PROGRAMMING NOTE: NBC Sports California is looking back at the A's 50 Memorable Moments since the franchise relocated to Oakland in 1968. Below are the next two moments you can vote on. Tune into A's Pregame Live tonight at 6:30pm to watch highlights of the two moments. After the A's and Astros conclude, tune into A's Postgame Live to see which moment will move on to the next round!
1. Rickey Henderson traded back to A's in 1989 (Two-time winner -- Defeated Eric Chavez's slides into A's dugout as he makes catch in 2003)
(From 12-year major league veteran Bip Roberts)
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Rickey is Oakland. All of us ballplayers coming through after him, wanted to be like him, and because we saw a young kid from Oakland make it, we all thought we could make it. He meant the world to us.
So in 1989, it was really my first full year in the Majors and I was really thinking about what I could be as a pro player, and you hear that Rickey was traded back to Oakland from New York. And from afar, I'm thinking he's left New York and he's gone back home because we're all from Oakland and anytime something happens to one of us, it happens to all of us. And I was thinking "Wow" New York traded him back to Oakland, I couldn't believe it!
Everywhere that Rickey was traded to, the team went to the World Series, and it seemed like they would win based on him being there, he had something to do with it being the offensive machine that he was
I started thinking about what that would do for the Oakland-East Bay Area, coming back home, he's one of the best players in all of baseball, he's the most exciting lead-off hitter in the game and now he's going back home to a team that's pretty good. I think they're probably going to win a World Series !!!
Oakland Athletics
VS.
2. Jose Canseco's 5th deck home run at the SkyDome in Game 4 of the 1989 ALCS
(From Dave Stewart, who pitched for the A's from 1986 to1992 and in 1995)
It was Game 4 of the ALCS….Mike Flanagan was the pitcher and Josey was the hitter, and when Flanagan threw that pitch and it was hit… The SkyDome which had 55 thousand, maybe even more fans in there… as soon as the ball was hit you could hear a pin drop, that’s how quiet it got.
It was dead-silent…no boos… no cheers….nothing as Josey was rounding the bases.
Eventually he made it to home, came into the dugout, got his congrats and forearm smashes. Then he was sitting next to me, I said, ‘Man, you got all of that one didn’t you?’ and he says ‘No, I didn’t get it all.’ I looked at him and said ‘You gotta be nuts!’ And he had a straight face like he was serious and he said that he didn’t get all of that pitch. That ball was smoked. At that time, it was the furthest ball hit in the SkyDome, it was the furthest one and there was NO DOUBT ABOUT IT! There was no doubt is was going to be fair, no chance of it going foul because that’s how hard it was hit.
I’ve never seen a ball hit that far, even today. I remember Dave Henderson said that the ball was hit so far that we could have put passengers on that ball, that’s how far that ball was hit. It was a No-Doubter, just unbelievable. Without a doubt, it was the single-most amazing feat I saw Josey do.
VOTE HERE: