Oakland A’s trivia: 1989 World Series roster

The 2020 MLB season is on hiatus, and there’s no telling when baseball might start again. In the meantime, let’s play some trivia!

While we wait for new Oakland A’s baseball, there are plenty of old games worth watching. For example, if you’re 35 or younger then you’ve never seen the A’s win a championship, which they last did in 1989. Now you’ve got your chance, as NBCS is airing all four games of the A’s sweep over the Giants in the ‘89 Series. They’re showing one each night this week from Mon-Thu, all starting at 8 p.m. PT.

Before we begin watching the old games, though, let’s brush up on the cast of characters. I wasn’t able to find a definitive record of the World Series roster for that year, so the source I’m using is the stadium-giveaway T-shirt from the 25-year reunion ceremony in 2014. It lists the roster and coaches on the back side, and when I asked A’s info manager Mike Selleck he tentatively agreed that it was accurate and complete.

The group is full of memorable names, including three Hall of Famers and a couple more who are probably worthy, plus many more All-Stars. But there are also some more obscure ones, both among the players and the coaching staff, and each of them was part of an iconic moment in franchise history just by being part of the championship squad.

Without further ado, let’s get to it! The question is, how many players and coaches can you name from that 1989 World Series roster? The A’s used the same lineup for each game, plus or minus the DH, so we’re splitting it into three sections for the starters, bench/pen, and coaches. I have constructed a quiz on the website Sporcle to test your knowledge, with the following instructions:

• You can go in any order, with 10 minutes and unlimited guesses to fill 31 spaces (24 players, 7 coaches).
• You only need to type the last names to register the answers.
• However, you do have to spell them right!
• Read the next paragraph about how to not spoil the answers for everyone else in the comments section.

Share your results in the comments, BUT DON’T SPOIL ANYTHING!! There is an option in the comments for ”spoiler text,” which will black out that particular text until the reader puts their mouse over it to reveal it. If you are going to share right/wrong answers, please use the spoiler option. It’s on the row of options like bold, italics, etc., all the way on the right side, in between the option to add a hyperlink and the option to add a smiley face; it looks like a black square.

DON’T BE THAT PERSON WHO SPOILS THE ANSWERS IN THE COMMENTS.

Alrighty, here is the quiz! It’s embedded below, or you can click here to play it on Sporcle’s site.

How did you do? Are there any that you can’t believe you missed?