It was an embarrassing sweep. I forget most of the minute details now, but I have always laid alot of the blame on LaRussa and some of his moves, which is unusual for me as I tend to believe that it’s the players who play the game and ultimately win or lose.

has been very public about Jose not playing hard for him, especially in reference to the 1990 WS. One of the things he quoted Canseco as saying was something along the lines of “Playoffs again! I’m tired of playoffs. I want this season to be over so I can go fishing and do other stuff.” La Russa said that this bad attitude affected the entire team. So maybe that’s what Stew means.

As for the bookie stuff, that’s the first that I ever heard of that reference being made. But Canseco did hang out with some shady people, and even guys like Pete Rose and Michael Jordan have been rumored to have had a serious gambling problems.

A’s were leading late … didn’t Canseco misplay a ball in RF that should’ve been caught? I seem to remember that play as being the turning point.
The details are fuzzy for me too, and I don’t feel like hunting the internet for them … but I seem to remember we were up like 4-2, and ended up losing 5-4.

Chris Singleton and Terence Long. Bats on their shoulders. Striking out in the bottom of the ninth of a decisive game five. Thanks for bringing those scars back to the surface…

Canseco had incredible natural talent to begin with. So much so that they moved him from LF to Right just a season or two into his career.
The problem, as you mentioned, is he absolutely quit working on his game, and at that point, things went downhill.
Bottom line … if Canseco stays hungry and works hard, he’s a Hall of Famer … easy. He and Darryl Strawberry are two guys who could’ve owned baseball had they been able to discipline themselves. Hate their antics all you want, but they were too unbelievably gifted athletes who pissed away their talent. But they had talent, no question.

mea culpa moment.

I wasn’t surprised Rijo was tough, but I was surprised we couldn’t hit either of their lefties.

In fact, I hated the whole 1980’s Twinkies teams. I know, everyone is supposed to love Kirby Puckett (RIP) and his lovable band of fellas, but without that joke of a stadium they don’t win anything. And they were annoying as hell. I hated them.

and Hatcher, and the ridiculous way the A’s rolled over with Rijo pitching. There was too much swagger with the A’s in the post-season by then…they tried to “mail it in”. It was about like the Rockies playing the Red Sox last year, but no one expected the Rockies to win four games, just two or one. 4-0??!!

I’m getting to like the “playoffs” prior to the World Series less and less. My latest evolution: play 130 games in each league, until August 31st. Then the six best teams play only each other for the last 30 games (3 home, 3 away, versus five other teams). At the end of 160 games, the best record goes to the WS…period…. no further playoffs after 160 games. The “also-ran” eight teams who have records worse than the top six, also play each other for the last 30 games, but no chance to go to the WS or “playoffs”…they can play their rookies, and Sept callups, like the A’s and Mariners. did this year.

But really. Talk about setting the tone for the Series.

Of course that big “0” we put up didn’t help either.