The Swinging A's

 Despite the recent history of the Oakland A's which has now come to an end with them leaving for Las Vegas. I thought I talk about some of the success of the A's during their time in Oakland.

I like to consider myself big into history, whether it be sports, music, etc and recently I got to watch a pretty cool documentary about the Swinging A's that was produced by the MLB Network. It was about the team that went three straight in winning the World Series in 1972, 1973 and 1974.

The documentary was narrated by MC Hammer as he was apart of the team during his youth. And I must say, seeing the story about this legendary team, it amazes me how much craziness was happening.

Basically, the story line throughout the documentary was while the players were dominate on the field, off the field, things were incredibly intense with fights with each other and especially with their owner Chuck Finley who flat out just refused to pay his players despite the simple fact that they were completely dominating baseball.

In fact, Finley was known for plenty of over the top stuff like having the baseballs be orange, a robotic rabbit that would bring new baseballs to the Umpire, hiring MC Hammer then known by his real name Stanley Burrell as an executive to the ball club even though he was a teenager and really he was only there to spy on the players and finally, Finley offered his players 300 dollars for growing a moustache.

Another thing that I found quite interesting about Finley was through the first ten years of his time as owner of the A's, he had ten different managers. How on Earth can anyone run a baseball with a new manager every year, that was crazy to me.

What I found amazing about watching the Swinging A's movie was how much talent they had on that roster. Four of those guys are in the Hall of Fame, such players like Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers, Reggie Jackson and Dick Williams. Unfortunately only Williams and Fingers have the A's logo on their respective plaques.

But there were other great players on this dynasty run, people like Joe Rudi, Ken Holtzman, Gene Tenace, Sal Bando and Vida Blue.

Even more interesting, was how they would constantly fight one another, but if somebody would mess with them, they would quickly run to their defense. I admired that about them.

Ultimately what killed this dynasty was the birth of free agency. Players being able to jump from one team to another. Of course, Finley tried to get something out of it, but in the end he was forced to sell the team after going through a divorce. 

It was kind of sad really, it kind of made me think. What if? I mean, if these guys would have stayed together how many more titles could they have won? Or if Finley would have paid a core group of players and try and add new players into the mix? Could they have still been a championship ball club? Would they still give the Big Red Machine a run for their money throughout the 1970s? 

Heck! Even Reds' Manager Sparky Anderson had said that the greatest World Series was in 1972 when the Reds lost to A's. Would the Big Red Machine be remembered differently? It certainly is an interesting thought.

What I have found even weirder was the fact that the A's did not draw very well during this dynasty run. Which is weird to me because these guys went three in a row. Like that be some great baseball to watch or maybe I am just naive.

The Swinging A's show be remembered as one of best baseball teams in league history and the players on that team should definitely be remembered as well Charles O'Finley who despite his flaws, he help build this team.

Also you guys if you haven't, should go watch the documentary on the MLB Network. I found it very entertaining to watch. And I think you guys would too.

Until Next Time!

God Bless and Be Safe! 🙏🙏🙏