Dave Betancourt | Sports Section Manager

When Mark McGuire retired I couldn't help but have a childhood flashback to the days when I really loved baseball. Not that I don't love baseball now, because I do, but nothing compares to a kid's love of the game of baseball. When you're a kid, the only reason you want to play baseball is because you love the game. Well, that and the fact that it gave you an excuse to spit and if you grabbed your crotch your mom couldn't yell at you. That and a lot of bubble gum is part of the game! But back to the story at hand. When McGuire retired it made me think of his days with the Oakland A's.

When I was a kid in the late 80's and early 90's the Oakland A's were my favorite baseball team. They fascinated me. My favorite player? Mark McGuire. Of course now McGuire is my second favorite player after the greatest second baseman of all time, Roberto Alomar. (Editors note: Roberto Alomar being Dave's favorite player is more about Alomar being Puerto Rican that the fact that he's the greatest second baseman of all time. If he were from any other Latin American country, chances are Dave would give two figs less.)

The A's won a lot of games and a couple of World Series back then but it was their unique brand of players that made me love them so much. First there was McGuire, one half of the bash brothers. He first caught my attention when I picked up a baseball card of his and I saw that he belted 49 homeruns in his rookie year. Back then 49 homeruns was a lot. Ok, it's still a lot now, but back then it was really a lot, and for a rookie, it was unheard of. That record for rookies still stands today. McGuire was half the size he is now back then but he still had a lot of power. He still had that unique batting stance, the one that when you tried to copy it, you could never hit the ball far, but somehow he could. McGuire was the classic ball player. He hit for power, got the job done and that was it. He wasn't flashy and didn't crave media attention, he just went to work and excelled at what he did best...hit homeruns.

Then there was Jose Canseco, the other half of the bash brothers. Canseco had all the homerun hitting power, but what McGuire lacked in cockyness, Canseco brought full circle. It's not like he was an ego-maniac, it's just that you knew that he knew that he was good. He went on to become baseball's first ever player to hit 40 homeruns and steal 40 bases in the same season. Like McGuire, if not for constant injuries in the later years of his career, Canseco could have easily flirted with anywhere between 700 to 800 homeruns.

One of my favorite A's was Ricky Henderson. If there's a better lead off hitter in the history of the game I'd like you to show him to me. To date, Henderson has the major league record for stolen bases, runs scored, and walks. He was the fastest player in baseball hands down and when he hit a homerun, he looked more like James Brown running the bases than a ball player. To say he gloated would be like saying Tiger is good at golf.

Probably the most intriguing of the A's was Dave Stewart. He was one of the A's best pitchers. Stewart was known for his nasty forkball, but even more apparent of his personality was his stare downs. Every pitcher gives the batter he's about to face a little look, but Stewart would give batter's a look like they just got done talking about his mama or something. I'm sure there were guys who struck out just out of fear alone.

The final piece to the A's masterpiece was their relief pitcher Dennis Eckersly. "Eck" as he was known to fans was the Mariano Rivera of his day. If you needed three more outs in the bottom of the ninth, he could get it done. He had the long hair and the big mustache like Randy Johnson, but he wasn't nearly as intimidating and still got the job done.

That in a nut shell is a summary of my fond memory of the Oakland A's of the late 80's and early 90's. They just don't make baseball teams like that anymore.