Colorful Characters

Vida Blue said he's not a "bling guy," so he doesn't believe in wearing gaudy jewelry. But every once in a while, when he is hanging out with other athletes who show off their championship rings, he gets the urge to reminisce about his.

All three of them.

Just as it would be wrong for a parent for select a favorite child, it wouldn't be right to pick one of the A's World Series titles in 1972, '73 and '74 as the top moment in the franchise's 40 years in Oakland.

What made them so special was that there were three in a row, a feat that has been matched only once in the past 55 years.

"I used to take all of that stuff for granted, that we were going to win championships," Blue said. "But to have done it three years in a row is pretty cool. That is so special to me now. To have not just gone to the World Series three years in a row, but to have won it. Deep down in my heart, I know that's something special I was part of."

The A's were still in their relative infancy on the West Coast, having just moved in 1968 from Kansas City, where they were perennial losers.

Thanks to the emergence of sluggers Reggie Jackson and Sal Bando and base-stealing Bert Campaneris, along with pitchers Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers and Blue, the A's began to win. They made the playoffs in 1971, and started their title run a year later.

"We just had a bunch of great ballplayers," Fingers said. "We had a strong pitching staff and we all played together for seven, eight, nine years in a row. We had basically the same lineup."

Blue said the players were united by "proving to Mr. Finley that we were worthy of the money we were making. We all went through issues with him, about contracts with him, and that might have been our common bond."

Other than winning on the field, the team was known for its colorful personalities and their frequent clashes. Fingers said the stories have not been exaggerated.

"We had our scuffles in the clubhouse," Fingers said. "We had a lot of guys with short fuses. It was like buying a ticket to see who would fight that day. But you'd be fighting that day and out to dinner that night."

A big score

Someone wins the World Series every year. Every few decades a team even wins three in a row, as the Yankees did from 1998-2000, matching the A's accomplishment of '72-'74.

The 2002 A's did something that happens once in a lifetime, if that. They won 20 consecutive games, the longest streak since the 1935 Cubs won 21 in a row.

"I don't know if I'll ever see anything like that in baseball," said Mark Ellis, who was a rookie during the streak. "Winning a World Series would be special, but that's probably the coolest thing I've ever seen."

The A's were 68-51, in third place, after they lost on Aug. 12. For the next three weeks, they could do no wrong. During the 20-game streak, they hit a collective .299 with 30 homers. Their pitchers compiled a 2.65 earned-run average and held opponents to a .221 batting average.

"We were so confident at the time, it seemed like we'd score three runs in the first every game and our pitchers were on fire," Ellis said. "It was amazing."

The final three games of the streak provided a remarkable crescendo. Miguel Tejada likely sealed the MVP award for himself by winning games 18 and 19. He hit a three-run homer to give the A's a come-from-behind victory and the next afternoon he drove a tie-breaking single up the middle.

"It was almost surreal," said general manager Billy Beane. "The stars were aligned."

On the night of Sept. 4, the A's played one of the most dramatic games in their Oakland history. They took a 11-0 lead in the third inning, but watched as the Royals scored five runs in the fourth, five in the eighth and one in the ninth to tie.

Just when the air had come out of the Coliseum, Scott Hatteberg delivered the signature moment in his A's career, coming off the bench to hit a game-winning homer.

"When Scotty hit the homer, I don't know if it was relief or what, you could almost feel the tank was going to be empty after that," said Beane, whose team then took a day off before losing in Minnesota.

The Greatest

When Rickey Henderson stole the 939th base of his career, it became one of his defining moments, not only for what he did but for the way he did it.

Henderson was a multi-talented offensive player, but stealing bases was his forte. On May 1, 1991, Henderson bolted for third and slid in safely with his famous belly flop, breaking Lou Brock's major-league record for stolen bases.

Henderson held the bag over his head. He then took a microphone and said: "Lou Brock was the symbol of great base stealing, but today I am the greatest of all time."

Henderson may have meant to say "greatest base-stealer of all time," but the phrase is often cited as an example of Henderson's ego.

Nonetheless, there is no doubt that Henderson became one of the game's most dynamic offensive forces from the moment his career in Oakland began. He broke the single-season and career stolen base records while in an A's uniform. He also holds the major-league record for runs.

General manager Billy Beane, a former teammate of Henderson, said nothing demonstrated his greatness more than 1989, when Henderson was traded back to the A's from the Yankees and helped the team to a World Series title.

"The whole postseason was Rickey at his best," Beane said. "He was a leadoff man putting a team on his shoulders, which is hard to do. He turned what was a good team into a great team. He was stealing bases, hitting home runs, creating anxiety (for the opponents) before the games. For that six-week period from September to the end of October, that was one of the best teams in the last 25 years, and Rickey was motor and engine."

Feeling Blue

Rollie Fingers said in 1971 he used to go down to the bullpen before A's games to watch 21-year-old Vida Blue warm up.

"Then I'd walk back to the dugout and say 'game's over, guys,' " the Hall of Famer closer recalled. "He was a day off for me. He was unbelievable that year."

Blue's 1971 season was phenomenal on several levels. He was the first player to win the Cy Young and the MVP in the same season, and he did it all in his first full big-league season.

Blue was 24-8 with a 1.82 earned-run average. He pitched 312 innings and completed 24 games, with eight shutouts.

"I was in the zone," Blue said. "It's a dream season that you wish every athlete could experience, whether you are male or female or amateur or professional."

As Blue pitched, the nation became wrapped up in following this phenom's progress.

"You have this kid from Mansfield, La., in this big old fish bowl who is the talk of the whole nation," Blue said "It was crazy, man. I didn't even realize I threw 300 innings till I looked at my baseball card in 1972."

New beginning

The A's 40 years in Oakland have been marked by long, alternating cycles of winning and losing, and the latest winning cycle began in 2000, when the A's locked up a division title on the final day of the season.

Beane, architect of that team, said that was "the most intense, exhilarating" moment of his life with the A's.

"It sounds weird, because I was here when we won the World Series in '89, but this was the start of something good," Beane said. "With a young team, you knew if we could just win once, it would have a big impact going forward. From '93 up until that moment, we had been floundering and not really going anywhere."

The A's gave a first hint at their future success in 1999, when Eric Chavez, Miguel Tejada and Tim Hudson were beginning to establish themselves alongside Jason Giambi. The following year Mark Mulder and Barry Zito joined the team and the Big Three was in place.

The A's entered the final weekend of the season trailing the Mariners by a half-game, with the specter of a makeup game at Tampa Bay looming if necessary.

The A's won the first two games against the Rangers. On the final day of the season, Hudson pitched eight scoreless innings, but the A's didn't get him a run until Ramon Hernandez's RBI single in the seventh. Randy Velarde and Olmedo Saenz hit solo homers in the eighth and then closer Jason Isringhausen finished it off.

With the potential tying run at the plate, Isringhausen struck out Frank Catalanotto looking a big looping curve ball, punching the A's ticket to their first of four consecutive postseasons.

Said Beane: "From losing 97 games in '97 to getting to that moment was kind of the apex."

You can reach Staff Writer Jeff Fletcher at 521-5489 or jeff.fletcher@pressdemocrat.com.