Yankees Sweep A's: No More New York-Oakland Rivalry

Hard believe it was only 11 years ago.

It was Memorial Day week 2000, at the old Yankee Stadium. The pesky and under-known, cocksure and talented Oakland Athletics came to New York for a rather innocuous three-game set.

They left with their chips off their shoulders, taking two out of the three. The A’s took their gloves and slapped the Yankees’ faces, laying down track for a transcontinental duel that would ensue for the next few seasons.

True, it was not on par with the storied Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, or the geographic Bay Bridge Series between Oakland and San Francisco. And at the time, it certainly didn’t necessarily get Yankees fans all hot and bothered.

But it was more than just an East Coast/West Coast battle: The A’s vs. Yankees grew to depict and embody the era of baseball at the turn of the new millennium.

At the time, Oakland GM Billy Beane was in his lab tinkering with the formula for his soon-to-be famous Moneyball philosophy.

As Oakland pinched its wallet, Beane devised a management style that thrived on the undervalued strengths of under-appreciated players, both on the free agent market and in the draft. And with the cultivation of their farm of young pitchers, Oakland perfected its business model on a shoestring budget in a professional arena that wasn’t evenly competitive.

On the opposite end of the spectrum was the free-spending, billion-dollar empire of the New York Yankees, who had a more lavish approach to building their rosters.

Money was certainly no object, as each big-name free agent on the market was a shiny new toy to add to its collection. Signing players to contracts worth hundreds of millions starkly contrasted Oakland’s garage sale affordability.

As far as David vs. Goliath comparisons go, A’s-Yankees was a 21^st century version: the cash-starved Bay Area start-ups against the Wall Street high rollers. But this contrast extended far beyond just the opposing front offices.

Each club’s players also depicted these differences on the baseball diamond. Commonly reported that their clubhouse was more a frat house, the Oakland Alpha’s were led by their hellish angel, Jason Giambi, the eventual 2000 AL MVP.

Meanwhile, the Yankees were a corporation of executives, with Derek Jeter & Co. toting their bats in briefcases. These polarizing personas added fuel to each team’s fanbase, pitting Oakland’s blue collars against the white collars of New York.

So when the A’s arrived to the Big Apple in late-May of 2000 for a seemingly ordinary three-day business meeting, they were ready to prove to the rest of the world how much they were really worth.

And when the A’s did win the last two games, the Bay Area media saw the series win as a coming-out party for the young up-and-comers.

Having sniffed the chase of the playoffs in 1999, the A’s proved they were contenders in 2000 by hanging with the superior Yankees in their own ballpark. The Athletics returned to Oakland with serious thoughts of making the post-season.

With the help of their ripened "Big Three" starting pitchers—Tim Hudson and rookies Mark Mulder and Barry Zito—the A’s streaked in the second half to take the AL West title. But making the post-season meant that the green Athletics had to face the two-time defending World Series champion Yankees in the ALDS.

Pushed to a Game 5, the champs ultimately made the A’s look like chumps, advancing on their way to a title three-peat.

Still, the up-start Athletics were on the verge of being a powerhouse, and the Yankees of all teams could recognize their promise. With a year of post-season experience under their belts, the A’s were poised to redeem themselves in 2001, especially against their New York big brothers.

After the Yanks swept a three-game series in New York in late-April of ’01, it looked as though the A’s would never get over the hump, their record falling to 8-17.

But the rivalry took a surprising turn when Oakland won the next six match-ups, all at home. The Coliseum was stuffed to the brim with fans of both sides eager to support their team’s respective style of players, management, and payroll. Each game was bedlam, and A’s fans exalted at Yankee fans’ expense.

In the 2001 ALDS rematch, Oakland was on the verge of overthrowing the Yankee regime, winning the first two games on the road. But in Game 3 in Oakland, the famous Derek Jeter flip-to-home play preserved a 1-0 Yankees win, and the A’s never recovered, losing the series in five.

The rivalry, by now a blazing fireball, was stoked to a full-blown inferno, with Oakland fans incensed that the Athletics could not put out their cross-country foes in a second attempt. But what turned A’s fans into arsonists was the burn their beloved Giambi pulled on them by joining the hated Yankees as a free agent during the ’01 off-season—his  No. 16 jerseys torched in effigy.

This was baseball in a nut shell: The healthily wealthy Yankees dumping yacht-loads of money for free agent superstars. Meanwhile, the peanut-payroll Athletics helplessly watch their homegrown tenants move from the Oakland outhouse to the Manhattan penthouse.

Which ultimately turned the rivalry that much more intense. The Yankees would keep bullying Oakland off the field, as the A’s would never be able to keep all of their talented young players from the New York’s greener pastures. 

And though the A’s would continue to win season series against the Yanks in ‘02, New York would always have the last laugh, as their deeper pockets ensured perpetual success. And Oakland fans knew the A’s couldn’t compete for a title if they instead had to continue rebuilding with the loss of each superstar they couldn’t afford to keep.

For the remainder of the decade, Oakland would never recover, reaching the post-season only once more but not advancing to the World Series. The Yankees meanwhile continued their spending, landing superstar after superstar after superstar, winning a title in ’09.

New York proved that to play Moneyball, it’s money you play with, not the ball. And if in fact you have cash, then Moneyball is clearly more successful than no-money ball.

During Memorial Day week of 2011, New York swept the A’s in Oakland by a combined score of 21-5 over three games. New York has won 10 straight in the series.

The rivalry no longer exists, evidenced by the vacant seats at the under-stocked Coliseum. After all, a rivalry by definition is competitive.