Here is what I would call it when NY pitcher Matlack tried to pick-off Campy at 1st base in Game 1..... "Matlack is destined to gun down Campaneris. He's watching his every move as Campy leads, and Matlack sets. And Matlack faces first, throws, as Campy dashes toward second but Milner has to jump high for the ball to avoid a very costly error, blocking the ball from going to the dugout--gutsy block but regrettably, this leads Campy to steal second base unchallenged! You hear the Oakland rally trumpets go off again in the stands. The Oakland fans go wild!" The color commentator would say..... "I think what happened is that Matlack, on the pick-off throw attempt, did that overhand but on the release, allowed the ball trajectory to go at an upward angle to a point 3 feet or so over Milner's head. Milner had to jump to keep the ball inside fair territory but cannot hold on to the ball, making it impossible to get Campy out on his steal. Next time, Milner needs to angle down MORE on the overhand so what happened to Matlack here never happens again."
I absolutely love these classic games. 😍 One statistic that blew me away....@ the 1:10 mark, Jim "Catfish" Hunter's 1974 Pitching Statistics are on the screen. 25 wins 12 losses. Thats 37 decisions. Back when Pitchers used to actually pitch all 9 innings of the game. Not 5 or 6 innings. When pitch counts didn't determine when a pitcher left the game. His performance did. There were pitchers who had 15-20 complete games. Nowadays your lucky if an entire team can get 2 or 3.
I just read Jason Turbow's book called "Dynastic, bombastic, fantastic" It's all about Crazy Charley and the A's with primary focus on the three WS wins 72,73,74. The Reds and the Dodgers both say they were better teams. Nah. Not when you have a 7 game series!! The Dodgers, primarily Buckner and Joe Ferguson, said the "better team lost". They got waxed 4-1. That's an outright asswhippin. The amazing thing to me was the A's never drew more than 750k fans in any of their championship seasons. Most games played to 7-9k fans only. Wow. It's amazing looking at some of the pictures in the book seeing Reggie or Catfish with nothing but empty seats behind them. If you like BB (not today's lame baseball) this book is excellent
The As were a dynasty as WS champs 72, 73. and 74. They had iconic "mustache swag" as well. When baseball was America's sport. No crazy salaries from free agency yet.
A's probably win 5 WS in a row if not for free agency. Vida Blue was lights out in 71 the year the Orioles beat them in the playoffs. 17 wins at the A/S break, still the record I think. No one, Feller, Koufax, Johnson not even Cy Young ever had 17 wins at the all star break. You will never see that again.
I’m so glad I got to see him at the top of his game. Winning the CYA and MVP in ‘71 was incredible. I even named my youngest son after him! (Vida means life in Spanish.)
Worked at the park today Kira and Amelia are the best in the biz. Kira is probably amongst the Bay Area sports teams the best in game announcer around and Amelia has done such an incredible job that she's not only the PA voice at the A's but at Bay FC and the San Jose Barracuda as well.
