1979 Oakland Athletics season explained

The 1979 Oakland Athletics season involved the A's finishing seventh in the American League West Division with a record of 54 wins and 108 losses. Only 306,763 paying customers (an average of 3,984 for 77 home dates; there were four doubleheaders) showed up to watch the A's in 1979, the team's worst attendance since leaving Philadelphia.

Team owner Charlie Finley nearly sold the team to buyers who would have moved them to New Orleans for 1979. Any deal to relocate fell through when the city of Oakland refused to release the A's from their lease. The city was in the midst of its battle with the Oakland Raiders over their move to Los Angeles and didn't want to lose both teams.

The Athletics' 54–108 finish was their worst since moving to Oakland in 1968 until it was surpassed in 2023, in which they finished 50–112 . On a brighter note, the season saw the debut of Rickey Henderson. Henderson, a future Hall-of-Famer, would play for the team in four separate stints between 1979 and 1998.

Offseason

• October 3, 1978: Rico Carty was purchased from the Athletics by the Toronto Blue Jays.^[1]
• January 9, 1979: Lemmie Miller was drafted by the Athletics in the 1st round (6th pick) of the 1979 Major League Baseball Draft, but did not sign.^[2]
• February 26, 1979: Darryl Cias was purchased by the Athletics from the Salem Senators.^[3]
• February 28, 1979: Jim Todd was signed as a free agent by the Athletics.^[4]

Regular season

On April 17, 1979, the A's had their smallest home crowd (and one of the smallest in a major league baseball game in the 20th century) when only 653 people came to the nearly 50,000 seat Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum^[5] to see them beat the Seattle Mariners, 6 to 5.

On June 24, Rickey Henderson made his major league debut against the Texas Rangers. In four at bats, Henderson had two hits and a stolen base.^[6]

Notable transactions

• June 5, 1979: Ronn Reynolds was drafted by the Athletics in the 5th round of the 1979 Major League Baseball Draft, but did not sign.^[7]
• June 15, 1979: Mark Souza was signed as a free agent by the Athletics.^[8]

Roster

1979 Oakland Athletics
Roster
Pitchers		CatchersInfielders		Outfielders		ManagerCoaches

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C		143	516	119	.231	22	71
1B		125	472	136	.288	19	77
2B		122	400	93	.233	1	23
SS		115	348	88	.253	2	27
3B		138	442	99	.224	14	50
LF		89	351	96	.274	1	26
CF		121	388	99	.255	11	40
RF		80	278	69	.248	11	34
DH		133	478	118	.247	9	42

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
	98	313	76	.243	8	40
	74	258	66	.256	3	27
	105	226	42	.186	2	20
	66	212	47	.222	2	13
	46	166	38	.229	0	18
	39	106	19	.179	0	13
	30	91	17	.187	1	6
	23	89	19	.213	0	4
	23	78	11	.141	1	3
	24	73	14	.192	1	4
	28	62	10	.161	0	3

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
	34	218.2	12	16	4.28	101
	31	185.2	11	12	4.22	87
	30	176.2	2	17	5.04	95
	18	112.2	8	7	4.31	58
	14	84.2	2	8	4.36	50
	13	77.1	2	10	5.94	17

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
	29	146.1	5	8	4.80	96
	36	118.1	1	5	5.55	64
	40	82.2	3	4	3.70	52
	5	12.0	1	0	6.00	7

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
	62	4	11	9	4.20	40
	51	2	5	2	6.56	26
	42	1	5	4	5.85	33

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball.

External links

• 1979 Oakland Athletics team page at Baseball Reference
• 1979 Oakland Athletics team page at www.baseball-almanac.com

Notes and References

1. https://www.baseball-reference.com/c/cartyri01.shtml Rico Carty page at Baseball Reference
2. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/millele01.shtml Lemmie Miller page at Baseball Reference
3. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/ciasda01.shtml Darryl Cias page at Baseball Reference
4. https://www.baseball-reference.com/t/toddji01.shtml Jim Todd page at Baseball Reference
5. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/69965871/the-fresno-bee/ "Only 653 See A's Win, 6-5"
6. https://www.baseball-reference.com/h/henderi01.shtml Rickey Henderson page at Baseball Reference
7. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/reynoro02.shtml Ronn Reynolds page at Baseball-Reference
8. https://www.baseball-reference.com/s/souzama01.shtml Mark Souza page at Baseball-Reference