Saturd

For many baseball fans, the stories of legendary players and championship teams are nearly automatic knowledge regardless of age or level of interest. You can ask almost anyone to identify the most successful franchise in the sport's history and they'll name the Yankees. Ask a non-sports fan to name a historically significant baseball player and you'll probably get answers like Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, or Hank Aaron. 

honorable mention for Willie Mays

While each of us may have our own memories of personal or national events in any given year, sports fans collectively - and baseball fans specifically - instantly connect certain years with an all-time great team. For example, fill in the blanks below with the first thing that comes to mind. You have ten seconds.


1927 _________________

1955 _________________

1969 _________________

2004 _________________

Not every calendar year yields such a memorable championship team. If one were to continue this quiz, some of the most popular answers would be teams that didn't win the World Series, such as these years:

1919 __________________

1975 __________________

1994 __________________

2001 __________________

This might be tougher for a casual fan. But if you're reading this, I'm confident that you can easily answer those.

Now, let's kick it up a notch - how about 1910? 1929? Anything coming to mind?

Here's an old crossword puzzle answer my father-in-law once needed my help to solve.
 

Three-time AL MVP. Four letters. (hint: not Ruth)

Here's a Hall of Famer with six World Series rings - the most of anyone who never wore Yankee pinstripes. If I brought this photo to Rittenhouse Square and offered $50 to anyone who could identify him without searching the internet... how long would it take me to give away $50?

These underrated stars - and many more - played for an American League team that won back-to-back World Series in the 1910s and the 1930s. In between those peaks of dominance, this team had five 100-loss seasons, finished in last place for seven consecutive seasons immediately following their fourth World Series appearance in a five-year stretch, climbed back into contention, then won two more titles.

Shortly after that mini-dynasty ended, this team slid back into irrelevance, finished below .500 for 13 consecutive seasons, and didn't return to the Fall Classic for forty years.

All of that winning and losing happened under one man. This team, through extreme highs and lows, didn't fire their manager for fifty years.

If you're not a baseball fan - or didn't catch the subtle omission from this post's title - we're talking about the A's.

Starting in May, The Collector will say farewell to an all-time great franchise in a new series Saturdays with the A's.

Episode 1 - Mister Mack
Episode 2 - Kansas City AAAs
Episode 3 - Team of the '70s
Episode 4 - Bash!
Episode 5 - Moneyball
Episode 6 - Erosion and Relocation (Rinse and Repeat)

I hope you'll join us for a summer-long celebration of the Philadelphia/Kansas City/Oakland/Sacramento/Las Vegas Athletics.

Thanks for reading!



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