Some pieces missing in A's anniversary team

September 1, 10:09 PMSF Baseball ExaminerDavid Bush

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Rollie Fingers made the Hall, not this team. 

 As part of their 40^th anniversary season in Oakand, the A’s had their fans choose an All-Time team. The voters didn’t do a bad job, although I quibble with a few of the choices.

But when the team gathers to be honored on Sept. 21 at the Coliseum, several notable pieces of A’s history will be missing. That problem is more with the process than the execution.

  In their four West Coast decades the A’s have had seven Most Valuable Player Award winners. Three of those are not on the team. The same is true for two of the five Cy Young Award winners. And the selectors couldn’t find room for a pitcher who earned his way into the Hall of Fame at least partially for what he did in Oakland.  Those honors are so significant any sort of commemoration that ignores them loses credibility.

  Getting the Cy Young winners recognized would have been easy enough. The 40-year team has only three starting pitchers, Vida Blue, Catfish Hunter (both CYA winners) and Dave Stewart, who definitely should be there. But why did whoever came up with this idea allow for just three starting pitchers? Why not five, which seems to make sense since during most of the time in Oakland five was the operative number? This way Bob Welch and Barry Zito, each of whom has a Cy Young, could fill out the mythical rotation. Of course, I don’t know how the voting went, and Mudcat Grant, Mike Moore, Tim Hudson or Mark Mulder might have outpolled Welch and/or Zito.

   The MVPs are a little more complicated. One of my disagreements with the voters would take care of part of the problem. They picked Bert Campaneris at shortstop. Not a bad choice, but I would have voted for Miguel Tejada, who was MVP in 2002.

   Jason Giambi, the 2000 MVP is also not on the team. First base was won by Mark McGwire, whose tenure at Oakland was almost as illustrious and five years longer than Giambi’s. Although he was Rookie of the Year, an All-Star and a Gold Glove winner in Oakland, McGwire’s most spectacular achievement came after he left town when he broke the single season home run record. 

   The other passed over MVP is Jose Canseco, and we don’t need to elaborate why. Still, I might have put him in the outfield ahead of Joe Rudi. This isn’t about class or character, both of which Rudi has in abundance. But remember Canseco was at one point the best player in the game. Just because he’s a bit of a sleaze doesn’t mean you can pretend he never happened.

   And perhaps the greatest injustice of all is Rollie Fingers not on the team. If he’s good enough for Cooperstown he should be good enough for Oakland. Dennis Eckersley, another Hall of Famer, is the closer on the anniversary squad and rightly so. But maybe the all-time team should just include two or three “relief pitchers’’ and forget calling anyone the closer.

   As for the rest of the team, Reggie Jackson and Rickey Henderson were easy choices. Terry Steinbach was probably the best pick at catcher, although Gene Tenace was a better hitter and Ray Fosse a better receiver. You could also make an argument for Eric Chavez or Sal Bando over Carney Lansford at third base, Dick Green or Tony Phillips over Mark Ellis at second and Dave Parker over Dave Kingman at DH.

    Tony La Russa was voted as manager, and he will probably be in Cooperstown one day. But Dick Williams already is, and he won two world titles with the A’s to La Russa’s one and he had to put up with Charlie Finley. My vote would be for Skipper Dick.

     Nostalgia is fun, isn’t it?

A’s 40^th Anniversary Team

C                  Terry Steinbach

1B                 Mark McGwire

2B                 Mark Ellis

3B                  Carney Lansford

SS                  Campy Campaneris

OF                   Joe Rudi

OF                  Reggie Jackson

OF                  Rickey Henderson

SP                  Jim (Catfish) Hunter

SP                   Dave Stewart

SP                   Vida Blue

Closer             Dennis Eckersley

DH                   Dave Kingman

Manager         Tony La Russa