1998 Oakland Athletics season
Major League Baseball team season / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Oakland Athletics' 1998 season saw the A's finish with a record of 74 wins and 88 losses. The campaign was the first of the Billy Beane era. While the Athletics finished a distant fourth in the American League West, they improved upon the prior year's dismal output of 65–97.
1998 Oakland Athletics | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
League | American League | |||
Division | West | |||
Ballpark | Network Associates Coliseum | |||
City | Oakland, California | |||
Record | 74–88 (.457) | |||
Divisional place | 4th | |||
Owners | Stephen Schott Ken Hofmann | |||
General managers | Billy Beane | |||
Managers | Art Howe | |||
Television | KRON-TV Fox Sports Bay Area (Ray Fosse, Greg Papa, Ken Wilson) | |||
Radio | KNEW (Bill King, Ken Korach, Ray Fosse) | |||
|
The strong play of Jason Giambi, Matt Stairs and Kenny Rogers highlighted an otherwise forgettable campaign. Rogers' performance was particularly impressive; in arguably the finest season of his career, he won 16 games and posted a 3.17 earned run average (both were the best full-season marks by an Athletics starter since 1992). Additionally, the 1998 season marked Rickey Henderson's fourth (and final) stint with the Athletics. Henderson, at the age of 39, stole a total 66 bases; this total lead the league in that category. Lastly, rookie Ben Grieve collected a Rookie of the Year (ROY) award for his solid debut season. The award was the Athletics' first since Walt Weiss received one in 1988.
The Athletics posted a winning record in 1999. The organization, under Beane, would not post another losing season until 2007.