Dennis Eckersley recalls getting A's final out of 1989 World Series

Programming Note: Watch Game 4 of the 1989 World Series between the Giants and A's on Thursday night at 8 p.m. on NBC Sports California and streaming here.

Dennis Eckersley is infamously connected to one of baseball’s biggest home runs.
 
Game 1 of the 1988 World Series saw a hobbling and pinch-hitting Kirk Gibson give his Dodgers victory with one ninth-inning swing of the bat in Los Angeles.
 
Oakland ended up losing the series.
 
“I’ve never moved on,” Eckersley said laughing and recalling the moment. “Guess what, you have to accept that. I don’t like it. And luckily we won in ’89, that helped a lot.”
 
That’s why “Eck” recording 1989’s final out, and his own history in San Francisco, was sweet and specific redemption.
 
“That, for me, made up for so many things,” Eckersley recalled. “To be on the mound, and get the last out … in your glove, and the fist pump. That’s the fist pump that every player wants, what a dream come true.”
 
It was Eckersley’s only save needed that series, after recording three against Toronto in 1989’s ALCS.
 
But prior to that, even dedicated baseball fans forget what an uphill battle the entire season was. Oakland were favorites among MLB, but dealt with injuries to key players like Jose Canseco, Walt Weiss, and Eckersley.
 
“I missed from the end of May, to the All-Star break,” Eckersley recalled about his shoulder injury. “That plays to how much depth we had, really nobody skipped a beat. The offense was good all year long.”

[RELATED: Dave Stewart helped community after 1989 earthquake]
 
Ultimately the A’s swept the Giants in 1989, in a World Series that certainly wasn’t guaranteed to be completed after the Loma Prieta earthquake preceding Game 3.
 
“That’s why we were so fortunate to get it done,” Eckersley said. “No champagne, no celebration, who cares? There was devastation in the Bay Area, that [baseball] was secondary. We were just lucky to get it in.”