A’s fans hankering for some successful Coliseum baseball can relive an era past when MLB Network premieres “The Swingin’ A’s” Tuesday night.
The hour-long documentary, which airs at 6 p.m., chronicles the team’s World Series wins in 1972-74.
Among those interviewed are Vida Blue, Rollie Fingers, Reggie Jackson, Gene Tenace, Sal Bando, Ray Fosse and Joe Rudi.
“It was a really nice piece,” Blue told SFBay.ca at an advance screening of the documentary. “I thought it was going to be a copy of the one on Comcast (Sports Net), called ‘Legends(: Oakland A’s Dynasty),’ but there was a lot of stuff in there that I had never seen. … I think the MLB (Network) got this one right.”
It reportedly touches on the triumphs, conflict and humor of that early ’70s A’s dynasty, according to CSN Bay Area’s Joe Stiglich, who also attended the advance screening.
“‘The Swingin’ A’s’ is not so much a nostalgic recap of those seasons, but an honest and entertaining account of just how dysfunctional the environment was with this bunch, even as the A’s were building one of baseball’s top dynasties,” Stiglich wrote.