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All-Century Roster: Athletics
By Gary Brooks
SportsLine Baseball Editor
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A franchise that has had bouts with enormous instability, including 16
100-loss seasons, the Athletics of Philadelphia, Kansas City and Oakland
have also had as much success as any team other than the New York Yankees.
 | | | The Athletics won their ninth World Series title in 1989.(Allsport) | |
One of the original American League teams founded in 1901, the Athletics
had dominant stretches in the dead-ball era, the early '30s, '70s and late
'80s. They've won 15 AL pennants.
The Athletics are well represented at Cooperstown's Hall of Fame with 13
players already enshrined and Dennis Eckersley, Rickey Henderson and Mark
McGwire set to follow when eligible. But for all their talent through time,
the franchise has been continually torn apart and rebuilt due to financial
constraints and the eccentricities of owners like Connie Mack and Charlie
Finley.
Now the team is working its way through another ownership change, hoping
to be able to compete with a limited payroll. It's not likely to lead to a
drought similar to the 1932-70 ugliness, but whether this franchise will
return to pennant-winning form any time soon is debatable.
Lineup
| Mickey Cochrane, Catcher, 1925-33 |
| So worried about being a failure when he signed his first pro contract,
Cochrane played under the name Frank King in case he needed to protect his
real name from embarrassment. Such was not the case as he became a Hall of
Famer. He was considered the best hitting catcher of his time, carrying a
career .320 batting average and .419 on-base percentage. |
| Jimmie Foxx, 1B, 1925-35 |
| "Double X" was the first American Leaguer to win back-to-back Most Valuable
Player awards and the first major leaguer to win MVP three times ('32, '33,
'38). Under today's rules, Foxx would have been a back-to-back triple crown
winner in 1932-33. In 1932, Dale Alexander edged Foxx for the batting
title, though
Alexander's 392 at-bats wouldn't have been enough to qualify him for the
league crown today. Foxx hit 534 homers and drove in 1,921 runs in his career.
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| Eddie Collins, 2B, 1906-14, 1927-30 |
| Collins was a part of three of Connie Mack's World Series winners and
earned praise from Hall of Fame Giants manager John McGraw who once called
Collins the best player he'd ever seen. Collins was part of the "$100,000
infield" but when Mack had financial troubles and had to sell off many of
his best players, the White Sox paid $50,000 for Collins, the most a player
had been worth until Babe Ruth was sold by the Red Sox. Collins hit .333
with 3,311 hits, 1,299 RBI and 743 steals in his career. |
| Bert Campaneris, SS, 1968-76 |
| "Campy" is the only member of this starting lineup who isn't or won't be
elected to the Hall of Fame but his contributions to the Oakland A's World
Series champions in 1972-74 were significant. His 1,882 hits are the
franchise record, as is his 1,795 games played. |
| Frank "Home Run" Baker, 3B, 1908-1914 |
| His nickname doesn't fit his 96 career home runs, impressive in the
dead-ball era but just a couple good seasons now. But Baker was an
outstanding hitter. His .347 batting average in 1912 was the best by a third
baseman for 68 years before George Brett hit .390 in 1980. |
| Rickey Henderson, OF, 1979-84, '89-95, '98 |
| There isn't much doubt Henderson will go down as the greatest leadoff
hitter ever. His stolen bases record which he will push toward 1,500 next
season, isn't likely to be topped and by the time he's done, he might have
the career runs record and be a member of the 3,000-hit club. |
| Reggie Jackson, OF, 1968-75, 87 |
| Jackson's flamboyance in the glitz capital of the world made him a
superstar as a New York Yankee but his star was truly born in Oakland. He
hit 269 of his 563 homers with the A's and was a six-time All-Star and 1973
AL MVP in Oakland. |
| Al Simmons, OF, 1924-32, '40-41, '43 |
| Simmons was the first AL player ever to drive in 100 runs in each of his
first two seasons. He didn't stop, driving in 1,827 in his career, 1,178
for the Athletics which remains the franchise record. Simmons hit .356 in
the A's portions of his career, by far the best career average in club
history. |
| Mark McGwire, DH, 1986-1997 |
| McGwire became a phenomenon nearly greater than the game itself with the
Cardinals but by the time he was traded to St. Louis, he had already set
the Athletics record for home runs with 363 despite the numerous injuries
that held him back in Oakland. He hit a rookie record 49 home runs in 1986
and provided some of the biggest blasts as the A's dominated the AL West in
the late 1980s. |
Pitchers
| Rube Waddell, SP, 1902-07 |
| He earned his name with his scatter-brained, uneducated antics but there
was no question that he could pitch. In his first four seasons in
Philadelphia he won at least 20 games and led the AL in strikeouts each
year. He won 131 games in his short A's tenure and his 1.97 ERA is the best
for any career in team history. In 1900, before foul balls were considered
strikes, Waddell led the AL with 130 strikeouts. In 1904 when the current
foul-ball rules were in effect, Waddell struck out 349 batters, the
single-season record which stood until Sandy Koufax broke it in 1965. |
| Lefty Grove, SP, 1925-33 |
| Generally considered the greatest left-hander ever, Grove has the best
winning percentage of the 300-win club having gone 300-141. He pitched 300
complete games in the majors and also had a 112-39 record in the minor
leagues where he was such a valuable attraction to the Baltimore Orioles
that owner Jack Dunn wouldn't let him leave to the majors. Having quit
school after eighth grade and worked in the coal mines, not focusing on
baseball until he was 20, Grove led the AL in ERA nine times and in wins
four times. |
| Charles Albert "Chief" Bender, SP, 1903-14 |
| He didn't have the overwhelming stats that some of his contemporaries did
but Connie Mack, for a time, did consider Bender the Athletics' best clutch
pitcher as the team won the World Series in 1911 and 1913. Bender, half
Chippewa, earned 193 of his 210 wins with Philadelphia. |
| Jim "Catfish" Hunter, SP, 1965-74 |
| From 1971-75 Hunter was the best pitcher in the game. He won 111 games and
the A's were back-to-back-to-back World Champions. He won 161 games and
pitched 31 shutouts as a member of the A's. He later became baseball's
first high-priced free agent and was a part of two more Series champions
with the Yankees before begin elected to the Hall of Fame in 1987. |
| Eddie Plank, SP, 1901-14 |
| Though 26 when his professional career began, Plank was good enough to win
327 games, 284 as an Athletic, the franchise record. Having pitched at the
same time as Bender and Waddell, Plank was never considered the A's ace.
But no matter his impact or standing, it's tough to leave a 300-game winner
off, though it meant Vida Blue missed the cut for the rotation. |
| Dennis Eckersley, RP, 1987-95 |
| Though the most significant image of his career is probably his serving up
a game-winning home run to Kirk Gibson in the 1988 World Series, Eckersley
was the best closer of his generation and helped revolutionize the
late-inning role. He saved 320 games after spending the first half of his
career as a starter and won the 1992 AL Cy Young and MVP awards. |
| Bench |
| Jose Canseco, Sal Bando, Terry Steinbach, Eddie Joost, Sam Chapman,
Bob Cerv |
| Best season |
| The Athletics have won the World Series nine times (five in
Philadelphia and four in Oakland) but a season in which they didn't bring
the trophy home was their best. The 1931 A's went 107-45 becoming one of
just a handful of teams with a winning percentage better than .700. The St.
Louis Cardinals beat them in a seven-game World Series. It was the last
time they'd get to the Series for 40 years. Strangely, in the Athletics' past four 100-win seasons, they've failed to win the Series, although they have won in four seasons with less than 100
wins. |
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| Worst season |
| For a team with so much success, it's amazing that the
Athletics also finished 40 or more games out of first place 20 times. So
there are plenty of sad seasons to choose from. But the winner is the 1916
squad that went 36-117. |
| Best individual season, player |
| Jimmie Foxx's 1932 season was among the top
10 single seasons by any player ever. His 438 total bases are the fifth
most in history. He led the AL in runs (151), homers (58), RBI (169),
batting average (.364), slugging percentage (.749) and fielding percentage
(.994). |
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| Best individual season, pitcher |
| Lefty Grove won the pitcher's triple crown
in 1931 going 31-4 with 170 strikeouts and a 2.06 ERA. He threw 27 complete
games, four shutouts and also had five saves. |
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