Some Tidbits From the 2001 A’s Information Guide

by arnec on Feb 15, 2010 4:03 PM PST

I picked up the guide about a week ago, and thought I'd share some items that caught my eye as I paged through it:

Reggie Jackson stole home on April 18, 1987 (his final season) vs. Seattle.

The A’s stole home seven times in 1980: Wayne Gross and Dwayne Murphy did it on the same day on May 3 and again on May 28.

Tony La Russa was the A’s first pinch-hitter at the Coliseum: he singled off Dave McNally on April 17, 1968.

As of 2001, Mike Aldrete (a Carmel native and Stanford grad) was tied for the career lead in A’s pinch-hit homers, with 5, hit from 1993 to 1995.

The A’s stole 341 bases in 1976.

Harold Baines was walked intentionally 22 times in 1991: he also set the A’s single-game record for total bases that year with 14 vs. the Orioles on May 7.

Reggie Jackson has the most inside the park homers of any Oakland A: four, including two in 1968.

Jason Giambi hit the 4000th and 5000th homers in Oakland A’s history: Reggie Jackson hit the first, on April 10, 1968.

Rickey’s .474 BA in ’89 is the highest in an A’s World Series.

The A’s 306,763 home attendance in 1979 came in at less than a quarter of their 1,393,196 road attendance that year. Peak season attendance up to 1981 was 1,075,518, who came to the Coliseum not during the ’72 to ’74 run, but in 1975.

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The chance of an Oakland A’s victory was starting to seem as remote as the possibility that 40-year-old Reggie Jackson would steal home.

Ah, but wasn’t that Reggie bowling over Seattle catcher Bob Kearney in the eighth inning Saturday night?

And wasn’t that a 7-5 A’s victory over the Seattle Mariners ?

Yes and yes. And no, don’t expect Reggie’s theft to become a daily ritual.

“The next time I steal home, it’ll be in a beer league,’’ said Jackson, who last stole home in the 1972 American League Championship Series against Detroit.

The A’s thought they had it in the eighth when Jose Canseco, who was at first, and Jackson, who was at third, perfectly executed a delayed double steal to break a 3-3 tie.

Canseco, who had just driven in the tying run with a broken-bat single to right off loser Mike Moore, 0-2, took off for second on the first pitch to Dwayne Murphy and stopped halfway.

Kearney threw to second to try to get Canseco. By the time Mariners shortstop Rey Quinones figured out what was happening, Jackson scored.

“I wanted to slide,‘’ Jackson said, "but Kearney was blocking the plate because I was safe, easy. If I slid, I couldn’t have gotten there. So I had to go for the Jim Brown act.

“It wouldn’t have worked if Alfredo Griffin was on third base. But they said the hell with the old man — he ain’t running.’’

Old man? Joked La Russa: "We figured we get Reggie into the Guinness Book of World Records: Oldest guy to steal home.’’