OAKLAND ATHLETICS
(1988-1990)
NUMBER OF PENNANTS: 3
NUMBER OF CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1
BEST RECORD: (104-58/ 1988)
OMITTED BIOS
Terry
Steinbach
Catcher
Steinbach
was born in New Ulm, Minnesota. A multi-sport star in high school, he was
considering a college career in both baseball and hockey before the Indians
drafted him in 1980. Though he didn’t sign with Cleveland, he began to focus
solely on baseball. He attended the University of Minnesota—the same school
that had sent Paul Molitor and Dave Winfield to the majors. The A’s came
calling in 1983, drafting Steinbach in the ninth round.
Steinbach
topped the .300 mark at the plate twice in four minor league seasons. He began
as a third baseman and was eventually converted to a catcher. The A’s liked
what they saw, calling him up in September of ‘86. He would spend ten full
seasons with the club.
Steinbach
was often overshadowed by the larger personalities around him. In 1988, some
critics claimed that he was a poor choice for the All-Star team. He was so
underappreciated that his name was actually misspelled (“Steinbech”) on his
personalized All-Star bat. He silenced his detractors by homering and getting
named All-Star MVP. “You get to thinking about it yourself,” the modest
backstop told reporters after the game. “I was standing in the on-deck circle
thinking ‘Should I be here?’ And then I hit that home run…” Two more All-Star
selections would follow.
Steinbach
was known for his ability to work with pitchers. According to one source,
opposing moundsmen sometimes watched videos of Steinbach’s games to develop
strategies against certain hitters. Steinbach had a strong, accurate arm,
finishing among the top five in assists seven times and runners caught stealing
on six occasions. He never won a Gold Glove, but gained a reputation among
peers as one of the best receivers in the American League.
A
clutch postseason performer, Steinbach hit .281 in seven series with the A’s.
His finest performance came in the ‘89 Fall Classic against the Giants, when he
collected 7 RBIs in four games. In all, he drove-in 14 runs in the postseason.
During the regular season, he maintained steady batting averages ranging from
.242 to .285. His power numbers increased as his career progressed. Between ‘92
and ‘98, he finished with double digit home run totals every year. In ’96, he
enjoyed his finest offensive campaign, slamming 35 homers while driving-in 100
runs. Before then, his highest long ball total had been 16.
Granted
free agency in ‘96, he spent his last three seasons with the Twins. He turned
down more lucrative offers from several clubs. After suffering through a series
of persistent injuries, he retired after the ‘99 slate. He worked as a spring
training catching instructor for thirteen years. In 2013, he took his first
major league coaching job with the Twins.
Rick
Honeycutt
Pitcher
After
spending the better part of eleven seasons as a starter, Honeycutt accepted one
of the most thankless jobs in baseball—the role of a set-up man. During
Oakland’s three-year World Series run, he got to watch Dennis Eckersley soak up
most of the acclaim while he toiled in relative anonymity.
Honeycutt
attended the University of Tennessee and was the Pirates’ seventeenth round
pick in the ‘76 amateur draft. In August of ‘77, The Pirates sent him to the
Mariners to complete an earlier deal. He spent portions of four seasons in
Seattle, posting earned run averages above the 4.00 mark three times.
During the 1980 campaign, he taped a thumb tack to the
finger of his glove and got caught scuffing balls with it. He was fined and
suspended for ten games. “It was something that came off the top of my head,”
he told reporters guiltily. “A little devil sort of popped up and said ‘why
don’t you try this tonight?’” Honeycutt’s mother was disappointed when she
heard the news and the twenty-six year old left-hander reportedly promised her
he would never do it again.
The
Mariners gave up on him after the 1980 slate, trading him to Texas. He pitched
well in ‘81, going 11-6 with a 3.31 ERA, but his follow-up season left
something to be desired (5-17/ 5.27). In ‘83, he was off to a 14-8 start when
he was traded to L.A. His twenty-five starts qualified him for the AL ERA
title, which he claimed with a mark of 2.42.
Honeycutt
continued his erratic pitching with another dreadful season in ‘87. He notched
a 2-12 record that year before getting shipped to Oakland. Manager Tony LaRussa
helped prolong the left-hander's career by moving him to the bullpen. Honeycutt
enjoyed his most successful run between 1988 and 1990, appearing in 182 games—fifty-four
as a closer. He won 7 decisions and picked up 26 saves. Most of the time, he
worked the middle to late innings before Eckersley was summoned to the mound.
Honeycutt
appeared in eighteen postseason contests for the A’s, gathering 5 holds, a pair
of wins and a save. He yielded no runs in five of seven series. He ended up
with an inflated ERA due mainly to a succession of unsuccessful outings against
the Blue Jays in the ‘89 ALCS. The ‘Jays pounded him for 6 runs in 1.2 innings
of work.
In
September of ‘95, Honeycutt signed with the Yankees. They opted not to renew his
contract the following year and he ended up with the Cardinals. He was the
oldest player in the league during his last season at forty-three years of age.
He might have pitched even longer had his elbow not required surgery in ‘97. He
retired after the season was over.
Honeycutt’s
797 appearances currently rank among the top fifty totals of all time. In the
late-‘80s, he returned to his home town of Chattanooga and opened a large
sporting goods store. He never forgot his roots, making donations and raising
money for various local youth organizations. In 1995, the youth baseball field
he played on as a teenager was named after him. For more than two decades, a
youth benefit golf tournament bearing his name has been held. He was inducted
into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.
Walt
Weiss
Shortstop
Born
in Tuxedo, New York—a small town in Orange County—Weiss attended Suffern High
School and later the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The college
has sent dozens of players to the majors, most notably B.J. Surhoff and Brian
Roberts in recent years. Weiss was the A’s first round pick in 1985. He worked
his way up quickly through the minor league ranks, making his Oakland debut in
July of ‘87. By ‘88, he was the club’s full time shortstop.
Weiss
made a big splash in his first full season, hitting .250 out of the ninth spot
in the order. What impressed sports writers most was his stellar glove work. At
one point in the season, he assembled a fifty-eight game errorless streak. He
received a stirring round of applause when it was finally broken against the
Twins. “That’s the first time I ever got a standing ovation for an error,” he
joked. “I couldn’t tip my hat after making an error.” Weiss was an overwhelming
choice for Rookie of the Year.
During
his fourteen seasons in the majors, Weiss demonstrated little power, going deep
just 25 times. More than half of those long balls came while playing for the
Rockies in homer friendly Coors Field. He became known as a good contact hitter
and a skilled bunter. He was never a reliable batsman in the postseason,
managing a cumulative .190 average in forty-six games.
Even
when he wasn’t hitting, Weiss chipped in with his glove. He finished among the
top five in fielding percentage six times and can be seen in numerous news
photos soaring high in the air to elude sliding runners while making off-balance
throws. He covered a lot of ground at short, compiling a lifetime range factor
of 4.57, which places him among the top one hundred of all time at his
position.
When
Weiss slumped to .212 at the plate in ‘92, the A’s traded him to the Marlins
and replaced him with Mike Bordick. Weiss enjoyed several of his finest
offensive seasons outside of Oakland. He became a more patient hitter,
compiling an on-base percentage of .362 from 1995 through 1998. He spent his
last three seasons with the Braves, retiring after the 2000 campaign. In all,
eight of the squads he played on went to the postseason.
Finished
as a player, Weiss served as special assistant to Rockies GM Dan O’Dowd. He
later coached at the high school level in Denver. Before the 2013 campaign, the
Rockies offered him the manager’s job. He led the club to a 74-88 record, which
wasn’t bad considering that the team was in a rebuilding phase. As of 2016, he
was still at the helm in Colorado.
Mike
Moore
Pitcher
Moore
was born and raised in Oklahoma farm country. To date, he is the only alumnus
from Eakly High School in Carnegie to ascend to the majors. He attended Oral
Roberts University in Tulsa and ended up being the Mariners first round pick in
1981. No one was more surprised than Moore himself. “It’s kind of overwhelming
because I come from a small farm community of about two hundred and fifty
people,” he told reporters. “It’s kind of hard to imagine that out of all the
baseball players in America, I’m the top one picked this year.” The Mariners’
decision had a lot to do with his lively fastball, which had been clocked at ninety-seven
miles per hour. He had an above average sinker in his arsenal as well.
Moore
didn’t get much minor league conditioning. He appeared in a total of just twenty-five
games in the lower ranks between ‘81 and ‘83. He spent a large chunk of time
with the Mariners in that span, accruing an underwhelming 13-22 record with an
ERA above 5.00. He began to show improvement in ‘85, but his pitching went
south again in ‘87 as he led the league in losses and earned runs. By the end
of the ‘88 campaign, the Mariners lost hope in the twenty-eight year old hurler
and cast him adrift.
The
old adage ‘one man’s junk is another man’s treasure’ ended up being applicable
as Moore found instant success in Oakland. The A’s weren’t putting too much
pressure on him. “We look at Mike as someone who can take the ball every five
of six days and pitch seven or eight strong innings,” said GM Sandy Alderson.
“With a good offense and defense behind him, we think he can be a big winner.”
Those words proved to be prophetic as Moore had his best season ever in ’89. He
finished among the top ten in strikeouts, starts and shutouts while posting
career-best numbers in wins (19) and ERA (2.61). He finished third in Cy Young
voting that year.
Moore
would win 13 games the following year and, though his won/loss record was below
.500, he was frequently a victim of poor run support. Despite his penchant for
wildness and vulnerability to the long ball during his career, the
flame-throwing country boy proved he was a big game pitcher during the
postseason. In ‘89 and ‘90, he compiled a 4-1 record in four October series
with a cumulative ERA of 1.88. Moore
broke a ten-year hitless streak by American League pitchers when he doubled in
Game 4 of the ‘89 World Series against the Giants. He had two good starts in
that Series, allowing just 3 runs in 13 innings pitched.
In ‘91
and ‘92, Oakland failed to return to the Fall Classic. Moore kept plugging away
with a 34-20 regular season record. A free agent after the ‘92 slate, he signed
with the Tigers. His numbers declined every year. In 1995, he had the worst
season of his career, leading the league with 15 losses and posting an unwieldy
7.58 ERA. The Tigers released him and he retired.
Todd
Burns
Pitcher
Burns
never led the league in any statistical category. He never captured any awards
or gained wide acclaim while playing in the majors. Few people have even heard
of him. From 1988 through 1990, he was a nameless, faceless hero for the
Athletics.
Burns
was a member of Team USA in ’83 when the squad won a silver medal in the
Intercontinental Cup. He earned first-team All-American honors at Oral Roberts
University, capturing the attention of A’s scouts. A seventh round selection in
the ’84 amateur draft, Burns toiled in the minors until Steve Ontiveros went
down with an elbow injury in May of ‘88. Inserted into the starting rotation,
he won eight of ten decisions. When Oakland clinched the pennant that year, manager
Tony LaRussa made it clear that Burns would only be used as a fill-in or
emergency starter. “I know that and it’s okay,” said the good-natured hurler.
“Anything it takes to win…” Impressed with the rookie’s attitude, LaRussa
commented: “I think we’re seeing the beginning of a good career for that young
man.” LaRussa let Burns face one batter in the ’88 World Series against the
Dodgers. The right-hander was summoned in the top of the ninth with two out and
the A’s trailing, 5-2, in Game 5. He induced a ground out off the bat of
Alfredo Griffin, ending the inning.
Moved
to the bullpen in ‘89, Burns was among the A’s most frequently used pitchers in
a two-year span. He appeared in ninety-three games—two as a starter and thirty-one
as a closer. He notched a 9-8 record with 11 saves and a highly efficient 2.57
ERA. Along the way, he earned the nickname “The Mad Hatter” for his habit of tugging
on the bill of his cap and readjusting it before every pitch.
As
LaRussa gained confidence in his young hurler, he began handing Burns the ball
more often during the postseason. Burns made four World Series appearances in
‘89 and ‘90. He was charged with no runs in three of those outings. Against the
Reds in Game 1 of the ‘90 showcase, he had a shaky fifth inning, yielding 3 of
Cincinnati’s 7 runs. He bounced back in Game 3 with a scoreless effort.
Burns
tested the free agent market after the ‘91 slate and signed a contract with the
Rangers worth $345,000. His career went downhill fast as he compiled a 3-13
record outside of Oakland. Traded to the Cardinals midway through the ‘93
slate, he accrued an unsightly ERA of 6.16 in twenty-four appearances. The
following year, he signed with the Mariners, but never made it out of their
farm system. After his retirement, he established his own baseball school in
Huntsville Alabama.
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