Empty Spaces: Part II

The '93-'98 A's

1993 and ’94 were tough years for the A’s from an on-field perspective, but the attendance was better than the team’s performance. Even though the team winning percentage of .420, the A’s still drew 2 million+ fans. In 1994, the A’s brought back free-agent Rickey Henderson and with attendance climbing as the team started to climb in the standings after a horrible start, all would be for naught. The season stopped on August 12th because of the labor strike and coupled with the losing record, there was a significant negative impact on the following season in regards to fans coming to see the team.

Year	Total Att.	Att. Stnd.	Wins	Loss	Pct.	AL West Stnd.	Avg. Batting Age	Avg. Pitching Age	Total Payroll	Median Salary
1993	2,035,025	11th out of 14	68	94	0.420	7	28.2	30.9	$35,565,834	$575,000
1994	1,242,692	13th out of 14	51	63	0.447	2	29.2	29.8	$33,169,500	$413,500
1995	1,174,310	12th out of 14	67	77	0.465	4	29.6	30.9	$35,961,500	$235,000
1996	1,148,380	14th out of 14	78	84	0.481	3	28.2	27.1	$19,404,500	$152,500
1997	1,264,218	14th out of 14	65	97	0.401	4	28.1	27.8	$21,911,000	$194,000
1998	1,232,343	13th out of 14	74	88	0.457	4	28.8	31.0	$20,063,000	$270,000

Yet the A’s had no problems finding someone to buy the team. When Steve Schott and Ken Hoffman purchased the A’s from the late Walter Hass in the winter of 1995, they purchased a team that was barren in the minors and full of deferred moneys. Simultaneously Al Davis, owner of the former Oakland Raiders and then-current LA Raiders, could not acquire a new stadium in Brentwood, a suburb of LA. So as Schott and Hoffman prepared renovations for the Coliseum, Davis decided to move back to Oakland and the Oakland-Alameda Sports Authority welcome the team with open arms. As part of the agreement, the Coliseum was to be renovated with a massive structure in center field to provide maximize the capacity for football games.

Frustrated that their new investment would suffer from an un-pleasant to the eye surrounding, Schott and Hoffman sued the city of Oakland for $48 million dollars because they felt that they had incurred diminished value for their investment. They won the arbitration suit but there were to be no renovations from the ownership group.

So with a drastically changed ballpark, the A’s could not bank on the ballpark itself to bring people in. And what was once a pitchers’ park now became more neutral with nooks and crannies along the outfield wall. In order to get attendance up the team would have to win; naturally, that’s easier said than done.

SEASON	TEAM	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
1993	Oak	27	84	16	28	6	0	9	24	21	19	0	1	0.333	0.467	0.726	1.193
1994	Oak	47	135	26	34	3	0	9	25	37	40	0	0	0.252	0.413	0.474	0.887
1995	Oak	104	317	75	87	13	0	39	90	88	77	1	1	0.274	0.441	0.685	1.126
1996	Oak	130	423	104	132	21	0	52	113	116	112	0	0	0.312	0.467	0.730	1.197
1997	Oak	105	366	48	104	24	0	34	81	58	98	1	0	0.284	0.383	0.628	1.011

While McGwire had produced well, he played a limited number of games from ’93 to ’95 because of a reoccurrence of plantar facisitis. 1996 marked the best season for McGwire as he helped create a credible offense; unfortunately, the pitching was utter crap to the point that the A’s had 12 pitchers with at least one start. On top of that, McGwire was traded in July of 1997 after the A’s decided they would not re-sign the soon-to-be free agent. The problem was that the A’s front office decided that they could not trade McGwire earlier in the season for fear that it would alienate the already-hurting fan base. But by waiting so long to trade McGwire, the return would be small, as teams would not give up the farm for a free agent.

To start the 1998 season, the A’s add Ken Macha as bench coach and Dave Hudgens as hitting coach to round out a coaching staff that included Rick Peterson as pitching coach, Ron Washington as third base coach, and Brad Fisher as the bullpen coach. Although this would become the coaching core for the future, it could not stop the snowballing effect the A’s had with failure. In this time period, the A’s had some of the worst stretches in comparison to other teams' attendance figures. From 1993 to 1999, the A’s were no higher than 11th in the American League in total attendance. But from failure, there would be a resurgence the A’s and fans had not seen since 1987.