minimum four games. (This record was tied in 1995, and broken by the terrorism-delayed 2001 World Series which ran from October 27 through November 4.) The World Series now regularly ends around this time because there is an extra round of playoffs.

The A's led from the first pitch of the game on as Rickey Henderson's leadoff home run set the tone. Kevin Mitchell's homer would bring the Giants closer as they cut a 8–0 deficit to 8–6 in two innings. But it would prove to be too little too late for San Francisco as they would lose 9–6.

This was also Candlestick Park's final World Series game. The Giants would not win another National League pennant until 2002, two years after AT&T Park had opened.

Out of respect for the Loma Prieta earthquake victims, the Oakland Athletics were not allowed to celebrate their World Series victory with champagne, as is normally customary for the winning team in the World Series.

Composite box

1989 World Series (4–0): Oakland Athletics (A.L.) over San Francisco Giants (N.L.)

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Oakland Athletics	4	6	1	7	7	2	0	5	0	32	44	1
San Francisco Giants	0	1	1	2	0	2	4	0	4	14	28	4
Total attendance: 222,843   Average attendance: 55,711
Winning player’s share: $114,252   Losing player’s share: $83,529

Radio and television coverage

ABC play-by-play man Al Michaels, who spent three years in San Francisco as an announcer for the San Francisco Giants, was nominated for an Emmy Award for news broadcasting after giving an eyewitness account of the aftermath of the earthquake at Candlestick Park.

File:Abc-worldseries-card.jpg

ABC Television immediately put this World Series slide on-air following the Loss of Signal from Candlestick Park as a result of the Loma Prieta earthquake.

This would be the last World Series that ABC would televise from start to finish (and also the last they would produce themselves) and the last MLB game on ABC period until July 1994, it was also the last time a World Series title was won on that network. The television rights would move exclusively (ABC had partnered with NBC since 1976 up until the end of the 1989 season) to CBS the following year. ABC would next televise a World Series in 1995, but only broadcast Games 1, 4, and 5 (the other games were covered by NBC, who had a joint venture with ABC and MLB called The Baseball Network).

For CBS Radio, Jack Buck and Johnny Bench were in the broadcast booth. This was Buck's last World Series call for CBS Radio, as he moved to the television side when the network began broadcasting baseball the next year. Bench continued to call the World Series through 1993.

20 years later

On June 13, 2009, immediately prior to the second game of the interleague regular season meeting between the Giants and A's, the San Francisco Giants honored 27 members of their 1989 team.

Series quotes

Candy Maldonado with the hesitation, allowing Jose Canseco to score and he fails to get (throw out) Dave Parker at second base, so the Oakland A's take......take........I'll tell you what, we're having an earth...

— ABC Sports color commentator Tim McCarver and play-by-play commentator Al Michaels, respectively. Michaels' sentence was cut off to the television audience due to the loss of power during the earthquake.

Well...(Al chuckles)...I dunno if we're on the air...we're in commercial I guess...(crew members tell Al that they hear him)...I don't hear a thing...(crew members tell Al that they saved McCarver)...well I dunno if we're on the air or not and I'm not sure that we hear you right at the moment, but we are. Well folks, that's the greatest open in the history of television. Bar none! (Someone talks to Al)...yes it certainly did, we're still here...we are still—as we can tell—on the air and I guess you hearing us even though we have no picture and no return audio and we will be back—we hope—from San Francisco in just a moment.

— Al Michaels broadcasting after the earthquake, through a telephone line and there is no video.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are postponing the game because there is no power in the stadium. We would like for you to leave in an orderly way. I don't think there's any grave danger, but we have no idea when the power's going to be on and we have to get people out of here before it gets dark.

— Commissioner Fay Vincent on October 17.

It's a ground ball to the right side, speared by Phillips, flips to Eckersley...YES!!! He's there in time, and the A's are the World Champions!

— Michaels calling the final out of the Series.

I think we may have just won the most historic World Series of all time, with having to deal with the delay and everything. I don't think anybody's had to go through anything like what we did to win and compete for a world championship!

— Oakland Athletics manager Tony LaRussa after the series win.

[Losing baseball to CBS was] tough to accept...baseball had been an early stepchild at ABC and had come such a long way.

— Al Michaels after Game 4.

Great reviews, as ABC baseball ends.

— Gary Thorne, upon presiding over the Commissioner's Trophy presentation, in response to Michael's post-Game 4 statement.

References

• Neft, David S., and Richard M. Cohen. The World Series. 1st ed. New York: St Martins, 1990. (Neft and Cohen 430–434)
• Forman, Sean L. "1989 World Series". Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Statistics and Information. Retrieved 2007-12-09.

External links

• 1989 World Series at WorldSeries.com via MLB.com
• 1989 World Series at Baseball Almanac
• 1989 World Series at Baseball-Reference.com
• The 1989 Post-Season Games (box scores and play-by-play) at Retrosheet
• History of the World Series - 1989 at The Sporting News. Archived from the original in May 2006.
• 1989 World Series LIVE right before the earthquake
• Swept Away at SI.com
• 1989 Oakland Athletics at baseballlibrary.com
• 1989 San Francisco Giants at baseballlibrary.com
• Don Knapp, 10/89 - Giants vs A's in the World Series
• San Francisco earthquake rocks World Series
• Thirteen years ago, NL champions - Unforgettable events followed Giants' last pennant
• October 9th, 1989
• TEN YEARS AFTER: FIRST IN A WEEK-LONG RETROSPECTIVE OF THE LOMA PRIETA QUAKE.
• Giants Clubhouse: '89 Earthquake
• Loma Prieta Earthquake Anniversary - San Jose Mercury News
• Al Michaels on 1989 WS earthquake