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He was MVP of the baseball team and also lettered in football. He was team captain his senior year and hit .570 with seven home runs. The A’s had tied the record for longest win streak in the AL, held by the 1906 White Sox and 1947 Yankees.
Script-flipping win streaks are no foreign concept to this organization. This is the franchise’s ninth win streak of 10 or more games since it arrived in Oakland in 1968. This core is also responsible for baseball’s last streak of 10 or more wins — 11 in a row in May of 2019.
Remember when the A’s won 20 straight? Looking back 15 years later
It definitely seemed like Oakland was going to coast through the game's final few innings and wrap up the record in a laugher ... But that didn't happen, as you may have already known. Or, perhaps, you saw the dramatization in 2011's Moneyball, a film that used the story arc of the 20-game winning streak as its main dramatic point (since that A's team lost the AL Division Series to the Twins). He finished his career with a .992 fielding percentage playing at first base and catcher. In 17 postseason games, he hit .286 (12-for-42) with 9 runs, 2 doubles, 1 home run and 11 walks.
The A’s rallied to tie the score at 6-6, then Tejada walked off again. A single up the middle off Jason Grimsley scored Terrence Long. The last three games of the streak were filled with suspense. First, he ditched his signature green collared shirt and wore a yellow that day. Then after Hatteberg’s walkoff, the famously understated Vucinich celebrated on the field with the team.
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In Hatteberg's last season with the Red Sox, he ruptured a nerve in his elbow, impairing his throwing ability and endangering his career as a catcher. On December 19 he was traded to the Colorado Rockies in exchange for Pokey Reese. Two days later, Colorado declined to offer Hatteberg arbitration and he became a free agent. Martin Gallegos is a multimedia beat reporter covering the Oakland Athletics. A native of San Jose, he frequently attended ballgames at both AT&T Park and the Oakland Coliseum as a kid. Prior to covering the A's, he covered the Earthquakes, San Jose State football, and high school sports around the Bay Area.
A career highlight for Hatteberg was as a member of the Oakland A's on September 4, 2002. The A's had won 19 straight games to tie the American League record. With their next game, against the Kansas City Royals, tied at 11 after the A's had blown an 11-0 lead, Hatteberg pinch-hit with one out and the bases empty in the bottom of the ninth inning. He drove a 1-0 pitch well over the right center field wall off Jason Grimsley for a walk-off home run to give the A's a win and a then-American League record 20-game winning streak.
Scott Hatteberg Explains Giving Wrong Bat to Hall of Fame in 2002
The night of Sept. 4, 2002, was a special one for the Oakland A's, who carried into their matchup with the Royals a highly improbable yet very real 19-game winning streak. They were one more victory away from setting an American League record. The stakes were high, the Coliseum was packed, and the A's jumped out to an early 11-0 lead. In parts of seven seasons from 1995 through 2001, he hit 34 home runs and batted .267. On August 6, 2001, against the Texas Rangers, he became the only player in MLB history to hit into a triple play and hit a grand slam in his next at-bat. The bat he used for that game is now in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
In Game Six of the 2020 World Series, the Tampa Bay Rays were facing elimination. Rays ace starting pitcher Blake Snell was dominating the high-powered Dodgers with ruthless efficiency. Hopefully, from a fan's perspective, there are more jubilant, happy memories than there are heartbreaking ones. They got the ball to Billy Koch, their lights-out closer, in the ninth. An RBI single by Luis Alicea tied the score at 11-11.
Compare Scott Hatteberg to
The 2021 team started this streak against the Houston Astros — who pinned five losses on the A’s in the season’s first two weeks — and gained momentum against the bottom-feeding Tigers and scuffling Twins. In 2002, the only team the A’s faced that would finish the season with a record above .500 were the Twins. Two teams they faced — the Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers — finished with 100 losses. Now the baseball world is following the current generation of A’s who seemingly can’t lose. The A’s open a seven-game trip today against the Orioles without a loss since April 8. Oakland A's have relied on modern Moneyball in historic win streak - Sports Illustrated.
His walk-off home run on Sept. 4, 2002 against the Kansas City Royals sent the 55,528 fans in attendance into a frenzy. The ground shook beneath his white Nike cleats as he rounded the bases to complete a victory. With one swing, Hatteberg wiped away the sour taste of a blown six-run lead. With one swing, he capped off the A’s 20th consecutive win in the magical, breath-taking fashion that defined that historic streak and those A’s. The streaks also included some favorable matchups.
His best year was 2004 when he hit .287, scored 87 runs, hit 15 home runs, drove in 82 runs, and had an on-base percentage of .367. Mabry had one of the best games of his career by hitting two home runs with five RBIs against the Tigers. Their 10th straight win put them atop the AL West Aug. 23.
The first baseman hit the clinching home run to get the 20th win against the Royals. After that game on Sept. 4, 2002, a representative of the National Baseball Hall of Fame asked Hatteberg for the bat he used to hit the homer. Both groups returned a core of young players, but had holes to fill following high-profile departures. The 2002 team lost Johnny Damon, Jason Giambi and closer Jason Isringhausen, The 2021 team lost Marcus Semien, Khris Davis and closer Liam Hendriks. It's hard not to be romantic about the only walk-off home run of Scott Hatteberg's career. On Sept. 4, 2002, the catcher-turned-first-baseman stepped into the batter's box at Oakland to pinch-hit for Eric Byrnes in the bottom of the ninth with the Athletics and Royals tied, 11-11.
Scott Hatteberg hit 106 home runs during his 14-year MLB career, but undoubtedly his most famous came on Sept. 4, 2002, when he powered the A's into history and secured himself some Hollywood glory. Made history when they won an absurd 20 games in a row, thanks in part to a legendary at-bat from Scott Hatteberg. In a sense, Olson has become the 2002 Tejada at the plate. After sitting out a few games with minor injuries, Olson is 14-for-36 with a multi-home run game and 14 RBI in 10 games. Tejada had a hit in 16 of the 20 games and drove in 18 runs. He hit a walk-off home run for win No. 18 and a walk-off single for win No. 19.
And finally, most of the games then — and now — have been lopsided. But the A’s have out-scored their opponents during this streak; the 2002 team never trailed in 14 of the 20 wins. As an everyday player Hatteberg helped the Athletics reach the playoffs twice, in 2002 and 2003. He hit 49 home runs and batted .269 from 2002 through 2005. He drove in 263 runs and had an on-base percentage of .355.
Do all MLB teams use sabermetrics?
Mulder even confessed that this was one of the "coolest moments" of his life.
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