May 26

This is the first of a few entries describing specific games during the ’89 season that I’ll be putting up on this blog. This game was a 4-0 win over the Yankees:

Pitchers Todd Burns, Rick Honeycutt, and Eric Plunk put together a very, very nearly perfect game. Rickey, still with the Yankees, beats out a bounder to Carney Lansford leading off the fourth. Sax erases the blemish on the record by sharply grounding to Gallego, who runs to the bag and then throws to first. That’s all, folks: Burns had struck out Jessie Barfield in the second. Before and after that, grounders, pop-ups, and fly balls suffice to keep the Yankees off the bases in fearsome Yankee Stadium. Doesn’t it seem reasonable to assume that this is the closest anyone’s ever come to perfection against the Yankees?  Winfield missed the entire ‘89 season, but Rickey, Mattingly, Barfield, and Sax are all in the lineup, so this isn’t the A’s happening to pick up a cheap one off second-stringers. Your final score is 4-0.

Carney Lansford did everything he could on Henderson’s ground ball, but his desperate throw to first was wide and late and probably beside the point, given Henderson’s speed.

”It was a tough play,” said the Athletics’ catcher, Ron Hassey, who had three hits. ”But it was a good pitch he made. No regrets there.”

Afterward, Tony La Russa said: “Amazing, the kid has really been remarkable,”  referring to Burns, who was making his first start of the year. “He hit a lot of great spots. Heck, the only thing that slowed the game up was me going to the bullpen. A no-hitter, and he stays. But he got to the point where the longer he goes, the bigger chance he has to hurt himself.”

 

David Bush of the S.F. Chronicle added:

“It was no bunch of slouches Burns faced in his first appearance at Yankee
Stadium. The Yankees had collected at least 10 hits in five straight games and improved their team average 11 points.

Burns did not seem to notice. La Russa said that Burns’ fastball, in the 86-
miles-per-hour range, is more rapid than opposing teams believe. And he has a quality slider and a deadly curve, which he uses in situations when most pitchers eschew breaking balls.

“He was just able to hit the mitt wherever I put it,” said catcher Ron Hassey.
“Almost every pitch he threw was consistently good.”

“I didn’t feel that good at the beginning, and I think I might have gotten
away with some pitches early,” said Burns. “As the game went on, I was able to get a rhythm going.”

Only third baseman Carney Lansford, who had to glove a couple of well-hit balls on abrupt hops, had to make any sort of difficult play on Burns’ behalf.

Ironically, the Yankees’ one hit was also handled by Lansford, who charged
Henderson’s slowly hit ball, grabbed it with his bare hand and missed getting Henderson at first by barely a step. Henderson is probably the only player in a New York uniform who could have beaten the throw.”

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A Flashback to 1986 and La Russa’s First Game

This is a bit of a departure from this blog’s strict focus on the 1989 season, but I happened to come across a game account for Tony La Russa’s first game with the A’s on July 7 of 1986, in which Dave Stewart, making his first A’s start, picked up his first win since September of 1984 by beating Roger Clemens in Boston. It seemed relevant since Stewart and La Russa are so integral to the 1989 A’s, so here’s some lines from the account, by Bruce Jenkins of the S.F. Chronicle: “Canseco and Kingman put on a batting-practice display that bordered on the surreal. Kingman hit one monstrous drive after another, way over the left-field wall. Canseco preferred the distant bleachers in center field, routinely rocketing 450-foot shots toward a wildly appreciative group of fans.”

Also before the game, La Russa said: “If I’m boring, I apologize. It’s just that I can’t get my mind off this game. I’ll be the same way later – thinking about tomorrow.”

And, in the sixth inning, with the A’s and Stewart already up 3-1, and Lansford on first: “Clemens tried a slider on the first pitch, and Canseco drilled it into the left-field screen for his 20th homer of the year. Then came Kingman, hacking a head-high fastball into the night – just like batting practice – and the A’s had a 6-1 lead.”

Second baseman Tony Phillips also “made two sensational plays, diving to his left to rob Boggs (fifth inning) and racing far into center field to snare a blooper by Don Baylor (sixth).”
Phillips gave this quote: “Hey, I’ve got to show that man I can play. If I don’t produce, he won’t stay with me too long. I’ve got to prove I should stay in the lineup.”

Stewart pitched six innings plus and gave up three runs for the win before leaving, then a guy named Dave Von Ohlen, in his first appearance for the A’s, came in with runners on first and second, no one out, in the seventh. He gave up an inherited run, then Bill Buckner bunted, and Jerry Willard sprang out to pick up the ball and threw to third to start a double play. Ohlen left and a guy named Doug Bair came on to get the save with seven straight outs.

Afterward, Canseco, who was boasting even as a rookie, said about Fenway: “I think I’d hit 50 homers a year if I played here. That’s how much I like it.”

Lansford said: “It just felt like we finally had the right guy (manager) on the bench. A guy with experience and a proven record. Tony La Russa just exudes confidence – and you play like your manager acts.”

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