History of the World Series – 1974
Jim (Catfish) Hunter was on record as saying he would attempt to declare himself a free agent after the Series — which would match the A’s against the Los Angeles Dodgers in baseball’s first all-West Coast classic — unless A’s Owner Charlie Finley paid Hunter the back salary that the four-time 20-game winner contended Finley owed him. Former A’s infielder Mike Andrews announced he was filing a libel-and-slander suit against Finley in the aftermath of Andrews’ “firing” by Finley during the ’73 Series. And Oakland teammates Rollie Fingers and John (Blue Moon) Odom engaged in pre-Series fisticuffs — against each other.
While these A’s may not have been “in sync” off the field, they were together on the diamond. The Dodgers, like the New York Mets and the Cincinnati Reds before them, would find that out once the World Series got underway.
Reggie Jackson, Mr. October, accounted for the first run of the ’74 Series by cracking a second-inning home run off Andy Messersmith in Game 1 at Dodger Stadium. Pitcher Ken Holtzman, whose double in the 1973 Series opener proved crucial, rapped a two-base hit off Messersmith in the fifth inning and eventually scored on Bert Campaneris’ squeeze bunt. Dodger third baseman Ron Cey’s throwing error in the eighth gave Oakland its final run in a 3-2 triumph.
Fingers was the winning pitcher, working 4 1/3 innings in relief of Holtzman and yielding only four hits (although one was a ninth-inning homer by Jim Wynn).
Walter Alston’s Dodgers came back in Game 2, riding Joe Ferguson’s two-run homer in the sixth to a 3-2 victory. In a key ninth inning play, Los Angeles reliever Mike Marshall picked off Herb Washington at a time when Oakland’s “designated runner” represented his club’s potential tying run. Washington, who would play in 105 regular season games in the majors but never bat, was a former Michigan State track star who had been signed by Finley expressly for the purpose of pinch-running. But in his Series debut, Washington was caught off base after replacing Joe Rudi, who had just singled home two runs.
Hunter, with relief help from Fingers, stretched his Series record to 4-0 in Game 3 as Oakland got two unearned runs in the third and went on to victory in yet another 3-2 decision.
The designated-hitter rule would not be used in the Series for two more years, so Holtzman was digging in at the plate again in the fourth game. This time, he nailed Messersmith for a bases-empty home run in the third inning before the Dodgers moved ahead, 2-1, in the fourth on Bill Russell’s two-run triple. Manager Alvin Dark’s A’s went on a four-run spree in the sixth, as pinch-hitter Jim Holt broke a 2-2 deadlock with a two-run single, and the American Leaguers came away with a 5-2 victory.
Game 5 was deadlocked at 2-2 entering the last of the seventh when Dodgers fireman Marshall, coming off a 15-victory season in which he made 106 appearances (a major-league record), served up a home-run pitch to Rudi. In the next inning, Bill Buckner tried to run the Dodgers back into the game, but his hustling effort backfired. Leading off the eighth, Buckner singled to right-center off Fingers and when the ball got past center fielder Bill North, Buckner tried to make it all the way to third base. But perfect throws in a Jackson-to-Dick Green-to-Sal Bando relay nailed the daring baserunner, and for all intents and purposes the Los Angeles Dodgers were dead.
Long live the king. Oakland, after another 3-2 outcome, was king of the baseball world again.
By becoming only the second franchise to win as many as three straight World Series crowns (the New York Yankees, of course, had made the record their special province), the A’s demonstrated that camaraderie — while surely desirable — was no substitute for talent.
