ESPN's greatest team ever

by tdwclark on Jul 5, 2006 3:50 AM PDT

ESPN is running a promo where baseball fans can vote for what they think is the best WS Champion in history. While our Athleticos are represented several times, they fail to even mention what many consider the outright best team of all time: the 1974 Oakland A's. They mention '72 and '29 (which were both better than any Yankee club has ever been!!!)...but why leave out the best club of all? ESPN is lame...again.

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obviously they don't

watch the Simpsons.

by DMOAS on Jul 5, 2006 7:27 AM PDT reply actions

haha

oh yea... lol

by greekpride08 @ Athletics Nation on Jul 5, 2006 9:02 AM PDT up reply actions

Interesting that at the same time

Nate Silver has a column at Prpspectus about the 30 best teams since 1960-- using a formula called ELO.

The top 3 are the 1998 Yankees, the 1970 Orioles and the 1975 Reds, I believe, or maybe it's the 1961 Yanks ahead of the Big Red Machine.

There are three A's teams in the list-- and none of them from the 1972-74 championship years, which were great pitching and defense clubs but didn't ever win 100 games or show the kind of dominance we've seen from a lot of other A's teams.

The lowest ranked A's team is the 1989 championship season.

And the two highest ranked-- both around 10th if all teams since 1960-- are 2002 and 2001.

Damn Jeter and Hudson's injury!

oaktoon

by oaktoon on Jul 5, 2006 9:20 AM PDT reply actions

To be exact

Top 4 are:

1998 Yanks
1970 Orioles
1961 Yanks
1975 Reds

A's 4 teams are 2001-- 9th

2002-- 13th

1989-- 18th

oaktoon

by oaktoon on Jul 5, 2006 9:23 AM PDT up reply actions

Why the 1975 Reds?

Those are the same Reds with Joe Morgan who lost against the 1972 A'S. Also, '75 Reds are more known as the team who gave up the home run to Carlton Fisk. Guess, ESPN needs to watch the Simpsons to 1974 Oakland A'S then again FOX is pretty lame too since on their list of Greatest World Series home runs, it was Kirk Gibson in 1988.

Macha is a great manager. -Ron Washington

by pachydermOAFC on Jul 5, 2006 10:11 AM PDT reply actions

well, can I inform you??

I was at Game Six of the 1975 series-- to this day it stands as the best game I've ever seen.

The 1975-76 Cincinnati Reds-- the rosters were virtually identical-- featured the best 8 man lineup I've ever seen. Their pitching was good-- not great-- adequate starters backed by a deep and effective bullpen-- but that's all they needed.

Their catcher was the best of his generation and perhaps one of the two or three best all-time: Johnny Bench.

Their firstbaseman was a RBI machine and a Hall of Famer-- marginal choice, yes, but still a very good hitter and strong clubhouse force;

Their second baseman was a first ballot HOFer, two time MVP and, even though we love to hate him now, a very bright student of the game who flourished in Cincinnati after spending his early years in Houston. The best secondbasebman of his generation and also somewhere in the top 3 or 4 (Hornsby, Collins, Lajoie) all time;

Their shortstop was a defensive wizard who first figured out you could bounce a long throw from the hole off the Astro Turf-- played in over 200 games-- not a bad hitter;

Their thirdbaseman-- converted because of the development of George Foster in the OF-- may never get to the Hall of Fame, but he did get a few hits in his career. 4256, to be exact. And he always hit best in the final games of each WS he played in, and there were 5, counting his appearance with the Phillies in 1980;

Their rightfielder is best known for his progeny-- but he was an ALl-Star caliber player who hit over .300 in 1975-77, and four more times later in his career.

Their CFer was only an adequate hitter but a great defensive player and had a terrific name;

And their LFer was a burgeoning star who would become the only player between Mays and the steroid era to hit 50 HRs in a season, though no one believes that Cecil Fielder-- the first hitter after this guy to reach 50-- ever juiced.

All in all, a great lineup.

IN 1975 they outscored their opponents by 254 runs, or 1.6 a game; in 1976 the difference was 224 runs or 1.4 a game.

They were a great team.

oaktoon

by oaktoon on Jul 5, 2006 10:28 AM PDT up reply actions

The Reds were also

a brilliant defensive team -- they finished 3rd in e.r.a. in '75 without any superstar pitchers (Gullett was tremendous, but sort of their version of Harden as far as injuries were concerned) and in a hitters' park, all while the staff struck out the fewest hitters in the NL. That's a pretty good testimony to their defense in my view. Bench and Morgan were among the best defensively at their positions in the history of the game -- the rest of the infield was excellent, Geronimo was terrific, Griffey too. Foster was the only guy who wasn't at least very good with the glove, and he wasn't bad.

The Reds were so good that if Gullett had been healthy, or if they'd had a legitimate ace -- even just a great-for-a-couple-of-years guy like Andy Messersmith -- I don't think there'd be a whole lot of discussion about the greatest team since 1960.

"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s

by Nick on Jul 6, 2006 5:55 AM PDT up reply actions

no way..

1070 Orioles were better, as were the 72 and 74 Oakland clubs, as well as 1989 A's.

tdwclark

by tdwclark on Jul 6, 2006 7:05 PM PDT up reply actions

I love their bracketing...

The Athletics don't face the Athletics in round 1, but in round 2, it could be 4 Athletics teams in one-fourth of the bracket - that means one's guaranteed to be in the final four.

"The hard... is what makes it great."

by Jjjsixsix on Jul 5, 2006 10:14 AM PDT reply actions

Anyone have a link

to the bracketing? so how does this work are they going to have mock games against each other to see who is the best team of all time? What if it came down to the 89 A's VS the 2001 Them. Who would you pick as the more dominate team?

Bring back the Bash! Bring back the Mustache! Go A's in 2006!!!

Death To The Angels!!

by Shippee33 on Jul 5, 2006 9:35 PM PDT reply actions