Gary Peterson is a staff writer for the Bay Area News Group. He was previously the sports columnist at the Contra Costa Times for 25 years, during which he covered the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants throughout the 1989 season. During his career, he has covered 13 Super Bowls, five World Series, four Olympic Games, and one Final Four, winning multiple Associated Press Sports Editors awards as a top-10 sports columnist. He lives in Concord, California. A former manager of the Chicago White Sox, Oakland A's, and St. Louis Cardinals, La Russa led teams to three World Series titles. He resides in Alamo, California. Gary Peterson is a staff writer for the Bay Area News Group. He was previously the sports columnist at the Contra Costa Times for 25 years, during which he covered the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants throughout the 1989 season. During his career, he has covered 13 Super Bowls, five World Series, four Olympic Games, and one Final Four, winning multiple Associated Press Sports Editors awards as a top-10 sports columnist. He lives in Concord, California. Tony La Russa is a former manager of the Chicago White Sox, Oakland A's, and the St. Louis Cardinals. He won three World Series during his managing career, including two with the Cardinals. He lives in Alamo, California. Battle of the Bay Bashing A's, Thrilling Giants, and the Earthquake World Series By Gary Peterson Triumph Books Copyright © 2014 Gary Peterson All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-60078-933-5 Contents Foreword by Tony La Russa, Prologue, 1. The Offseason, 2. A Burgeoning Rivalry, 3. A World Series Preview, 4. Overcoming Adversity, 5. Swirling Trade Winds, 6. The Stars Come Out, 7. Dravecky's Comeback, 8. The Homestretch, 9. Postseason Friends and Foes, 10. La Russa's Second Chance, 11. 15 Seconds of Terror, 12. World Series Games 3 and 4, 13. The Aftermath, Acknowledgments, Sources, Photo Gallery, CHAPTER 1 The Offseason Tony Phillips settled into his crouch in the left-handed batter's box. His team trailed by three runs with two out in the bottom of the ninth inning. The count was full. A runner was on third base. If Phillips could reach base, the tying run would come to the plate. And at that point, who knew what might happen? It was the kind of win-or-go-home moment that the 1988 Oakland Athletics embraced with relish en route to winning 104 regular-season games — second most in the 88-year history of a franchise that boasted a colorful, checkered resume of sublime highs (three clusters of American League pennants that resulted in eight World Series championships) and slapstick lows (extended periods of benign neglect under owners Connie Mack and Charles O. Finley). As recently as 1979, the A's had lost 108 games while drawing 306,763 fans. But in August 1980, Finley sold the team to Levi Strauss chairman Walter Haas. In midseason of 1986, Haas hired onetime A's bonus baby Tony La Russa to manage the club. And in 1988, La Russa guided the A's to their first World Series in 14 years. It was an eminently winnable World Series at that, against a Los Angeles Dodgers team that captured the National League West with 94 wins and rode the right arm of Orel Hershiser to a National League Championship Series upset of the New York Mets but entered the Fall Classic an uninspiring collection of wounded warriors and role players. That collection stunned the A's with Kirk Gibson's epic Game 1 home run and Hershiser's Game 2 three-hit shutout. The teams split Games 3 and 4 in Oakland. Now in the ninth inning of Game 5, it was up to Phillips, Oakland's eight-place hitter, to keep the A's breakout season in play. With Carney Lansford on third base and eventual Rookie of the Year Walt Weiss on deck, Phillips looked out at the Oakland Coliseum's pitching mound and saw Hershiser, about to apply the capstone to perhaps the greatest six-week run of pitching in baseball history, staring back. Hershiser stood straight as a tin soldier, tugged at the long sleeve on his right arm, hitched at his belt, got the sign from catcher Rick Dempsey, and then swung into his windup. He elevated his left knee as he tucked his left shoulder. Then he exploded in a riot of body parts toward home plate. Phillips swung through Hershiser's high fastball. Hershiser walked a couple steps off the mound, spoke a few words while looking at the sky, and then was hoisted off his feet by the onrushing Dempsey. The Dodgers had won. The A's had been ushered into a disquieting offseason, a fate they could not have imagined when they convened for spring training as a team of dreams coming off an 81–81 season. In the short span of seven months, they had established themselves as a sexy, swaggering, star-laden potential dynasty. Jose Canseco had chartered the 40–40 club, becoming the first player in major league history to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in the same season. Mark McGwire had encored his re