| 1989 World Series | ||||||||||
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| Dates | October 14–28 | |||||||||
| Venue(s) | Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum (Oakland) Candlestick Park (San Francisco) | |||||||||
| MVP | Dave Stewart (Oakland) | |||||||||
| Umpires | Rich Garcia (AL), Paul Runge (NL), Al Clark (AL), Dutch Rennert (NL), Vic Voltaggio (AL), Eric Gregg (NL) | |||||||||
| Hall of Famers | Athletics: Tony La Russa (manager) Dennis Eckersley Rickey Henderson Giants: none | |||||||||
| Broadcast | ||||||||||
| Television | ABC | |||||||||
| TV announcers | Al Michaels, Jim Palmer and Tim McCarver | |||||||||
| Radio | CBS KSFO (OAK) KNBR (SF) | |||||||||
| Radio announcers | Jack Buck and Johnny Bench (CBS) Bill King and Lon Simmons (KSFO) Hank Greenwald and Ron Fairly (KNBR) | |||||||||
| Streaming | ||||||||||
| ALCS | Oakland Athletics over Toronto Blue Jays (4–1) | |||||||||
| NLCS | San Francisco Giants over Chicago Cubs (4–1) | |||||||||
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The 1989 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1989 season. The 86th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion Oakland Athletics and the National League (NL) champion San Francisco Giants. The Series ran from October 14 through October 28, with the Athletics sweeping the Giants in four games. It was the first World Series sweep since 1976, when the Cincinnati Reds swept the New York Yankees.
This marked the fourth World Series matchup, and first since 1913, between the two franchises. The previous three matchups occurred when the Giants were in New York and the Athletics resided in Philadelphia. The then New York Giants defeated the Philadelphia Athletics in the 1905 World Series four games to one, the Athletics defeating the Giants in the 1911 World Series four games to two, and then again in the 1913 Fall Classic four games to one. The series would be historic in other ways as well: the 76-year gap between matchups was the longest in World Series history, a record this World Series would hold until 2018 when the Red Sox and Dodgers met for their first World Series meeting in 102 years; it also marked the first time two franchises had faced off in the World Series after having once played each other when both were based in a different city.
Fay Vincent, who had just taken over as Commissioner of Baseball after the sudden death of his predecessor Bart Giamatti in September, presided over his first World Series and dedicated it to his predecessor's memory.[1]
This Series was also known as the "Bay Bridge Series," "BART Series," "Battle of the Bay," and "Earthquake Series"; the two participant cities lie on opposite sides of San Francisco Bay, connected by the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge and the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system, and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred before the start of Game 3. It was the first cross-town World Series (involving two teams from the same metropolitan area) since 1956, and only the third such series that did not involve New York City (the 1906 and 1944 World Series, which featured matchups between the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Browns respectively, were the others). Until 2023, this marked the last time that consecutive championships were won by different teams from the same state.
Prior to the start of Game 3 on October 17, at about 5:04 PM PDT, the Loma Prieta earthquake struck, damaging Oakland and San Francisco (particularly the Cypress Street Viaduct in the former and the Marina District in the latter) as well as the Bay Bridge's upper deck. Candlestick Park in San Francisco suffered damage to its upper deck as pieces of concrete fell from the baffle at the top of the stadium and the power was knocked out. The game was postponed out of concerns for the safety of everyone in the ballpark as well as the loss of power. The series resumed on October 27 and finished the next day.
At the time, October 28 was the latest end date ever for a World Series, surpassing the 1986 World Series by one day, even though the 1986 series went the maximum seven games and the 1989 series only lasted the minimum four games.[2] Had the Series run the full seven games, a Major League Baseball game would have been played in November for the first time in history.[3]
- ^ The black armbands that the Athletics and Giants wore were in memory of the deceased commissioner. In addition, the official World Series balls had Giamatti's signature on them. The Rawlings 1989 World Series Game Baseball. Archived October 22, 2006, at the Wayback Machine The ball features the World Series logo in Blue, traditional red stitch, and the printed signature of A. Bartlett Giamatti, Commissioner of MLB.
- ^ The 1981 World Series, which went six games, had also ended on October 28. This record was subsequently tied again in 1995, and has since been surpassed several times, first in 2001 due to the interruption of that season caused by the September 11 attacks. This was later tied by the 2009 World Series, both of which ended on November 4. Currently, the latest in the calendar the World Series has ever been played is November 5, set by the 2022 World Series.
- ^ The World Series now regularly concludes at the end of October or beginning of November due to the addition of the Division Series and Wild Card Series to the postseason.