Dennis Eckersley visits the ghosts of World Series past on 'Old Baseball Cards'
Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley has been on both sides of the World Series — he’s reveled in the biggest possible baseball win and he’s experienced October heartbreak.
Thirty years ago, his Oakland Athletics team beat the San Francisco Giants in a World Series most famous for being delayed by an earthquake. The year before that, he gave up one of the most famous World Series homers ever. But you probably don’t need us to tell you about that one. In 1990, Eck and the A’s were in the World Series again and this time they were the heavy favorites but got swept by the Cincinnati Reds. That sound familiar?
Eck joins us on “Old Baseball Cards” — Yahoo Sports’ baseball-card driven trip down memory lane — to conclude our ’89 World Series throwback, and interestingly enough, the baseball cards lead us to all three World Series. We talk about the earthquake, pull a favorite teammate of his, find one of the Giants starter pitching from ‘89 and find one of the most recognizable Reds players of that era. The final card of the episode? Well, it’s not Kirk Gibson but it brings up plenty of those memories for Eck.
We also talk about Eck’s hair, what he’d change about modern baseball and lots more. In this episode, we’re opening 1989 Topps and 1989 Donruss. Earlier in this series, we opened cards from 1989 with Dave Stewart and Rickey Henderson. Don’t miss either of those episodes.
If you’re new to our show, we open old packs of cards with baseball players, coaches and famous fans. The cards aren’t worth much, but the memories and reactions are priceless. We have plenty of great episodes below. Three that I’d recommend this week are our episodes with John Smoltz (where we find Eck), Mike Krukow and Jack Morris.
Previously on Old Baseball Cards
RECENT EPISODES: Don Mattingly | Tom Gordon & Nick Gordon | Ron Darling | Mike Rizzo | Craig Counsell | Rocco Baldelli | Kevin Cash | Brad Ausmus | Pete Rose | Mike Trout | Kyle Freeland | Tony Gwynn Jr. | Archie Bradley | Manny Machado | Keynan Middleton | Pete Alonso | Todd Frazier | Miguel Rojas | Future Stars edition | Tim Wallach | LaTroy Hawkins | Kenny Lofton | Torii Hunter | Dave Stewart | Rickey Henderson
MUST-SEE EPISODES: Randy Johnson | George Brett | Dave Winfield | Gary Vee | Jerry Dipoto | Mike Krukow | HQ’s Scott Rogowsky | Felipe Alou | Torey Lovullo | Nick Swisher | David Ross | Tim Raines | Thomas Ian Nicholas aka Henry Rowengartner | Pedro Martinez | Bronson Arroyo | Eric Davis | Dusty Baker | Hank Azaria | Alex Rodriguez | Scott Boras | A.J. Ellis | Bernie Williams | Chase Utley | John Smoltz
COMPILATIONS: Best trades of 2017 | Best finds of 2017 | Best Guests of 2017 (Part 1) | Best Guests of 2017 (Part 2) | The Best of People Eating 30-Year-Old Gum | The Best Finds of 2018 | Favorite Guests of 2018
CROSSOVER EPISODES: The Miz | Metta World Peace | Jazzy Jeff
STARS FROM BACK IN THE DAY: Fred Lynn | Eduardo Perez | J.J. Putz | Luis Gonzalez | Duane Kuiper | Edgar Martinez | Ryne Sandberg | Frank Thomas | Sandy Alomar Jr. | Delino DeShields | Cliff Floyd | Dan Plesac | Aaron Boone | Bobby Bonilla | Andre Dawson | Ivan Rodriguez | Jack Morris | Jeff Nelson | Mark Teixeira | Rick Ankiel | Kevin Millar
MANAGERS/COACHES: Terry Francona | Joe Maddon | Bruce Bochy | Clint Hurdle | Buck Showalter | Brad Mills | Bob Melvin | Dave Roberts | Gabe Kapler | Alex Cora | Dave Martinez | Ron Gardenhire | Scott Servais
CURRENT PLAYERS: Alex Bregman | CC Sabathia | Curtis Granderson | Noah Syndergaard | Kyle Hendricks | Clayton Kershaw | Todd Coffey | John Axford | Dee Gordon | Adam Eaton | Rajai Davis | Brad Ziegler & Tyler Clippard | Buster Posey, David Price & Anthony Rizzo
CELEBS: Kurt Busch | Bill Nye | Mr. Belding | Alyssa Milano | Josh Duhamel | Joel McHale
ETC: Chris “Mad Dog” Russo | Josh Kusnick | Jeff Passan | Ken Kendrick
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Mike Oz is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @mikeoz
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