Ask any of the Oakland A’s starting pitchers about 1989 and you’re more likely to get an impromptu review of Taylor Swift’s multi-platinum album than a summary of the year that featured the tearing down of the Berlin Wall and the last time this franchise won a World Series.
That’s not saying they don’t appreciate history. It’s simply reflective of the fact that the majority of the starting five wasn’t alive when Ronald Reagan commanded Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”
The A’s enter 2017 with one of the youngest pitching rotations in baseball. When the season begins on April 3, the starting five will stretch from 24-year-old Raul Alcantara all the way to old man Andrew Triggs at the ancient age of 28.