The 1989 fall classichad many unique features that no other World Serieshad. It was not only all California but an all Bay area WorldSeries and just before the third game a 6.5 magnitude earthquake shock the area including Candlestick Park where they were preparing to start the third game and after a ten day delay the series resumed.
But it was the WorldSeries and the Giants 92-70 were managed by former Dodger reliever Roger Craig who had helped popularize the split fingered fastball earlier in the decade.
San Franciscowasled by former Met NL MVP Kevin Mitchell 47HR/124RBI/.291 BA/100RS, Will Clark 23HR/111RBI/.333BA/104RS and Brett Butler 31SB/100RS.
Their pitching staff was anchored by Rick Reuschel 17-8/2.94ERA, ScottGarrelts 14-5/2.28ERA and in the bullpen CraigLefferts 30SV/2.68ERA and Steve Bedrosian 17SV/2.65ERA.
Oakland 99-63 was still managed by Tony LaRussa and featured Mark McGwire33HR/95RBI, Rickey Henderson 52SB/.294BA, Carney Lansford 37SB/.336BA and Dave Parker 22HR/97RBI.
They had strong starting pitching with Dave Stewart 21-9, Mike Moore 19-11, Bob Welch 17-8 and Storm Davis 19-7 and had Dennis Eckersley with 33 saves in the bullpen.
Game one was in the Oakland Alameda County Stadium with Dave Stewart pitching a masterful five hit shutout and with the help of home runs by Dave Parker and Walt Weiss the A’s win 5-0 to go up 1-0.
The second game was more of the same as Mike Moore, Rick Honeycutt and Eckersley combined for a four hitter and with the help of a three run home run by Terry Steinbach the A’s win 5-1 and go up two games to none.
Because of the earth quake there was twelve day delay between games two and three and when the teams resumed play Stewart was back on the mound for Oakland.
In a home run fest the Giants scored seven runs, three off Stewart in the seven innings of five hit baseball he pitched, with Matt Williams and Bill Bathe contributing home runs.
The pitching must have not beensharpbecause of the layoff and the A’s responded with five home runs, two by Dave Hendersonandone each by Carney Lansford, Tony Phillips, and Jose Canseco and Oakland wins 13-7 and the seriesgoes to three games to none in favor of the A’s.
But because of damage to Candlestick as some of the cement in the upper deck had been knocked loose, it is safe to say the players were not totally focused on the game.
Still at Candlestick Rickey Henderson set the tone for game four with a leadoff home run off of Don Robinson and the Athletics coasted to a 9-6 win in the game and the series. Kevin Mitchell and Greg Litton added home runs for the Giants who never led at any time in any of the four games and lost each game by at least three runs.
Dave Stewart got the series MVP and the Athletics would be back the next year against the Reds while the Giants were back in 2002.
Joe Burrow seems to be adapting well to the NFL. In his second game he was 37 for 61 in passing attempts, setting a record for a rookie with the 37 completions in one game.
He is used to winning. In his last year in high school he was 14-1, losing only in the state championship game even though he threw for six touchdowns. In his three years at Ohio State including a redshirt freshman year was 35-5 and in his two years at LSU the Tigers were 25-3 for a combined 74-9 in the previous six years of his football career. Hopefully he can bring that winning tradition to Cincinnati with the Bengals.
So far this season he has passed for 821 yards with five touchdowns and one interception and the Bengals have an 0-2-1 record but have had a chance to win all three games.
Burrow has been sacked fourteen times so the Bengals will have to work on protecting him better.
