Top Ten Players to End It with the A's
by Asher B. Chancey, Baseball Evolution
January 29, 2006
10. Dick Allen
Bad boy Dick Allen's career wasn't enough to get him into Cooperstown, but this original member of the Baseball Evolution Hall of Fame spent one season, the last of his career, with the 1977 Oakland Athletics, hitting .240 in 54 games.
9. Billy Williams
Williams spent most of his Hall of Fame career with the Cubs, but his career ended with the 1975 and 1976 A's. Billy played 155 games for the A's in 1975, hitting 23 homeruns, which was the most he'd hit in three seasons. He then played only 120 in 1976, hitting .211 before retiring.
8. Al Simmons
Simmons spent his first 9 seasons with the A's, then moved on to play with the White Sox, Tigers, Senators, Braves, and Reds. He played two more years with the A's from 1940-1941, at the age of 38 and 39. He was out of baseball in 1942, then played with the Red Sox in 1943 for 40 games. In 1944, at the age of 42, Al Simmons played four games with the Philadelphia A's, getting 3 hits in 6 at-bats.
7. Zack Wheat
After 18 seasons in Brooklyn, Wheat spent one year with the Philadelphia A's, batting .324 in 88 games, walking 18 times and striking out 5 times.
6. Reggie Jackson
Reggie, of course, started his career with the A's in their last year in Kansas City. He played with the A's for 9 seasons before joining the Orioles for a year, and then spending five years each with the Yankees and Angels. In 1987, he rejoined the A's for one last season, hitting .220 with 15 homeruns in 115 games before retiring.
Honorable Addendum – Ron Cey - Cey was also on the 1987 team, his only year with the A's and the last of his career. In 45 games, he hit .221m but had a remarkable .359 on-base percentage.
5. Frank Thomas
Headed to Oakland to try to put a happy ending on a brilliant career which has been troubled by injuries of late.
4. Joe Morgan
Morgan had one more year in the sun for the 1984 A's, hitting .244 with a whopping .356 on-base percentage, walking 66 times and striking out 39 in 116 games.
3. Eddie Collins
Collins started his career with the A's, then played with the White Sox for 12 seasons before returning to the A's in 1927 at the age of 40. He played 95 games his first season back, 36 games his second, and then 12 games total in 1929 and 1930 before retiring.
2. Tris Speaker
After 21 seasons with the Red Sox, Indians, and Senators, Speaker spent one season with the A's, in 1928, hitting .267 with a .310 OBP in 64 games.
1. Ty Cobb
Cobb was a legend in Detroit, but spent his final two seasons in Philly, 1927 and 1928, hitting .357 and .323, with OBPs of .440 and .389.
Honorable Mention – Tioga George Burns, Dave Kingman, Wally Schang, Don Baylor, Dusty Baker, Jim Perry
Disagree with something? Got something to add? Wanna bring up something totally new? Asher B. Chancey resides in Alexandria, Virginia, and can be reached at asher@baseballevolution.com.
