Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Best Year In Bay Area Sports




I recently went to a Giants/ A's game and they paid tribute to the 1989 Giants team who made it but lost to a great A's team in the world series. It got me to thinking, wow both of the bay area teams made the world series in one year. And then I got to thinking about how the other bay area teams did that year. After looking it over 1989 was THE BEST year in bay area sports EVER! Here is why:


San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers went 14-2, lead the NFL in scoring and was second in the NFL in defense. Joe Montana was MVP of the league as well as Super Bowl MVP. The 49ers caked walked into the Super Bowl with playoff wins of 41-13 over the Vikings and 30-3 over the Rams in the NFC Championship game. The super bowl was a total and complete blow out of the Broncos, 55-10 was the final. After the superbowl the 49ers remained a winning team for many years, finally going back to and winning the superbowl again in 1994.

Oakland A's

A's had what was an all star team in 1989. Rickey and Dave Henderson, Canseco, McGwire, Dave Parker not to mention there pitching staff where 4 out of 5 starters had 17 wins or more! Eck to close out the games, I am not sad that the Giants lost to this team. I think no one really stood a chance against them anyway. The A's went back to the world series the next year but lost, since then they have not returned to the series.


Golden State Warriors

Warriors 1988-1989 team features Chris Mullin, Mitch Richmond, and Rod Higgins. The team ended with a good year featuring a 43-39 finish and a playoff series against the Utah Jazz who had the Malone and Stockton combination. They ended up sweeping the Jazz in the first round, I found out it was quite the upset in 1989 as the Jazz were considered to be huge favorites the Warriors eventually lost the Western Conference Semifinals to the Phoenix Suns. The Warriors have been back to the Western Conference Semifinals twice since then both times losing out. 


San Francisco Giants

The Giants were lead by Will Clark and NL MVP Kevin Mitchell in 1989. They had some clutch pitching lead by Rick Reuschel who was an all star and won 17 games of the Giants. The team beat the Chicago Cubs in the NL Championship series but were not match for the before mentioned A's, they would be swept in the series that was delayed 10 long days due to a massive earthquake. The Giants would return to the world series in 2002, again losing out to the Angels. 


San Jose Sharks?

They were not a franchise until 1992! But since they are around I would say the best year they has was 2003-2004 season when they reached the Conference Finals yet lost to the Flames. 

4 comments:

Wesley said...

It was indeed a good sports year

Sports fan said...

And it's never been the even close since then. Bay Area fans are still waiting for one of these guys to get back on top again, seems far off now!

Colonel Mortimer said...

Do you remember the plastic cup we got from McDonalds commemorating the 1989 Bay Area sports year that contained a subtle diss at the Warriors (who did have a pretty good year)

Basically it had each team's logo and listed their accomplishments, it said:

San Francisco 49ers: Super Bowl Champions

Oakland A's: World Series Champions

San Francisco Giants: National League Champions

and then...

Golden State Warriors: National Basketball Association.

Nellie must have been annoyed

Mummbles said...

HA HA, i think i do recall those cups! I did see that the Warriors made a pretty big upset over the Jazz who were in the Malone/Stockton heyday. Not too shabby.