Last time the Oakland Athletics faced the Detroit
Tigers in the American League Championship
Series was 1972, the Athletics won in five games
advanced to the World Series against the
Cincinnati Reds and went on to win three
consecutive World Series.

Amaury Pi-GonzálezThey were the “Swinging A’s” white shoes, big
mustaches and a lot of talent. Rudi,Bando,Tenace,
Jackson,Marquez,Duncan.Epstein,Holtzman,Odom,
Blue,Green,Hendrick,M.Alou.Campaneris and Jim “Catfish”Hunter among other for the A’S.
Kaline,Lolich,McAuliffe,Horton,LaGrow,Freehan,
Hiller and other for the Tigers.

The Tigers finished with record of 86-70
The Atletics finished with a record of 93-62.

Game One was also at the Oakland Coliseum and
Mickey Lolich went 10 innings and into the 11th
with a 2-1 lead(the lead was an Al Kaline homer
in the 11th).Lolich came out in the 11th but gave up consecutive singles to Sal Bando and Mike Epstein
and was relieved by righthander Chuck Steelbach,the A’s scored 2 runs and beat the
Tigers 3 to 2 in that first game in front of
29,536 fans at the Coliseum. 2 hours 23 minutes.

Game Two, at Oakland the Athletics had little
problem winning 5-0 as John “Blue Moon”Odom
blanked the Tigers. More A’s fans showed up
this time at the Coliseum a total of 31,068.
2 hours 37 minutes.
This was the game where Lerrin LaGrow made his only appearance on the mound for the Tigers
in relief, pitching to only one batter in the seventh.
That batter was Dagoberto Blanco (Campy)Campaneris who threw the bat at LaGrow

Game Three at Tiger Stadium in Detroit was
another whitewash, but this time by Detroit’s
righthander Joe Coleman. Tigers 3 Athletics 0.
That year Joe Coleman won 19 games, while
the previous season he won 20 for the Tigers.
Attendance at Tiger Stadium: 41,156
2 hours 27 minutes.

Game Four, again in Detroit. They went 10 innings
with the game tied 1-1 the A’s scored 2 runs in the
10th but the Tigers came back to win it with
3 runs in the bottom of the 10th. Oakland.
Hall of Fame pitcher Jim”Catfish”Hunter pitched
7 1/3 allowing jsut one run to the powerful Tigers
offense.
Final: Detroit 4 Oakland 3. In front of 37,615.
3 hours 4 minutes.

Game Five(also in Detroit) John”Blue Moon”Odom
pitched 5 complete innings giving one run to
the Tigers and Vida Blue took over for the next
4 innings and didn’t allow a run. The Odom and
Blue “One-Two”punch was too much for the
Tigers and the Oakland Athletics went on to
win the fifth and decisive game 2 to 1.
This time a crowd of 50,276 said goodbye to
the Tigers World Series hopes.
2 hours 48 minutes.

The Athletics went on their way to beat Cincinnati
in the World Series and then won the next two
World Series. The real last dynasty for the dominant
Oakland Athletics of Charlie O.Finley in the 1970s.

The 1972,73-74 Oakland Athletics did something that is unimaginable today, to win 3 consecutive
World Series.

How far can the Kendall-Chavez-Scutaro-Swisher-
Bradley-Kotsay-Zito A’s will go this time ? Like
Chavez said(relating to the previous A’S of Giambi,Tejada,Hudson,Mulder) “we do not have the talent we had before,but we have hard-nose type of players this time”.
No team won 100 games this year, no pitcher
won 20 games this year, this was not a sensational
season and anything is posible, yes even the
Oakland A’s winning the World Series, but for that
they will have to beat a very similar team with lots
of youth and a couple of veterans (Pudge Rodriguez and Todd Jones)
At least the Oakland Coliseum field should be in decent shape since the first game of the ALCS
against Detroit is Tuesday but the Raiders do not
play this Sunday at Oakland.