1989 World Series

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The 1989 World Series was played between the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants, and is best remembered for the Loma Prieta earthquake which occurred on October 17 at the beginning of Game 3 of the series and which caused a 10-day disruption in play. The Series ran from October 15 through October 28, with the A's sweeping the Giants. It is also known as the "Earthquake Series", "Bay Bridge Series", and "The Battle of the Bay".

Managers: Tony LaRussa (Oakland), Roger Craig (San Francisco)

Umpires: Rich Garcia (AL), Paul Runge (NL), Al Clark (AL), Dutch Rennert (NL), Vic Voltaggio (AL), Eric Gregg (NL)

Series MVP: Dave Stewart (Oakland)

Television: ABC (Al Michaels, Tim McCarver and Jim Palmer announcing)

Radio: CBS Radio Network (Jack Buck, Johnny Bench and John Rooney announcing) - this was the last World Series that Jack Buck would broadcast on radio. He would next call the following two World Series on television for CBS.

1 Game 1
2 Game 2
3 Game 3
4 Game 4
5 Trivia
6 Quotes of the Series
7 External links

[edit] Game 1

The first game of the 1989 World Series was played on October 14 at the Oakland Coliseum, the home field of the Oakland Athletics.

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
San Francisco	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	1
Oakland	0	3	1	1	0	0	0	0	X	5	11	1
W: Dave Stewart (1-0) L: Scott Garrelts (0-1)

[edit] Game 2

Game 2 took place on October 15 at the Oakland Coliseum.

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
San Francisco	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	4	0
Oakland	1	0	0	4	0	0	0	0	X	5	7	0
W: Mike Moore (1-0) L: Rick Reuschel (0-1)

[edit] Game 3

The graphic that ABC Sports put up in the immediate aftermath of the Loma Prieta earthquake.

For the third game of the Series, the teams traveled to the San Francisco Giants' Candlestick Park. The game was delayed until October 27, or about ten days, due to the Loma Prieta earthquake.

See also: Al Michaels#1989 World Series and Fay Vincent#1989 World Series

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Oakland	2	0	0	2	4	1	0	4	0	13	14	0
San Francisco	0	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	4	7	10	3
W: Dave Stewart (2-0) L: Scott Garrelts (0-2)

[edit] Game 4

The final game of the 1989 World Series took place on October 28 at Candlestick Park.

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Oakland	1	3	0	0	3	1	0	1	0	9	12	0
San Francisco	0	0	0	0	0	2	4	0	0	6	9	0
W: Mike Moore (2-0) L: Don Robinson (0-1) S:Dennis Eckersley

[edit] Trivia

This was the first World Series sweep since 1976.
Out of respect for the earthquake victims, the Athletics weren't allowed to celebrate their World Series victory with champagne.
Al Michaels, who spent three years in San Francisco as an announcer for the Giants, was nominated for an Emmy Award for news broadcasting after giving an eye witness account of the aftermath of the earthquake at Candlestick Park.
According to umpire Vic Voltaggio, he distinctively remembers seeing a white wall waving either during or immediately after the earthquake. Meanwhile, fellow umpire Al Clark was still in the locker room preparing to go to work. Apparently, Clark ran out to the field with just his underwear on when the earthquake hit.
The ten day delay in-between Games 2 and 3 was the longest delay in World Series history. The World Series was originally supposed to resume after a five day delay, but since the transmission links weren't properly connected yet, the wait went on for another five days.
This would be the last World Series that the American Broadcasting Company would televise from start to finish. The television rights would move exclusively (ABC had partnered with NBC since 1976 up until the end of the 1989 season) to CBS the following year. ABC would next televise a World Series in 1995 but only broadcast Games 1, 4, and 5 (the other games were covered by NBC).
ABC's actual opening for the October 17 telecast (leading up to Al Michaels informing the viewers of the earthquake) was used at the beginning of a 1990 television movie (documenting the Loma Prieta earthquake) called After Shock.[1]
At the time, October 28 was the latest end date for a World Series, even though the series only lasted the minimum four games. (This record was tied in 1995, and broken by the terrorism-delayed 2001 World Series which ran from October 27 through November 4.)
Giants catcher Bill Bathe became the fifth National League player in World Series history to hit a home run in his very first at-bat. According to Bathe's teammate Matt Williams, he noticed Bathe wobbling when the earthquake started. Apparently, Bathe was looking in the stands to search for his family.
This was the first World Series that Fay Vincent presided over as commissioner. Vincent had only been in office for over a month after the sudden death of A. Bartlett Giamatti. The black armbands that the Athletics and Giants wore were in memory of the fallen commissioner. The official World Series balls even had Giamatti's signature on them.
According to Fay Vincent, he had already made the decision to postpone Game 3 without telling anybody first. As a result, the umpires filed a form of protest of Vincent's decision.
When Athletics were advised to go back to Oakland after Game 3 was postponed, they had to travel through San Jose. While it would normally take around 30 minutes to travel from Oakland to San Francisco, it took the A's around two hours to get back to Oakland.
According to Tim McCarver, when the earthquake hit, he and his broadcasting partners Al Michaels and Jim Palmer immediately grabbed a hold of what they preceived to be the armrests. In reality, the announcers were clutching on each others' thighs and they were left with bruises the next day. Years later, Al Michaels would boldly admit his strong belief that had the earthquake lasted much longer than 15 seconds, he would've gotten killed.
Shortly after the earthquake, José Canseco and his wife Esther, were spotted filling up their car at a self-service gas station. The catch was that José was still in his full Oakland Athletics visiting uniform while at the gas station.
ESPN's Peter Gammons and Oakland Athletics pitcher Bob Welch were walking by the Marina Middle School in order to get a residency pass. While they were walking, they saw a slightly unshaven man with a white wind-breaker waiting in line for his pass. The man turned out to be Joe DiMaggio.
In the CBS Radio Network booth, that was right next to the ABC Sports television booth, announcers Jack Buck, Johnny Bench, and John Rooney bolted as soon as the earthquake started. This was in sharp contrast to ABC's Al Michaels, Jim Palmer, and Tim McCarver, who all seemed to maintain their composure on camera once a back-up generator restored their power. Bench ran to a spot underneath a steel grate. Buck soon told Bench "If you would have moved that fast when you played, you wouldn't have hit into so many double plays."
Fay Vincent accused San Francisco mayor Art Agnos of being difficult to work with. Agnos wanted to wait a month before resuming the World Series. Vincent responded by telling Agnos a month long delay wasn't acceptable and that the World Series might consider moving to another location.
Following the earthquake, ABC went with a rerun of The Wonder Years for about 15 minutes before returning.

[edit] Quotes of the Series

I'll tell you what, we're having an earth-- - ABC Sports play-by-play commentator Al Michaels, whose sentence was cut off to the television audience due to the loss of power during the earthquake.

Well folks, that's the greatest open in the history of television. Bar none! - Al Michaels broadcasting after the earthquake and there is no video.

The A's are trying to sweep, but the Giants haven't made life easy for them tonight. To the right side, that's steered by Phillips...flips to Eckersley...yes!!! He's there in time and the A's are the World Champions! - Al Michaels calling the final out of Game 4

I think we may have just won the most historic world series of all time, with having to deal with the delay and everything. I dont think anybody's had to go through anything like what we did to win and compete for a world championship! - Oakland Athletics manager Tony LaRussa after the series win.