1989 World Series Champions

Lore & Background

The 1989 Athletics were the product of Tony La Russa's relentless, gutsy management style. A lineup headlined by Rickey Henderson's speed, Jose Canseco's power, and Mark McGwire's emerging slugger's game, the team played with an urgency that turned the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum into a cauldron. Dennis Eckersley locked down the ninth, and the A's swept through the postseason with the kind of swagger that only a team that has already won two titles in a decade can carry.

The World Series against the Giants was a Bay Area affair, a rivalry that drew the entire region into the stands. The A's took a 3-1 lead heading into Game 5, and the crowd was electric. Then, at 5:04 p.m. Pacific, the ground shook. The Loma Prieta earthquake, magnitude 6.9, ripped through the East Bay and the South Bay, collapsing the Cypress Street Viaduct and killing sixty-three people. The game was suspended. The ballparks emptied. Baseball, for the first time in the modern era, stopped for a natural disaster.

When the series resumed, the A's closed it out, and the celebration in Oakland was muted, somber, and deeply personal. Fans and players alike carried the grief of the earthquake alongside the joy of the championship. To this day, the 1989 title is spoken of in Oakland not simply as a trophy, but as a shared experience of loss and triumph intertwined in a way no other championship in the franchise's history quite is.

In Their Own Story

The Coliseum was half-empty by the time the tremor hit. You felt it in your teeth before your feet—this deep, rolling shudder that turned the beer in your cup into a slow, lazy whirlpool. The crowd went quiet, then confused, then afraid. A woman beside me grabbed my arm and whispered, "Is this an aftershock?" No one answered. The players stood on the field, helmets in hand, looking up at the sky like it owed them an explanation. The lights flickered. Somewhere in the stands, a child was crying, and no one could tell if it was from the shaking or from the silence that followed.

We walked out into a street that smelled like dust and broken glass. The sky was the color of old parchment. People stood in the middle of the road, phones in hand, calling anyone—anyone—who might still be alive. And I thought: we were three games from a ring, and none of us could remember how to be happy about it. Not tonight. Not with the ground still breathing under us.

Reader's Guide

The 1989 title was the culmination of Tony La Russa's second tenure in Oakland, a stretch that produced the franchise's second and third championships. The A's entered the postseason as the AL West champions, carrying a roster built on speed, power, and a bullpen anchored by Dennis Eckersley. In the ALCS they dispatched the Toronto Blue Jays, and in the World Series they faced the San Francisco Giants in a Bay Area rivalry that drew the entire region into the stands.

The A's took Games 2, 3, and 4 to build a 3-1 lead, with Jose Canseco delivering key hits and McGwire showing flashes of the power he would later make legendary. Heading into Game 5, the Coliseum was packed for what many expected to be a coronation. Then the Loma Prieta earthquake struck. The game was suspended, the series paused, and the nation turned its attention to the disaster.

When play resumed, the A's won Game 5 to close the series 4-1, and Canseco was named World Series MVP. The celebration was real but restrained—players embraced, fans wept, and the city held its breath for the families still unaccounted for. For the franchise, the '89 ring sealed the La Russa era and became the most emotionally layered championship in Oakland's history.

Did You Know?

• The 1989 World Series is the only one in modern MLB history to be interrupted by a natural disaster; the Loma Prieta earthquake struck during Game 5 on October 17, 1989.
• The 1989 A's were the first team to win a World Series with a starting rotation that included both a future Hall of Fame closer (Dennis Eckersley) and a future Hall of Fame slugger (Mark McGwire) in the same season.
• The 1989 title made the A's the third team in MLB history to win three World Series, joining the New York Yankees and the St. Louis Cardinals at that mark at the time.
• Rickey Henderson, Jose Canseco, and Mark McGwire all played for the 1989 A's—a trio that would later be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.