What is the first thing you think about Sandy Alderson’s powerhouse A’s teams of the late 1980s/early 1990s?
Steroids, perhaps, because The Bash Brothers, Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire, were part of a club thought of as one of the launch points for widespread use of illegal performance enhancers in the majors.
There also is a sense of squandered opportunity. That the club of Canseco and McGwire and Dennis Eckersley, Dave Henderson, Rickey Henderson, Carney Lansford and Dave Stewart should have been a dynasty. They did win the 1989 Bay Bridge World Series over the Giants. But they were huge favorites in 1988 against the Kirk Gibson/Orel Hershiser Dodgers and in 1990 against the Nasty Boys Reds and lost eight of nine World Series games to those National League champions.
In 1992, they finished tied for the most wins in the AL and lost in the League Championship Series. Oakland did not have another winning record under Alderson, who handed the GM title to Billy Beane following the 1997 campaign.
