MLB.com digs back into its huge video vault to uncover classic games you’ve loved, forgotten, or perhaps first discovered. Check out these and many, many more moments on the MLB Vault YouTube page.
October 7, 1989: Canseco sends one to Toronto’s fifth deck
Though Rickey Henderson was in the middle of a monster postseason run to win the 1989 American League Championship Series MVP award, it was Jose Canseco who produced the series’ most memorable moment. In Game 4, Canseco kicked left-handed Mike Flanagan in the third inning and destroyed a fastball that landed high on the fifth deck of the SkyDome. Although the ball’s estimated distance was measured at 480 feet, many believe the actual number is somewhere in the 500s. Regardless, the majestic Homer helped the A’s win that day in a year that ended with winning a World Series title.
April 29, 2013: Moss dramatically finishes 19-inning marathon
After the Angels, 7-2, in the middle of the eighth inning, the A’s stormed back late to tie the game in the ninth on Yoenis Céspedes’ two-out single. Then came the war of attrition. In a game where the A’s and the Angels together tossed 16 pitchers and nearly 600 throws, it was pitch # 598 that ended it when Brandon Moss made an 83 mph change from Barry Enright to the Coliseum’s right grandstand for a Walk-off two-run blast in the 19th inning. The six-hour and 32-minute competition – the longest game in A’s history – left both clubs drained. Moss, who was sitting in the A’s clubhouse for a post-game interview at around 2 a.m. PT, could barely muster the energy to form a full sentence at the time. “That was a crazy game,” said Moss. “And I’m glad it’s over.”
June 29, 2003: Byrne’s hits for the cycle
Eric Byrnes grew up as a die-hard Giants fan who often attended candlestick park games as a child. But since he was drafted by Cross-Bay rivals A in 1998, it has seemed his mission to torment the team he once loved. He never did that more than when he went to Oracle Park (then known as Pac Bell Park) and hit for the cycle, becoming the 16th player in A history and the fifth in the Oakland era. Byrnes saved the toughest stage of the cycle with a 5-2 victory in the end. He went singles, doubles and home runs in his first three at-bats. After another double in the seventh inning, Byrnes had one last chance in the ninth inning, throwing a flat liner into midfield that bounced past Giants outfielder Carlos Valderrama, allowing Byrnes to easily run to third base for the historic hit.
October 15, 1972: Rudi’s amazing catch saves A’s in 1972 World Series Game 2
After scooping a surprise win over the Big Red Machine in Game 1, the A’s were only a short distance from taking a commanding lead in the 1972 World Series. But ace Catfish Hunter was tiring in ninth place, and the Reds seemed poised to crack Oakland’s 2-0 lead when Tony Perez took the lead with a singles and Denis Menke drove a long flyball to the left wall of the field.
Luckily for Hunter, Menke’s ball died near the end of its trajectory, and outfielder Joe Rudi was there to make a sortie against the wall. The Reds eventually made one run against Hunter, but Rudis Fang saved a second as the A took a huge Game 2 win en route to their first of three consecutive World Series championships.
September 2, 1996: Herrera dives upside down and breaks up the Yanks’ no-no
The Yankees had everything set up (a brilliant seven-inning start by David Cone, closer to Mariano Rivera on the hill, and a hit in the hole for Derek Jeter) for a combined no-hitter bid at the Oakland Coliseum, but Jose Herrera gave it all Exertion on his body to make sure this didn’t happen. With the Yanks two outs from the story, Herrera sped down the line and slid headlong into first base to beat Jeter’s throw for an infield single, something A fans did in a 5-0 win in New York to cheer.
In fact, Herrera really spoiled an act as this was Cone’s first start after removing an aneurysm from his flapping arm four months earlier.
May 18, 2015: Fuld goes extra, climbs Tal’s Hill to catch
The old Tal’s Hill feature at Minute Maid Park could make life difficult for the midfielders, but it could also make them heroes if they managed to conquer them. Sam Fuld became the latter as he climbed the slopes and sno-coned George Springer’s bang just before hitting the wall and took a big eighth inning for the A’s in the 2-1 win over the Astros. It would have been a game-defining homer for Springer in almost any other stadium, but on the other hand, Fuld had to go the extra mile to see the ball in his glove.
August 24, 1988: Canseco rises to the upper deck at Yankee Stadium
Jose Canseco made baseball look pretty straightforward on its way into its first 40-40 season in MLB history by swiping bases and hitting massive homers like this one. Canseco casually snapped that pitch from Yankees Righty Scott Nielsen to the paneling of the third deck in the left field at the old Yankee Stadium and drew an audible gasp from the Bronx believers. As a member of the Americans, Canseco would bring a very similar homer to almost the same spot 12 years later.
Jul 5, 1993: Rickey tops both DH games with Homers
Rickey Henderson, the undisputed biggest lead-off hitter in the MLB, of course has the most lead-off homers of any player in history at 81. Two of these Kickstarter came on the same day as Henderson saw Cleveland double when he double-headed the first leg with a homer to leave Paul Abbott and then went deep to leave Mark Clark again to start Game 2.
Henderson was only the second player in MLB history, after Red Sox bat Harry Hooper in 1913, to lead both legs of a double headed player with a home run. Brady Anderson (1999) and Ronald Acuña Jr. (2018) have joined this club since.
September 29, 2001: Miggy’s Slam ends the cycle
The 2001 Mariners set a record in the Major League with 116 regular season wins, but no team played harder that year than the A’s, who won 102 of their own games. Oakland won nine of their 19 matchups against Seattle, one of which came over a huge night from shortstop Miguel Tejada.
Tejada, who would win the AL MVP Award the following year, hit a standup triple to start this game, followed by a single and a double. Then he ended a cycle with a grand slam in the seventh game, making it only the seventh player to smash a slam and record a cycle in the same game (Jason Kubel and Bengie Molina have achieved that feat since then, too).
October 18, 1972: Fingers feigns intentional BB, K’s Bench in the World Series
Facing Johnny Bench and the Big Red Machine meant pulling out all the stops, and A’s relief ace Rollie Fingers and manager Dick Williams did just that in Game 3 of the 1972 World Series : 0 ball game came on to Vida Blue’s relief, so Williams jogged to the hill with first base open and appeared to be telling Fingers to step onto the mighty bench.
But those were not Williams’ actual instructions; instead, he, Fingers, and the catcher, Gene Tenace, have set up a fake deliberate walk. Tenace got up with an outstretched arm to do a free pass, then jumped back to get a beautiful slider on the outside corner of Fingers to catch Bench off guard.
“When I see Johnny Bench, I never mention it,” Fingers said in 2011, “but usually he brings it up and says, ‘That was the most embarrassing moment of my life.'”
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