1988 World Series

The Dodgers' team batting did not finish in the top five in any offensive statistical category except batting average (fifth), at .248—no regular or backup hit over .300 or drove in over 90 runs. Kirk Gibson's 25 home runs led the team but was only good enough for seventh in the National League. Slugger Pedro Guerrero had a sub-par year and was traded in July to the Cardinals for starting pitcher John Tudor. Kirk Gibson was the only Dodgers position player named to the All-Star Game, but declined the invitation.[2]

However, the Dodgers were sixth in the NL in runs scored and backed that up with excellent pitching. Despite trading All-Star pitcher Bob Welch (to Oakland, ironically) prior to spring training and an injury to Fernando Valenzuela (5–8, 4.24 ERA), the Dodgers were second in the NL in team ERA and runs allowed, and led the league in complete games and shutouts. The staff was anchored by Cy Young Award-winner Orel Hershiser, who led league in wins, won-loss percentage (23–8, .864), complete games (15), shutouts (8), and sacrifice hits (19).

Hershiser was backed-up by a pair of Tims, Tim Leary (17–11, 2.91) and rookie Tim Belcher (12–6, 2.91), and the July acquisition of John Tudor further strengthened the staff. The bullpen was outstanding, headed by Jay Howell (21 saves, 2.08), Alejandro Peña (12 saves, 1.91), and longtime New York Mets closer Jesse Orosco. The Dodger bullpen led the league in saves with 49.

It was intensity and fortitude, however, that defined the 1988 Dodgers, a trend that began when Kirk Gibson was signed as a free agent over the winter from the Detroit Tigers, the team he helped lead to the 1984 World Championship. Moreover, the invincible Hershiser threw shutouts in five of his last six regular season starts en route to a record 59 consecutive scoreless innings pitched, breaking the mark held by former Dodger great Don Drysdale. Hershiser would dominate the Mets in the NLCS, while Gibson hobbled through on bad knees and a bruised hamstring but would produce a memorable, if not the greatest, at-bat (in Game 1) of the World Series. Coincidentally, this was the second time the Dodgers had a no-hitter or a perfect game thrown against them in a season ending with a world championship. In 1981, Nolan Ryan tossed his record-breaking fifth no hitter (breaking the mark of four set by Ex-Dodger pitcher Sandy Koufax) against a Dodger team that won the World Series. While in 1988, Tom Browning of the Cincinnati Reds threw a perfect game which was also against a Los Angeles team that won it all.

The powerful Oakland Athletics had all the confidence and swagger of a heavily favored team. The "Bash Brothers" duo of Mark McGwire (32 home runs, 99 RBI, .260 batting average) and José Canseco (42 home runs, 124 RBI, .307 batting average) were in their early 20s, emerging as young superstars. Canseco became the first player to hit 40 or more home runs and steal 40 or more bases in Major League history and would capture the Most Valuable Player award in the American League. Veterans Dave Henderson (24 home runs, 94 RBI, .304 batting average) and longtime Pirate Dave Parker (12 home runs, 55 RBI, .257 batting average), also contributed with both their bats and their experience. The 1988 World Series marked Don Baylor's third consecutive World Series with three separate teams. Besides being a member of the 1988 Athletics, Baylor was also a member of the 1986 Boston Red Sox and 1987 Minnesota Twins.

The Oakland pitching staff was quite possibly the best in the American League in 1988. They led in ERA (3.44), wins (104), saves (64), and were second in strikeouts (983) and second in fewest runs allowed and home runs allowed. The ace of the staff was Dave Stewart, an ex-Dodger (1978–83), who won 20 games for the second straight season. Another ex-Dodger was reliable Bob Welch (17–9, 3.64) followed by 16-game winner Storm Davis. After spending the previous 12 years as a starter, mostly for the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs, Dennis Eckersley would be converted into a closer in 1987 and would lead the American League in saves in 1988 with 45. He would eventually have a distinguished 24-year career, gaining election into the Hall of Fame in 2004. Another longtime starter (and another ex-Dodger), Rick Honeycutt, proved to be a capable set-up man to Eckersley, finishing with three wins and seven saves.

With Kirk Gibson unable to start and officially listed as day-to-day due to a pulled left hamstring and a severely swollen right knee, sustained on awkward slides into second base in the NLCS in Games 5 and 7, the Dodgers were at a decided disadvantage. Additionally, because ace Orel Hershiser pitched in Game 7 of the NLCS, the Dodgers had to start rookie Tim Belcher in Game 1, and thus, they would not be able to start Hershiser three times in a potential seven-game series as they had in the NLCS. Meanwhile, Oakland, having swept the ALCS, could send a well-rested Dave Stewart to the mound. Both pitchers, however, would have their troubles in this game. Belcher loaded the bases in the first by giving up a single to Dave Henderson, then hitting José Canseco and walking Mark McGwire. Canseco was hit in the right biceps as he checked his swing and home plate umpire Doug Harvey awarded him first base. Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda disputed this, thinking the ball hit Canseco's bat. Audio from the game seemed to confirm this, but replays showed the ball hit Canseco in the biceps.[8]

Stewart's problems began in the bottom of the first when he purposely hit Steve Sax with his first pitch. After retiring Franklin Stubbs, Stewart balked Sax to second. Mickey Hatcher, Gibson's replacement in the starting lineup who had hit only one homer all season, shocked the crowd by hitting a two-run shot off Stewart. Hatcher further excited the Dodger Stadium fans by running full speed around the bases. Commentator Joe Garagiola noted, "He ran in like they thought they were going to take it off the scoreboard! He really circled those bases in a hurry!" and "He's a Saturday Evening Post cover!"[8]

Stewart calmed down, and the A's provided him a lead in their half of the second. After allowing a leadoff single to Glenn Hubbard and striking out Walt Weiss, Belcher's control problems continued as he walked both Stewart and Carney Lansford to load the bases. After Dave Henderson struck out, Canseco crushed a 1–0 pitch for a grand slam to almost dead center, denting an NBC game camera in the process. The A's had a 4–2 lead. Canseco's grand slam in Game 1 was his only hit of the series. His fellow Bash Brother Mark McGwire had only one hit as well: the game-winning shot that ended Game 3.

With one out in the sixth, the Dodgers broke Stewart's groove with three consecutive singles by Mike Marshall, John Shelby, and Mike Scioscia; Marshall scored. Stewart retired the next two batters to end the inning and strand Shelby in scoring position, but the Dodgers had cut the A's lead to 4–3.

Unknown to the fans and the media at the time, Kirk Gibson was watching the game on television while undergoing physical therapy in the Dodgers' clubhouse.[9] At some point during the game, television cameras scanned the Dodgers dugout and commentator Vin Scully, working for NBC for the 1988 postseason, observed that Gibson was "nowhere to be found".[9] This spurred Gibson to call for Mitch Poole, the team ball boy, to set up the tee for him to take some warmup swings. After a few swings, Gibson told Poole to go get Lasorda for an evaluation; Lasorda presently appeared. Shortly thereafter, Gibson was seen in the dugout wearing his batting helmet.[10] Along the way, NBC's Bob Costas could hear Gibson's agonized-sounding grunts after every hit.[11]

A's closer Dennis Eckersley came on to pitch the ninth to close it out for Stewart. After retiring the first two batters (Mike Scioscia and Jeff Hamilton), Eckersley's former A's teammate Mike Davis, batting for Alfredo Griffin, walked on five pitches. During Davis' at-bat, Dave Anderson initially entered the on-deck circle to hit for Alejandro Peña. Eckersley pitched carefully to Davis because the A's remembered all of the home runs he hit for the A's a year earlier, not—as popularly believed—because the light-hitting Anderson was on deck.[12][13] After Davis walked, Lasorda called back Anderson and sent up a hobbled Kirk Gibson to the plate, amid cheers from the Dodger Stadium crowd. Gibson bravely fouled off Eckersley's best offerings, demonstrating how badly he was hurting. On one foul, Gibson hobbled towards first and prompted Scully to quip, "And it had to be an effort to run THAT far." After Gibson fouled off several pitches, Davis stole second on ball three. On the next pitch, the 8th of the at-bat, Gibson slammed a backdoor slider into the right-field bleachers to win the game. The footage of Gibson hobbling around the bases on both hurt legs and pumping his fist as he rounded second became an iconic baseball film highlight.

Gibson would never bat again in the Series, and his walk-off homer in Game 1 marked the first World Series game ended with a come-from-behind home run. In a somewhat forgotten detail of this game highlighting the teamwork that was this Dodgers team's trademark, Gibson's heroics would not have been possible without the earlier home run by the man who replaced Gibson in the lineup, Mickey Hatcher.

By the time Kirk Gibson reached his locker after Game 1, bullpen coach Mark Cresse had written "R. HOBBS" on a piece of paper and taped it over Gibson's nameplate, alluding to the walkoff homer by the fictional slugger played by Robert Redford in The Natural. Indeed, the next night, NBC replayed the home run, intercutting it with film and music of the Hobbs home run from the movie.

Game 1 is the only game in World Series history in which a grand slam-hitting team failed to both win the game and the series. (In 1956, the Yankees hit a grand slam and lost Game 2 but prevailed in the series.)

Gibson became the second player to record a walk-off hit with two outs and his team trailing in the bottom of the ninth inning of a World Series game, following Cookie Lavagetto in the 1947 World Series. Only one other player, Brett Phillips in the 2020 World Series, has since accomplished this feat.

With a rested Orel Hershiser on the mound, the Dodgers took a 2–0 Series lead. Hershiser went the distance, allowing only three singles, all three hit by Dave Parker. The Dodgers got to Oakland starter Storm Davis with a five-run third. After one-out singles by Hershiser and Steve Sax, consecutive RBI singles by Franklin Stubbs and Mickey Hatcher made it 2–0 Dodgers before Mike Marshall capped the scoring with a three-run home run. Hershiser himself got an RBI when Alfredo Griffin singled in the fourth and scored on his double. Hershiser was the first pitcher to get three hits in a World Series game since Art Nehf of the New York Giants in Game 1 of the 1924 World Series.[14] He was also the first pitcher to record a World Series RBI since Philadelphia's John Denny in Game 4 of the 1983 World Series.[15]

The A's got back in the series on the strength of strong pitching by former Dodger World Series hero Bob Welch and three relievers. Dodger starter John Tudor left during the second inning with tightness in his pitching shoulder and was relieved by Tim Leary who pitched the next 3+2⁄3 innings and Alejandro Peña who pitched an additional three innings.

The A's struck first in the third when Glenn Hubbard singled, stole second, and came home on a single by Ron Hassey. The Dodgers tied it in the fifth when Franklin Stubbs drove home Jeff Hamilton with a double.

A's relievers helped squelch a Dodger threat in the sixth. Danny Heep led off with a double. John Shelby singled to left, but Heep was held up at third on the throw home as Shelby took second. Welch walked Mike Davis to load the bases, and left-hander Greg Cadaret was brought in to face lefty-hitting Mike Scioscia. Scioscia popped out to third. A's manager Tony La Russa then brought in right-hander Gene Nelson to face Hamilton, who forced Heep out at home. Alfredo Griffin grounded out to end the threat.

Reliever Rick Honeycutt held the Dodgers scoreless in two inning over work. The A's got their winning run in the bottom of the ninth when Mark McGwire deposited a one-out fastball from closer Jay Howell, who had struggled in the NLCS and also was suspended for illegally using pine tar, into the left-center field seats.

Without injured sluggers Kirk Gibson (25 HR) and Mike Marshall (20), the Dodgers started the game with what was statistically one of the weakest hitting World Series teams since the Dead-ball era. During the regular season the Game 4 starting line up of Steve Sax (2B), Franklin Stubbs (1B), Mickey Hatcher (LF), Mike Davis (RF), John Shelby (CF), Danny Heep (DH), Jeff Hamilton (3B), Mike Scioscia (C) and Alfredo Griffin (SS) combined for a total of just 36 home runs. Only Shelby had 10 or more home runs (he had exactly 10). Between them, José Canseco and Mark McGwire had hit 74 home runs for Oakland. Canseco alone had in fact hit more home runs (42) than the Dodger lineup while McGwire with 32 almost matched the Dodgers.

The Dodgers got two runs in the first when Steve Sax walked, went to third on a Mickey Hatcher single, and scored on a passed ball by A's catcher Terry Steinbach. Hatcher scored the second run on a groundout by John Shelby. The A's got one back in their half when Luis Polonia led off with a single, went to second on a passed ball, and later scored on a José Canseco groundout.

The Dodgers went up 3–1 when Franklin Stubbs doubled and scored when A's shortstop Walt Weiss couldn't field a liner by Mike Davis (the play was ruled an error.) The A's answered in the sixth on an RBI single by Carney Lansford.

A key play came when the Dodgers got their final run in the seventh. With Alfredo Griffin on third and Steve Sax on first with one out, pinch-hitter Tracy Woodson hit what looked to be an inning ending double play grounder. But Lasorda called for a hit and run play so Sax was going on the pitch. Oakland tried for the double play, but Sax barely beat the throw to second. So when the throw to first beat Woodson, it was only the second out, allowing Griffin to score.

The A's half of the seventh also dramatic. With one out, Weiss singled and reached second when he was called safe on a double-play grounder hit by Polonia in a similar play to the Dodgers' scoring play in the top half of the inning; Weiss was running with the pitch. Dave Henderson cut the Dodger lead to 4–3 on a two-out RBI double. After Dodgers reliever Jay Howell entered the game, José Canseco walked and Dave Parker reached on a Griffin error to load the bases, but Game 3 hero Mark McGwire popped out, stranding three and ending the inning.

The A's managed to get singles in the eighth by Ron Hassey and in the ninth by Henderson, but Howell rebounded from his earlier postseason woes to stop both rallies, including striking out Canseco and inducing a foul pop out by Dave Parker in the ninth to strand the tying run at first and end the game. The Dodgers now held a commanding three games to one lead.

While hosting Game 4 on NBC, Bob Costas angered many members of the Dodgers (especially manager Tommy Lasorda) by commenting before the start of the game that the Dodgers quite possibly were about to put up the weakest-hitting lineup in World Series history.[16] That comment ironically fired up the competitive spirit of the Dodgers. Later (while being interviewed by NBC's Marv Albert), after the Dodgers had won Game 4, Lasorda sarcastically suggested that the MVP of the 1988 World Series should be Bob Costas.

Orel Hershiser capped one of the greatest seasons ever by a starting pitcher and one of the most improbable World Series wins in history by pitching a complete game, allowing only four hits, two runs, and striking out nine. Stan Javier had both RBIs with a single and a sac fly.

In addition to Hershiser's performance, the Dodgers won because Mickey Hatcher stepped in for the hobbled Kirk Gibson in left field and provided spark, enthusiasm, and unexpected offense. He blasted his second home run in the Series off Oakland starter Storm Davis, a two-run shot, in the first inning; he had hit only one home run in the entire 1988 regular season.

Mike Davis, a disappointing free-agent signing for most of the 1988 season, added a two-run blast (on a 3-0 count) in the fourth off Davis, and former World Series MVP Rick Dempsey, filling in for an injured Mike Scioscia, drove in Davis with an RBI double in the sixth.

The only drama of the game briefly arose in the 8th inning: after Javier's single brought the lead to 5–2, Hershiser walked Dave Henderson to bring the tying run to the plate in the form of 42-homer man José Canseco. Hershiser got him to pop out, and struck out Dave Parker to end the threat. He struck out Tony Phillips for the final out to give the Dodgers their first World Championship since 1981.

Oakland came into the World Series heavily favored, but anything can happen in a short series, as proven by these 1988 Los Angeles Dodgers, who out-hit (41–28, .246–.177), out-muscled (5 HRs–2 HRs), and out-pitched (2.03–3.92) the seemingly unbeatable Oakland Athletics, incredibly winning the Series in five games, outscoring the A's, 21–11, bringing the Dodgers their sixth World Series Championship, the second as a manager for Tommy Lasorda. The Dodger pitching tamed Oakland monsters José Canseco (one hit, his grand slam in Game 1) and Mark McGwire (one hit and one RBI, which came on his Game 3 walk-off home run) for the entire series.

The Dodgers became the first (and so far only) team to have a perfect game pitched against them and win a World Series in the same season. Tom Browning of the Cincinnati Reds pitched that perfect game on September 16, 1988.

With the Lakers winning their fifth NBA championship in nine years four months before, the Dodgers winning the World Series made Los Angeles the first city to have both NBA and World Series champions in the same year.[17] This accomplishment would be repeated in 2020, with the same two teams winning their respective championships again.[18]

On October 17, 1988, The Atlanta Constitution reported that NBC affiliate WMGT (based in Macon, Georgia) had its on-air feed hijacked during Game 1, which had aired two days prior. The paper reported that portions of the game's second inning were replaced on the station with snippets of an adult program for ten seconds. An unidentified technician from WMGT was then later fired by WMGT-TV's staff. The production manager for WMGT, L.A. Sturdivant, told the Constitution that the incident was "just an accident and not deliberately planned".[22]

While footage of the hijack remains lost through time, television listings reported that HBO, Cinemax, The Movie Channel, or Showtime were all showing G to PG-13 rated films right at the time the second inning was played, and all four channels were part of Macon's Cox Cable systems. Due to the harm of explicit content, it was possible that WMGT accidentally hijacked and plastered NBC's broadcast of the second inning with a snippet of the Playboy Channel off of a C-band satellite antenna for 10 seconds before plastering back to the World Series. Sturdivant received many phone calls from WMGT's studios in Macon, stating that the hijack lasted a minimum of three seconds and a maximum of 30 seconds, but the Constitution report on the finalized timing stated that the hijack had lasted for ten seconds. Sturdivant told the paper that "it's being treated as a serious matter".[23]