1972 World Series: First name Fury

The Teams
American League: Oakland Athletics (93-62) - First World Series
National League: Cincinnati Reds (95-59) - Sixth World Series (Won in 1919, 1940)

What Happened
Not many people outside of Oakland had heard of Gene Tenace before the 1972 World Series. The ones that had heard of Oakland's backup catcher/utility player probably didn't know his real first name was Fury (Seriously! Fury Gene Tenace), and they certainly didn't peg him as the potential offensive star of the upcoming series, not with the Big Red Machine in the other dugout. He was an afterthought, a bit player at best.

And then he hit two home runs in Game 1. After hitting only five home runs during the regular season, on top of a .225 average, Tenace homered in his first two at bats of the 1972 World Series. With his unexpected home runs, plus four innings of scoreless relief from Rollie Fingers and Vida Blue, the A's had a surprising Game 1 win in Cincinnati. They won Game 2, too, helped by a sensational ninth-inning catch by Joe Rudi that saved at least one run:


Rudy's catch


After the Reds won Game 3, Tenace struck again. He hit a home run to open the scoring in Game 4, then hit one of Oakland's four straight ninth-inning singles that gave the A's a commanding 3-1 series lead. He did it again in Game 5, hitting a three-run home run in the second inning - his record tying fourth of the series - that put the A's on the verge of the title. Oakland entered the eighth up 4-3, but the Reds tied the game in the eighth, then took the lead on a Pete Rose single in the 9th. Tenace walked to lead off the bottom of the ninth, but pitcher Blue Moon Odom, pinch-running for Tenace, was thrown out at the plate on a popup for the final out.

After a Cincinnati thrashing in Game 6, the series went to Game 7, where Tenace shined again. He didn't hit any home runs this time, but he did have two hits, including the go-ahead double in the sixth. After Fingers escaped a jam in the 8th, the A's held on to win their first championship on the West Coast.

MVP 
Tenace was the obvious choice for MVP, another one of those underdog stories so common in baseball. His four home runs were more than all other World Series batters combined, and they paid off not just in a championship but in the long term. A backup catcher before the 1972 Series, Tenace became a mainstay in the Oakland starting lineup, playing at least 120 games each of the next eight years. He made a name for himself as a low average, high power, high on-base percentage player - he would have fit right in with the "Moneyball" A's. While the series may have turned around his career, he was never able to duplicate his postseason success; his 9 runs batted in in the 1972 Series were almost 2/3 of his career postseason total, and the four home runs were the only four postseason home runs he ever hit.

Scores 
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

Oakland	3	2	0	3	4	1	3
Cincinnati	2	1	1	2	5	8	2

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

9. 1972 - Oakland (A) def. Cincinnati (N) 4-3
Numbers 10-19
Numbers 20-29
Numbers 30-39
Numbers 40-49
Numbers 50-59
Numbers 60-69
Numbers 70-79
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

Game 7s
Simultaneously, I'll rank all the Game 7s. The ones that have appeared in my countdown so far:

3. 1960: Pittsburgh 10, New York (A) 9
5. 1997: Florida 3, Cleveland 2
7. 1946: St. Louis (N) 4, Boston (A) 3
9. 1925: Pittsburgh 9, Washington 7
10. 1926: St. Louis (N) 3, New York (A) 2
11. 1962: New York (A) 1, San Francisco 0
12. 1979: Pittsburgh 4, Baltimore 1
13. 1955: Brooklyn 2, New York (A) 0
14. 1952: New York (A) 4, Brooklyn 2
15. 1971: Pittsburgh 2, Baltimore 1
16. 1940: Cincinnati 2, Detroit 1
17. 1972: Oakland 3, Cincinnati 2
18. 1987: Minnesota 4, St. Louis 2
19. 1958: New York 6, Milwaukee 2
20. 1986: New York (N) 8, Boston 5 
21. 1968: Detroit 4, St. Louis 1
22. 1931: St. Louis (N) 4, Philadelphia (A) 2
23. 1973: Oakland 5, New York (N) 2
24. 2002: Anaheim 4, San Francisco 1
26. 1982: St. Louis 6, Milwaukee 3
28. 1965: Los Angeles (A) 2, Minnesota 0
29. 1964: St. Louis 7, New York (A) 5
30. 1957: Milwaukee 5, New York (A) 0
31. 1967: St. Louis 7, Boston 2
32. 1945: Detroit 9, Chicago (N) 3
33. 1909: Pittsburgh 8, Detroit 0
34. 1934: St. Louis (N) 11, Detroit 0 
35. 1985: Kansas City 11, St. Louis 0
36. 1956: New York (A) 9, Brooklyn 0

1973 World Series: Finley's follies

The Teams
American League: Oakland Athletics (94-68) - Second World Series (Won in 1972)
National League: New York Mets (82-79) - Second World Series (Won in 1969)

What Happened
The 1973 World Series wasn't so much a battle to see who was the best team, but rather one about who was less bad. Sure, the A's were the defending World Series champions, but they didn't exactly set the world on fire defending their championship. With as much time as they spent fighting each other or complaining about team owner Charlie Finley, it's amazing they ended up with a winning record, much less back in the postseason. But they won the AL West, then pushed their issues to the side while the took care of Baltimore to get back to the World Series.

The Mets, meanwhile, were ... well, it's hard to use "mediocre" to describe a National League champion, but that's the best way to describe them. They won only 82 games, the lowest ever for a World Series team. They would have finished fourth in the National League West, but they won the NL East, then beat Cincinnati to advance to the series.

The one thing these two teams had in common was great pitching, and for the most part, that pitching dominated the series. The big exception was Game 2. A four-run sixth gave the Mets a 6-3, which the Athletics cut to 6-4 entering the ninth. Then, with two outs in the 9th, the A's rallied to tie the game. To the 12th, then. With two runners on base, the Mets' Willie Mays, who had shown every one of his 42 years during the season and series, reached down for one more bit of magic, delivering the go-ahead hit. After another single, two straight batters hit balls right at Oakland second baseman Mike Andrews, and he committed an error on both of them. Three more runs came in as a results of the Andrews errors, runs that loomed even bigger when the A's scored once in the bottom of the 12th.

With the series tied at 1-1, Finley was furious. He blamed Andrews for the Game 2 loss. To get his revenge, he forced Andrews to sign a false affidavit saying he was injured so that Finley could replace him on the World Series roster. Outraged, the A's players threatened to boycott the rest of the series if the move were allowed to go through, and Oakland manager Dick Williams resigned, effective at the end of the series. Fortunately, the commissioner's office didn't let the stunt pass, ordering Andrews reinstated.

With all the circus going on, there was still a series to be played. United behind their anger at their owner, the A's won Game 3 in 11 innings to reclaim homefield advantage, then suffered through the wet and cold New York weather for two losses before series headed back to Oakland. From there, the A's great pitchers finally took control. Oakland's Catfish Hunter and Rollie Fingers outdueled Tom Seaver and Tug McGraw to win Game 6, and a four-run third was all Ken Holtzman and Fingers needed for Game 7. They hated each other, they hated their owner, but somehow, the A's were two-time World Champions.

MVP 
Reggie Jackson was a most curious choice for MVP, as he didn't really get going until the final two games. The future Mr. October his his first career World Series home run in that four-run rally in Game 7, so that might have had something to do with it. It really should have been Fingers, who pitched in six of the seven games and only gave up 1 earned run in a team-high 13 innings.

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

New York	1	10 (12)	2	6	2	1	2
Oakland	2	7	3 (11)	1	0	3	5

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

20. 1973 - Oakland (A) def. New York (N) 4-3
21. 2002 - Anaheim (A) def. San Francisco (N) 4-3
22. 1980 - Philadelphia (N) def. Kansas City (A) 4-2
23. 1911 - Philadelphia (A) def. New York (N) 4-2
24. 1915 - Boston (A) def. Philadelphia (N) 4-1
25. 1971 - Pittsburgh (N) def. Baltimore (A) 4-3
26. 1918 - Boston (A) def. Chicago (N) 4-2
27. 1988 - Los Angeles (N) def. Oakland (A) 4-1
28. 1946 - St. Louis (N) def. Boston (A) 4-3
29. 1925 - Pittsburgh (N) def. Washington (A) 4-3
Numbers 30-39
Numbers 40-49
Numbers 50-59
Numbers 60-69
Numbers 70-79
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

Game 7s
Simultaneously, I'll rank all the Game 7s. The ones that have appeared in my countdown so far:

7. 1946: St. Louis (N) 4, Boston (A) 3
9. 1925: Pittsburgh 9, Washington 7
12. 1979: Pittsburgh 4, Baltimore 1
13. 1955: Brooklyn 2, New York (A) 0
15. 1971: Pittsburgh 2, Baltimore 1
16. 1940: Cincinnati 2, Detroit 1
18. 1987: Minnesota 4, St. Louis 2
19. 1958: New York 6, Milwaukee 2
21. 1968: Detroit 4, St. Louis 1
22. 1931: St. Louis (N) 4, Philadelphia (A) 2
23. 1973: Oakland 5, New York (N) 2
24. 2002: Anaheim 4, San Francisco 1
26. 1982: St. Louis 6, Milwaukee 3
28. 1965: Los Angeles (A) 2, Minnesota 0
29. 1964: St. Louis 7, New York (A) 5
30. 1957: Milwaukee 5, New York (A) 0
31. 1967: St. Louis 7, Boston 2
32. 1945: Detroit 9, Chicago (N) 3
33. 1909: Pittsburgh 8, Detroit 0
34. 1934: St. Louis (N) 11, Detroit 0 
36. 1985: Kansas City 11, St. Louis 0

1974 World Series: Triple Crown

The Teams
American League: Oakland Athletics (90-72) - Third World Series (won in 1972, 1973)
National League: Los Angeles Dodgers (102-60) - Fifth World Series (won in 1959, 1963, 1965)

What Happened
One of the most often-repeated concepts in sports is that a team has to have good chemistry to win. Most teams have the talent to win, but it's not until you have a team full of players who are truly pulling for each other that you can take that championship step. Without good team chemistry, you just have a team wasting its potential.

The Oakland A's of the 1970s did not have good chemistry. They hated each other, getting into locker room fights as often as possible, including in the day before the 1974 World Series started. They hated their manager, Alvin Dark, a man who didn't hide is devout religious beliefs or his apparent racism. But most of all, they hated their penny-pinching, player-undermining owner, Charlie Finley.

Maybe it was part of Finley's plan all along - the easiest way to get such differing personalities to play together was to unite them behind a common enemy - or maybe it was just dumb luck, but Oakland's lack of chemistry worked to perfection. The A's entered the 1974 World Series trying to something that no team outside the Bronx had ever done: win three straight World Championships.

They had gotten there with pitching, speed, and clutch power, and despite the constant meddling of their owner. Perhaps the most egregious of Finley's moves was to hire Herb Washington, a former Michigan State track star with no baseball experience, to be a "designated runner." Washington was obviously overwhelmed, getting caught stealing almost as often as he was successful while never batting even once in his Major League career. In fact, Washington was indirectly responsible for Oakland's Game 2 loss in the 1974 series, getting picked off first to kill a ninth-inning rally that allowed the Dodgers to escape with a 3-2 win.

Aside from that, though, the A's showed why they had won two straight titles. Despite have far less talent than the Dodgers, Oakland found a number of ways to win. They scored three times in Game 1 on a home run, a suicide squeeze, and an error. They scored early in Game 3, leading 3-0 after 4, then let their Hall of Fame pitchers Catfish Hunter and Rollie Fingers finish the job. And they got the big inning in Game 4, scoring 4 runs in the sixth inning to erase a 2-1 deficit.

Finally, with a chance to clinch the series in Game 5, Oakland's crowd got in on the act. Earlier in the series, Los Angeles' Bill Buckner had said that there were only two or three Oakland players who could crack the Dodgers' lineup. Though Buckner was probably right, his comment still worked Oakland fans up into a frenzy, and it boiled over in the seventh inning. The game was delayed for several minutes as the field was cleared of the debris Oakland fans were throwing at Buckner in left field. Once that was taken care of, Joe Rudi hit the first pitch after play resumed into those very fans in left field, giving Oakland a 3-2 lead. Fingers came in to shut the door, and the team that hated each other piled on top of one another, celebrating the most improbable three-peat in baseball history.

Defining Game
If you wanted a snapshot of how the A's were able to win three straight championships, look no further than Game 1. They opened the scoring with a home run by Reggie Jackson, their Hall-of-Fame slugger who had already developed a sense of the moment. They got their second run on a suicide squeeze by their speedy shortstop, Bert Campaneris, showing that when precise execution was required, they rarely failed. They scored their third run after a Dodger error, showing their knack for making their opponents pay for every mistake. And while all this was happening, they leaned on their great pitchers, with closer Fingers pitching four innings of relief, then getting relieved himself by ace starter Hunter for the final out. They were powerful and clutch, they did the little things right, they were opportunistic, and they were flexible. It all added up to a Triple Crown of titles.


MVP
Some people see Fingers' selection as MVP as more of a lifetime achievement award for his great postseasons over the previous three seasons, but he did pitch in four of the five games, throwing nine innings in those four games, and getting a win and two saves. Also, every time he entered the game, the A's knew it was over, which has to count for something.

Random Fact
This was the first World Series played entirely in California.

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

Oakland	3	2	3	5	3
Los Angeles	2	3	2	2	2

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

56. 1974 - Oakland (A) def. Los Angeles (N) 4-1
57. 1955 - Brooklyn (N) def. New York (A) 4-3
58. 1979 - Pittsburgh (N) def. Baltimore (A) 4-3
59. 1987 - Minnesota (A) def. St. Louis (N) 4-3
Numbers 60-69
Numbers 70-79
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107