Swingin' A's

The Swingin' A's was the nickname for the Oakland Athletics (A's), primarily used in reference to the Oakland teams that dominated the American League from 1971 to 1975. The A’s won three consecutive World Series championships in 1972, 1973 and 1974. They are widely recognized as being among the best teams in baseball history.^[1] The team won five consecutive American League West Division titles and three American League pennants en route to those three World titles. They were the first team to win three straight World Series since the New York Yankees won five in a row from 1949 to 1953. They and the Yankees are the only franchises to have completed a three-peat, and no team would do so again until the Yankees won three straight from 1998 to 2000.

While the team did not record the most appearances in a World Series in the 1970s (as the Cincinnati Reds went to four), the Athletics won more titles overall without losing once; of the six teams who made multiple appearances in the Series of the 1970s, the Athletics and the Pittsburgh Pirates were the only ones to never lose. The Athletics were also the first team in the League Championship Series era (since 1969) to reach the World Series in five consecutive seasons, and they were the second team to win three of them in a row (after the Baltimore Orioles); no team would reach the LCS five straight times until the Atlanta Braves of the 1990s. In their five-year span, they averaged 95 wins while winning their division by at least five games each time. They were characterized by utilizing a tremendous pitching staff to hold precarious leads whenever needed; they scored 16, 21, and 16 runs combined in their respective World Series runs but managed to win all three.^[2] In the divisional era, they are, to date, the only team to have won the American League West five consecutive seasons.