And Now the Kind of History that Sucks (well, depending who you talk to)

NOTE: Former A's manager Tony La Russa has retired.  Going out the way we all would want to: on top.

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Butler grounded out (second to pitcher)

When Dennis Eckersley secured Tony Phillips' toss to first base, he did more than put the finishing touch on a thoroughly dominant sweep of the San Francisco Giants in the 1989 World Series.

He put an exclamation point on the first 22 years of baseball in Oakland.

Oakland.  The city that Gertrude Stein famously lamented had "no there there."  The city that Missouri senator Stuart Symington claimed was the "luckiest since Hiroshima" after Charlie Finley successfully orchestrated a move to the West Coast following the 1967 season.  The city that Finley tried to leave on several occasions.  The city that Al Davis did leave in 1981.

None of that mattered.  Oakland was now home to four World Series champions in 22 seasons- doubling its nearest competition during that same time span- and the A's were the envy of Major League baseball.

Life was good. 

And then it wasn't. At least where the history books are concerned.  You see, the history books don't mention the regular season very much, unless it's about monumental collapses.  The 1951 Giants.  The 1978 Red Sox.  The 2011 Braves and Red Sox.

In the last 22 seasons, the A's actually posted a better winning percentage (.520) than they did from 1968-89 (.517).  Check that.  They posted a better winning percentage in the regular season.

To many, the true measure of success is determined by the six-month haul.  Crazy things tend to happen over the smaller sample of games that play out in the Fall.  Just ask the Rangers.

The two eras of baseball in Oakland is eerily similar (see chart), although there were four seasons that were shortened by strikes- 1972 (155 games played), 1981 (109), 1994 (114), and 1995 (144). 

Projected over 162 game seasons, only two wins separate the groups. Amazing.

But it is what happens in October that history remembers. Which is unfair, but so is life.

And in that regard, it's not even close.  See chart. PSW stands for playoff series' won.

While the A's of 1968-1989 made the most of eight trips to the playoffs by winning it all in half of those seasons, the 1990-2011 squad squandered opportunity after opportunity. Only twice have they won a post-season series- both in sweeps- and both times they immediately found themselves on the opposite side of the broom.

Two playoff series victories in 22 years.  Hell, the Rangers won three this year alone.  Well, they would have if Nelson Cruz decided to, you know, catch the last out of the World Series.

The A's last appeared in a World Series game in 1990.  Since then, 20 different teams have won a league championship.  19 teams have more PSW's than the A's in the last 22 years.  This makes me sad.

On one hand you can say it really is an unfair game.  Top five teams in PSW's since 1990: Yankees (21), Braves (12), Cardinals (12), Red Sox (9), Phillies (7).

On the other hand, every team but three- Kansas City, Pittsburgh, and Washington- has at least one playoff series win to its name.  As compared to 1968-1989 when the post-season parties were more exclusive.  In that era, only 17 teams won at least one playoff series, topped by the A's with 10.

What's it all mean?  I don't know.  I just like seeing the A's finish first in something.