This text is slowly touring by way of the Greatest 50. That’s my listing of historical past’s 50 biggest ballclubs, as ranked by my new e book, Baseball’s Greatest (and Worst) Groups. Immediately’s story focuses on No. 41, the 1972 Oakland Athletics.
Right here’s a fast boilerplate clarification that I’m appending to each story on this sequence:
I compiled the Greatest 50 by analyzing 2,544 major-league groups from 1903 to 2024. These golf equipment have been ranked by their crew scores (TS), that are plotted on a 100-point scale. (A given membership’s all-time percentile is the share of the opposite 2,543 groups that it outperformed.)
See my e book for an evidence of my TS calculations. The e book additionally provides separate breakdowns of the perfect and worst golf equipment for each decade and franchise, complete profiles of the Greatest 50 (together with position-by-position lineups and far more data than you’ll discover on this publication), and related summaries of the ten worst groups of all time.
Now on to in the present day’s profile.
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Group: 1972 Oakland Athletics
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Group rating: 85.619 factors
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All-time rank: 41 of two,544
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All-time percentile: 98.43%
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Season file: 93-62 (.600)
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Season place: First place in American League West
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Last standing: World champion
The Athletics spent 13 dismal seasons in Kansas Metropolis. They completed under .500 yearly from 1955 by way of 1967.
The one constructive improvement was their acquisition of younger expertise. Proprietor Charlie Finley drafted future stars Sal Bando, Vida Blue, Reggie Jackson, and Gene Tenace shortly earlier than shifting the franchise to Oakland in 1968. The pinnacle of the gamers’ union, Marvin Miller, bickered always with Finley, however acknowledged his ability in roster development. “He was, indubitably, the best decide of baseball expertise I ever noticed on the head of a crew,” Miller mentioned.
The younger A’s blossomed in Oakland, locking down first place within the American League West from 1971 to 1975. The ’72 squad raced to an 8.5-game lead by mid-July, frittered it away by late August, then accelerated to 24 victories within the remaining 35 video games. Jackson credited his teammates with “by no means worrying, by no means fussing” in regards to the divisional race. “We knew we might do it once we needed to,” he mentioned.
Get the whole lowdown on the 50 biggest (and 10 weakest) golf equipment of all time
The Athletics did it the onerous method in 1972. They gained the primary two video games of the American League Championship Collection, pushing Detroit to the brink of elimination. However the Tigers clawed again, forcing a decisive Sport 5. Oakland eked out a 2-1 victory.
The identical factor occurred within the World Collection. The A’s roared to a lead of three video games to at least one, however the Reds rallied with a pair of victories. Oakland lastly prevailed in Sport Seven, 3-2.
Reggie Jackson missed the Cincinnati sequence after pulling a hamstring within the ALCS. “The worst feeling I’ve ever had, as an athlete and a human being, was the day we gained the World Collection,” mentioned Jackson, who not felt a part of the crew. The void was stuffed by utility man Gene Tenace, who paced the A’s with 4 homers and 9 RBIs.
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The 1972 Athletics had been combative. Clubhouse fights had been frequent, as had been disputes between the gamers and parsimonious Charlie Finley. “This crew was 25 guys who hated their proprietor,” mentioned supervisor Dick Williams.
A reporter steered to Reggie Jackson that the persevering with story of the A’s was their string of off-field controversies. The middle fielder took offense. “The persevering with story of the Oakland A’s,” he replied, “is that we win on a regular basis.”
Jackson’s mix of energy and pace established him because the membership’s brightest star. He completed 1972 with 25 residence runs, 75 runs batted in, and 9 stolen bases, Oakland’s second-best totals in all three classes. The leaders had been first baseman Mike Epstein (26 homers), third baseman Sal Bando (77 RBIs), and shortstop Bert Campaneris (52 steals).
Baltimore basic supervisor Harry Dalton had famously praised Epstein’s energy — “he’s a child who may hit 50 residence runs” — although the hype by no means grew to become actuality. Epstein didn’t exceed 30 homers in any of his 9 big-league seasons. The fiery Bando was prized not just for his run manufacturing, however for his management. “When Sal talked,” mentioned Jackson, “folks listened.” Campaneris was the quintessential leadoff man, topping the AL along with his 52 stolen bases and 20 sacrifice bunts. “He was the man who bought every thing began for us,” mentioned pitcher Rollie Fingers.
Catfish Hunter ranked among the many American League’s high 4 pitchers in ERA (third at 2.04), wins (fourth with 21), and innings (fourth with 295.1). “I confronted Tom Seaver. I confronted Jim Palmer,” mentioned Jackson. “If I needed to choose one man to win one recreation, it could be Catfish Hunter.”
