The Oakland Athletics brought the quickest of ends to the longest of World Series Saturday night.
Their coronation was merely delayed by the earthquake that devastated northern California, and was never really challenged even as their Bay area rivals, the San Francisco Giants, mounted their first serious threat.The awesome A's, derailed by destiny and Dodgers a year ago, completed the 14th and possibly most convincing World Series sweep with an 9-6 victory behind the pitching - and hitting, too - of Mike Moore and the bat of Rickey Henderson.
Not so coincidentally, Moore, who gave up two runs and five hits in six innings and joined series MVP Dave Stewart as a two-game winner, and Henderson, who homered, tripled and singled, were the two key players added by the A's this season.
"Nobody felt we could be a better ballclub than last year," Stewart said. "Then we got Mike Moore and Rickey Henderson. If we continue to play the way we should, I can see us winning this thing a few more times."
With one of the most dominating performances ever in a World Series, the A's answered the best way they could any suggestions that this championship was tainted by disaster.
How dominating?
The Athletics never trailed in the series and were tied only once, that at 1-all in the third inning of Game 2. Oakland outscored the Giants 32-14 - tying the largest margin ever in a four-game series - and outhomered them 9-4.
"My biggest complaint about last season was we didn't go beyond five games and make it a closer series," said Oakland manager Tony La Russa. "This year, I have no complaints."
For the first half of the game, at least, he didn't have any worries, either.
When Henderson led off Saturday's game with a home run, it was a sure sign Oakland would soon win its first championship since 1974.
That became even more clear when Moore, who was hitless in all of one major-league at-bat in his career, helped himself with a two-run double, the first World Series hit by an American League pitcher in the 1980s, ending an 0-for-70 slump.
This World Series took 15 days, 10 of them after the earthquake shook Candlestick Park a half-hour before Game 3 and threatened to extend the baseball season into November for the first time.
In the end, even as the A's celebrated without the traditional champagne out of respect for the earthquake victims, there was no doubt about the best team in baseball this season.
"To me, I thought they had the best ballclub last year. The home run by Kirk Gibson turned it around on them," said Giants manager Roger Craig. "They seemed like they were on a mission this year. They don't have any holes."
The A's beat San Francisco eight of nine times in spring training, were the winningest team in the majors during the regular season, breezed by Toronto in a five-game playoff and blew away the Giants.
"Our heart does go out to the people who suffered the last 10 days," said A's general manager Sandy Alderson. "The Oakland Athletics are the champions of baseball, but there are a lot of champions living here."
"It was a great day for Oakland and the Bay area. This team has been through a lot this year," said Stewart, whose series MVP trophy will help fill the void of no Cy Young Award despite three straight 20-win seasons. "I was just part of it."
The Athletics' franchise won its ninth championship, including five in Philadelphia, tying the St. Louis Cardinals for the second most behind the New York Yankees' 22.
The Giants, making their first series appearance since 1962, haven't won one since 1954.
Kevin Mitchell and Will Clark, who combined for 70 homers and 236 RBIs this season, did not drive in any runs until the sixth inning Saturday. By then, they had been compared to Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire, the Oakland sluggers whose slumps were partly to blame for last year's five-game loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Mitchell broke the skid with a two-run homer off Moore in the sixth to make it 8-2. Greg Litton's two-run homer keyed a four-run rally and then Clark and Mitchell each came to the plate representing the tying run, but both made outs, Mitchell on a crowd-gasping fly to the warning track in left.
The A's got one of them back in the eighth on a bases-loaded walk by Giants relief ace Steve Bedrosian to Terry Steinbach.
All 16 teams that previously took a 3-0 lead in the World Series went on to win. The other three champions did it in five games.
Power and pitching usually dominate the postseason, and the A's had both. Oakland tied a four-game series mark with nine home runs and the teams combined for a record 13.
Every Oakland non-pitcher who started in the series hit a home run. Eight different players homered, all but McGwire, who led the team with 33 during the season.
Often it's said that in a short series, a team needs just two hot starters to win. So it was again as Oakland, even with the best staff in baseball, used only two starters.
Moore and Stewart each won twice as La Russa, using the earthquake layoff to his advantage, went with his best and did not use Storm Davis or Bob Welch.