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TheOakland Athletics' 1997 season was the 97th season in franchise history. The team finished fourth in theAmerican League West with a record of 65–97.

Coming off a 78–84 campaign in 1996, The Athletics hoped to reach the playoffs for the first time since 1992. With this as the goal, the team traded forJose Canseco who had previously played for the Athletics from 1985 to 1992, as a hope to get another power hitter. With the trade, Canseco was reunited with fellow superstar (and fellow "Bash Brother")Mark McGwire. In addition to McGwire and Canseco, Oakland's lineup included other power hitters such asJason Giambi,Gerónimo Berroa, andMatt Stairs.

Although a good looking off-season, little was done to improve the Athletics' poor 1996 pitching staff.Ariel Prieto, who had a 4.41 careerERA, was named the Opening Day starter; a succession of poorly regarded players filled out the rest of the starting rotation and bullpen. While optimism remained high for the team's offense, great concern remained for its pitching staff.

In the end, Oakland's offense and pitching both fared poorly. No starter won more than six games. None of the team's top four starters (Ariel Prieto,Steve Karsay,Mike Oquist, andDave Telgheder) finished the season with an ERA of less than 5.00; the Athletics, as a team, finished with an earned run average of 5.48, a league worst. All told, Oakland allowed a season total of 946 runs. A record that still holds till today

More puzzling was the fate of the offense. Oakland, as expected, remained one of the league's best power-hitting teams. The Athletics' sluggers hit a total of 197 home runs (third-most in the American League). Oakland's home runs failed to generate much offense, however, as all around low batting average for the team negated most of the team's other advantages. Oakland scored a total of 764 runs in 1997 (the 11th highest total in the American League).

These awful performances quickly removed the A's from contention. On May 31, they were already nine games out of first place; their position steadily worsened throughout the summer. In light of this, General ManagerSandy Alderson traded Mark McGwire (who, at the time, was on pace to breakRoger Maris' single-season home run record) to theSt. Louis Cardinals forT.J. Matthews,Blake Stein, andEric Ludwick. McGwire would finish the season with 58 home runs (four shy of breaking the record). The trade was a disaster on the Athletics' end, as none of the three players received in the trade panned out. The A's ultimately finished twenty-five games behind the first-placeSeattle Mariners. Their 65-97 finish (the club's worst since1979) led to the removal of Sandy Alderson as General Manager on October 17, he was replaced byBilly Beane. ManagerArt Howe, however, was retained for the 1998 season.

The 1997 season would ultimately prove to be the Athletics' nadir. The continued rise ofJason Giambi, the debuts ofBen Grieve andMiguel Tejada, the acquisition ofTim Hudson in the 1997 MLB draft, and the ascension of Billy Beane to the position of general manager paved the way for a lengthy period of success from 1999 onwards.

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Seattle Mariners	90	72	.556	—	45‍–‍36	45‍–‍36
Anaheim Angels	84	78	.519	6	46‍–‍36	38‍–‍42
Texas Rangers	77	85	.475	13	39‍–‍42	38‍–‍43
Oakland Athletics	65	97	.401	25	35‍–‍46	30‍–‍51

1997 American League record Source:MLB Standings Grid – 1997 v t e
Team	ANA	BAL	BOS	CWS	CLE	DET	KC	MIL	MIN	NYY	OAK	SEA	TEX	TOR	NL
Anaheim	—	4–7	6–5	6–5	7–4	5–6	6–5	7–4	4–7	4–7	11–1	6–6	8–4	6–5	4–12
Baltimore	7–4	—	5–7	5–6	6–5	6–6	7–4	5–6	10–1	8–4	8–3	7–4	10–1	6–6	8–7
Boston	5–6	7–5	—	3–8	6–5	5–7	3–8	8–3	8–3	4–8	7–4	7–4	3–8	6–6	6–9
Chicago	5–6	6–5	8–3	—	5–7	4–7	11–1	4–7	6–6	2–9	8–3	5–6	3–8	5–6	8–7
Cleveland	4–7	5–6	5–6	7–5	—	6–5	8–3	8–4	8–4	5–6	7–4	3–8	5–6	6–5	9–6
Detroit	6–5	6–6	7–5	7–4	5–6	—	6–5	4–7	4–7	2–10	7–4	4–7	7–4	6–6	8–7
Kansas City	5–6	4–7	8–3	1–11	3–8	5–6	—	6–6	7–5	3–8	3–8	5–6	6–5	5–6	6–9
Milwaukee	4–7	6–5	3–8	7–4	4–8	7–4	6–6	—	5–7	4–7	5–6	5–6	7–4	7–4	8–7
Minnesota	7–4	1–10	3–8	6–6	4–8	7–4	5–7	7–5	—	3–8	7–4	5–6	3–8	3–8	7–8
New York	7–4	4–8	8–4	9–2	6–5	10–2	8–3	7–4	8–3	—	6–5	4–7	7–4	7–5	5–10
Oakland	1–11	3–8	4–7	3–8	4–7	4–7	8–3	6–5	4–7	5–6	—	5–7	5–7	6–5	7–9
Seattle	6–6	4–7	4–7	6–5	8–3	7–4	6–5	6–5	6–5	7–4	7–5	—	8–4	8–3	7–9
Texas	4–8	1–10	8–3	8–3	6–5	4–7	5–6	4–7	8–3	4–7	7–5	4–8	—	4–7	10–6
Toronto	5–6	6–6	6–6	6–5	5–6	6–6	6–5	4–7	8–3	5–7	5–6	3–8	7–4	—	4–11

Pos	Player	G	AB	R	H	Avg.	HR	RBI	SB
C	Brent Mayne	85	256	29	74	.289	6	22	1
1B	Mark McGwire	105	366	48	104	.284	34	81	1
2B	Scott Spiezio	147	538	58	131	.243	14	65	9
3B	Scott Brosius	129	479	59	97	.203	11	41	9
SS	Rafael Bournigal	79	222	29	62	.279	1	20	2
LF	Jason Giambi	142	519	66	152	.293	20	81	0
CF	Damon Mashore	92	279	55	69	.247	3	18	5
RF	Matt Stairs	133	352	62	105	.298	27	73	3
DH	José Canseco	108	388	56	91	.235	23	74	8

Player	G	AB	R	H	Avg.	HR	RBI	SB
Dave Magadan	128	271	38	82	.303	4	30	1
Gerónimo Berroa	73	261	40	81	.310	16	42	3
Jason McDonald	78	236	47	62	.263	4	14	13
Mark Bellhorn	68	224	33	51	.228	6	19	7
George Williams	76	201	30	58	.289	3	22	0
Tony Batista	68	188	22	38	.202	4	18	2
Ernie Young	71	175	22	39	.223	5	15	1
Brian Lesher	46	131	17	30	.229	4	16	4
Patrick Lennon	56	116	14	34	.293	1	14	0
Izzy Molina	48	111	6	22	.198	3	7	0
Miguel Tejada	26	99	10	20	.202	2	10	2
Ben Grieve	24	93	12	29	.312	3	24	0
Tilson Brito	17	46	8	13	.283	2	6	0
Scott Sheldon	13	24	2	6	.250	1	2	0

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	BB	SO
Steve Karsay	24	132.2	3	12	5.77	47	92
Ariel Prieto	27	125.0	6	8	5.04	70	90
Mike Oquist	19	107.2	4	6	5.02	43	72
Dave Telgheder	20	101.0	4	6	6.06	35	55
Brad Rigby	14	77.2	1	7	4.87	22	34
Jimmy Haynes	13	73.1	3	6	4.42	40	65
Willie Adams	13	58.1	3	5	8.18	32	37
Eric Ludwick	6	24.0	1	4	8.25	16	14
Steve Wojciechowski	2	10.1	0	2	7.84	1	5

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Don Wengert	49	134.0	5	11	6.04	68
Mike Mohler	62	101.2	1	10	5.13	66
Carlos Reyes	37	77.1	3	4	5.82	43
Andrew Lorraine	12	29.2	3	1	6.37	18

Player	G	IP	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Billy Taylor	72	73.0	3	4	23	3.82	66
Buddy Groom	78	64.2	2	2	3	5.15	45
Aaron Small	71	96.2	9	5	4	4.28	57
Dane Johnson	38	45.2	4	1	2	4.53	43
T.J. Mathews	24	28.2	6	2	3	4.40	24
Mark Acre	15	15.2	2	0	0	5.74	12
Richie Lewis	14	18.2	2	0	0	9.64	12
Tim Kubinski	11	12.2	0	0	0	5.68	10
Jay Witasick	8	11.0	0	0	0	5.73	8
Gary Haught	6	11.1	0	0	0	7.15	11
John Johnstone	5	6.1	0	0	0	2.84	4
Steve Montgomery	4	6.1	0	1	0	9.95	1
Billy Brewer	3	2.0	0	0	0	13.50	1

Level	Team	League	Manager
AAA	Edmonton Trappers	Pacific Coast League	Gary Jones
AA	Huntsville Stars	Southern League	Mike Quade
A	Modesto A's	California League	Jeffrey Leonard
A	Visalia Oaks	California League	Tony DeFrancesco
A-Short Season	Southern Oregon Timberjacks	Northwest League	John Kuehl
Rookie	AZL Athletics	Arizona League	Juan Navarrette

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Offseason

Regular season

Transactions

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Roster

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Other batters

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Other pitchers

Relief pitchers

Awards and records

Farm system

References

Sources