Players that Make us say "Wow!" (Among other Things)

Chavez, Ellis, and Kotsay defensively.

Hudson pitching.

Big Hurt and old Giambi had crazy bats.

Dave Kingman’s monster homerun shots
Goose Gossage’s mound presence (A’s 92-93)
Dave Beard’s fastball
Dwayne Murphy’s bat speed.
Zito’s big bender.
Rickey’s walk drawing, base stealing, hot dogging, delayed entrance at start of games.
Dave Stewart’s staredowns.
Eck’s saves.

at the old Big A, pre-quake days, I believe.

I was a young’n but I still remember it being a blast.

Hudson because he always seemed to get it done

Growing up, I was a left-handed pitcher and fell in love with Mark Mulder’s mechanics. Don’t ask me why, I know they were pretty basic, but there was just something about it that I liked. I never wanted to miss a pitch that he threw just for the simple fact that I might miss something that I needed to see. We shared the same number in 20 and he was my favorite player for many years.

That being said, I also enjoyed watching Tejada play. I was there when he hit a walk off HR during the streak and remember being on the verge of tears at about 14 years old. I remember looking over to my dad and yelling “He did it!” It was an amazing experience to share with my dad, so I would have to say that it was probably my favorite moment as an A’s fan.

In his prime, watching Gagne was quite the experience. For the first time I’d ever seen, fans actually stayed until the end of games at Dodger Stadium

As for A’s — A day where Zito was “on” was something to behold; and if he wasn’t, well that was too, but for different reasons. Seeing Chavez on defense was special, too.

You could see towards the end of 2000 that he was starting to put it all together. But in these two years he was something else. Games he pitched that started at 12:35 were done by 2:50. He pitched rhythmically, and every time I saw him I thought there was a chance of a no-hitter.

Loved watching hitters flail at the spuckle, the changeup, and than get blown away with the mid 90’s gas.

For non A’s, I have to go with Ichiro. Guy does some things with a bat that I’ve never seen before and may never again.

My Dad grew up in the Bronx, and we went to see a half-dozen Yankee games a year. (Note: the Yanks fell out of his favor years ago, and is now a Met fan, though he admits to not getting much pleasure from that these last few years.)

Best performance I’ve ever seen was Guidry’s 18 strike outs against the Angels. It is incredible to watch, inning after inning, batters just walk away from the plate, shaking their heads. He struck out 11 in the four middle innings.

A’s:
- Mark Mulder and the two-hour complete games
- Barry Zito’s curveball
- Frank Thomas’ pure power
- Eric Chavez and his glove
- Marco Scutaro and his knack for clutch hits

Now:
- Tim Lincecum
- Jim Thome, when he was with Cleveland
- Vlad, when he would swing at everything, and usually hit it
- Randy Johnson
- Ichiro

A’s Stuff:

Huddy throwing 88 pitch complete games
That time Erubiel Durazo hit a home run that bonked off the luxury boxes in RF.
That time Matt Holliday did the same. To dead center.
The walk off bunt.

He played the shallowest centerfield I have ever seen and he still got to everything! Plus, the way he wore his hat was so cool. How many of us tried to wear our hats that same way?

Barry Bonds in the early 2000s. How could you not.

For me pitchers are more important not to miss. Growing up in [redacted] I saw Nolan Ryan many times. I would not get up for that.

If there is any current A’s batter that I don’t like to miss its Cust.

not a long career, but full of wow moments. Breaking the bat over his knee, running up walls, throwing to the catcher from the warning track.

He seemed like when he was with the A’s he had a lot of fun playing the game, but what set him apart were his clutch performances. I always thought when the A’s didn’t attempt to resign him it was a mistake. How can you replace such a player?

Borrowing from Stormtown: Bo Jackson was awesome to see in person. Got tickets behind the Royals dugout when they came to the Coliseum when he was playing, what a presense. Saw him in L.A. play football too, dude was huge and so fast, just defied logic.

Wayne Gross chasing down popups over the bullpen mounds.
The OF of 80-82 (Rickey, Murph, and ARMas)
Canseco’s 5th-deck blast during the 89 ALCS.
That time in 91 when the A’s hit six Eric Chavez solo HRs and still lost.
Division winner on the last day of the 2000 season.
The Streak (especially games 18-20).
Watching Cust hammer those top-spin HRs.

Best athlete I ever saw in person. I went to 2 games of a series and he put on a show. I saw him launch one into the second deck just by flicking his wrist, hit one in the gap and make it to third as fast as anyone I’ve seen, and the thing that got me the most, its stuck in my brain to this day was Steinbach on second, there was a hit down the left field line, a line drive, Bo who was shading to the right just a bit, ran it down towards the corner and threw a low clothesline to home that was never more then head high. That damn ball never dipped at all, it went straight to the catcher and Steinbach was out. It was amazing.

Bo made things look easy. I’m so very glad I got to see him play.

Cool, here’s my contribution:

He could have been such a good player the last 3 years if he could just stay healthy

Chavy. At the plate, with the glove, whatever. The guy was a superhero. I am not using hyperbole.

Frank Thomas’s ABs during that ’06 season. Swisher, too. Both were launching bombs with no regard for human life in the stands.

Duke’s starts are masterful, and warrant close watching.

Zito, Harden, and Haren starts always mesmerized me for different reasons. Zito for causing no small amount of indigestion with his BB/K/BB/BB/K/K innings; Haren for the way he looked completely badass while bouncing splitters off the plate; and Harden because when he was on, he was the best pitcher I’ve ever seen. Yes, I said it.

I can’t really think of anyone else that really demanded my attention between those guys and the obvious choices of Rickey, Eck, and Canseco. And that’s the way I sees it.

If so, Billy Martin charging out of the dugout to argue with an ump was always a sight to see. Kicking dirt all over the ump’s shoes…

Growing up:

Rickey…and not even stealing, but the moment he led off from first with his fingers wiggling. It was like the whole game stopped and everyone paid attention to that one spot on the diamond. Of course, I led off in Little League like that which likely looked a tad less impressive.

Jose: Another guy that the game just stopped when he came up. Really a shame what happened to him in his career and personally, but that stretch from 87-90, no one looked down when he was up. What a specimen and also had that it personality factor that made you watch.

Now:

Chavy at 3B. Rarely did I go to games and watch a guy in the field, but he would do that to you. It was fun to watch him get ready and react when a ball was hit towards him. I still think people remember the playoff game as the game Ramon bunted in the winning run, but should remember as the game Chavy saved with his play at 3B. Under the situation, a truly remarkable play.

Hudson: Just grinding out games and never giving on…..My favorite pitcher on my favorite team made for a lot of fun years watching him in person and on TV. I am hoping he comes back strong this year as he looked pretty solid the end of 09. Would love to see Huddy return to the elite SP’s in the league.

Pujols: Never seen a guy who hits the ball that hard that consistently. I love his approach and how he is a complete hitter, not just a power hitter.

Jeter: Sorry, my favorite player for many years, I love watching everything he does on the field. I;m sure that will gain me no friends….just being honest.

Stew, Eck…..

and when I was a little bit younger, Murphy in Centre.

Was a Cecil Fielder home run in Detroit. The ball got out in about 2.3 seconds and it had to go 450 easy

I hate signs.

have done this for me, in my lifetime…

Rickey
Stew
Eck.

I believe this post speaks for itself.

I’m 26. I taught myself to read by reading the Sports page. My first use of division was calculating batting average. My family had season tickets from 88-08 and I feel like a part of me grew up at the coliseum. As soon as I was old enough (sometime around 94 or so) I would take BART from Fremont to the games with my friends and watch from our seats along the 1st base line. Most of my friends were Giants fans, so convincing them to go see 90+ loss teams was difficult when they could be playing video games instead. But I’d drag them down anyways.

Usually after a few innings we could sneak down right behind the visitor dugout and ask for balls.Nobody was going to games then either, and I felt some sort of pride at being one of the few bleeding hearts, even though I was all of 14. We always had a blast at those games, because we were out of the house, around adults, and best of all, around baseball. And even though the teams were not very good, it made the playoff run when I was in HS/College just that much sweeter. I wanted to share some of my memories from an era that I remember fondly, even if most fans do not.

- Steele saying Gerrrrrooooooonimo Berrrroooooooooaaaaaaaa

- Ruben Sierra’s ridiculous batting stance. And the hope that if he connected on one, it would soar over the fence

- Lance Blankenship…best name ever

- The massive promise and disappointment of Todd Van Poppel, Ariel Prieto, AJ Hinch, Ben Grieve

- Ryan Christiensen hitting an inside the park home run against the Twins

- Ernie FREAKING Young hitting 3 HR in 1 game

- Buddy Groom, Jim Corsi, Jay Witasik and the other middle relievers who would always sign balls for me

- Mike Bordick hitting exactly .300 in 1992, which at 9 years old blew my mind from a statistical standpoint.

Many times during this era, we went to games, not only to see the A’s, but to watch the other guys too. Griffey, Frank, Clemens, Juan Gone, etc.

But no matter what, we always stayed till the end, and we always cheered loudest when Mark McGwire came up. Because regardless of what was going on in the game, you always held your breath thinking Mark could smash one above the Bud sign in left, over the stairs, and into the concourse.

I also will say this, because I talked about it so often in 06, but the longest HR I ever saw in person was while the coliseum was under construction in 95. It was opening night and Frank Thomas crushed one so far back, it clanged off of what would become the facade above the boxes in left. It hit a 2X4 and echoed louder than any firework show ever did.

Other A’s:
Ricky!!!
Dan Haren
Chavez
Giambi (round 1)
Zito

Other Teams:
Liincecum
George Brett
Bonds ( I know, but its true. )
Paul Molitor
Mo Rivera
Ichiro
Reggie ( saw as an Angel. :( … )
Tim Wakefield
Pedro Martinez

Hurricaine Herb Washington

he was very specialized in what he did and it wa usually late in the game when he was put in to pinch run and steal…. Hot dogs could wait and I was tooo young to be drinking beer… if there is such a thing?

Gary Pettis was the best defensive outfielder I’ve ever seen. Keith Hernandez was head and shoulders the best 1B defender I’ve ever seen. The 1975-76 Reds had the best starting lineup I can remember. The most intimidating pitcher I can remember was JR Richard in 1980…until Randy Johnson in 1998 — both Astros.

I searched this entire thread and the consecutive characters “hatt” never came up. SERIOUSLY?

I loved that guy. He was victimized more than any other A’s player I’ve ever seen by the “lefty strikezone” effect. He got robbed, his eye was worthy of a .390 OBP every year, but the umpires undermined the crap out of that.

His homer in game 20 literally brought me out into the street running around nonsensically with my friends. What an awesome game, even though it was also somewhat horrible.

Rickey, Stew, Miggy, Canseco, McGwire, Lansford, Dave Parker, the Big Three, Eck, Steinbach, Tony Phillips (so versatile and valuable), Scutaro (not quite as valuable as Philips but the A’s missed him almost as much when he left), Dave Henderson (his fakeout on the final out of the ’89 series alone was priceless), Bob Welch (such a master)…

But a special one for me was Alfredo Griffin, because it was explaining how his deke off third with the bases loaded in an extra-innings game helped get the game winning walk that turned my wife into a true baseball fan.

Among opponents, I always loved watching George Brett hit, watching the A’s beat Clemens again and again, and anytime we beat the Yankees or Red Sox.

i know he was on roids, i know he was a Giant (no pun intended) douche, but it’s Bonds…

Hands down the best pitching performance I’ve ever seen in person, and a glimpse of Stew at his most dominant.

“We ran into a buzz saw,” Will Clark later opined.

Ken Griffey Junior, he had/has one of the greatest swings ever. back in the 90’s when he was on the covers of all those video games. He was the man, great combo of power, speed, defense.

Big Mac! I know some of it was steroids but man was he awesome to watch. Sammy Sosa too.

On the A’s it has to been Giambi in 2000 and 2001, he was the freaking man! that cover of SI was awesome.

I didn’t want to taint my thought process.

The only player I can think of where I was on the edge of my seat on every pitch was Eckersley. I can remember sitting in my underwear and tshirt, past my bedtime on a school night, on the floor at the foot of my parents’ bed, neck craned upward toward the TV a few feet away. Tony would call for Eck to come into the game in the ninth (and sometimes earlier!) in some high-pressure situation. I knew Eck would get the save—he had to!—but then again, I knew it wasn’t automatic. I had followed the A’s for a few years, but I hadn’t started really following the A’s like I did around 2002, but this is one of the series of similar moments that stick in my head.

I loved the Rickey ceremony last year, but I didn’t feel it inside my chest like I did the day I watched from the third deck of the Coliseum as Eck got his number 43 retired in 2005. Tears.

He was the first submariner I remember seeing. And man what a delivery motion. He threw the ball from a height LOWER than the top of the mound. Every time they called the pen I hoped Bradford would be the guy coming in. He was darn good, but the entertainment of the unique delivery made it must-watch material.