Tim Hudson vs. Barry Zito is Nostalgic, But Also Saddest Game of Season For One Fanbase

By Julian Spivey
The San Francisco Giants/Oakland A’s game on Saturday at 3 p.m. is no doubt going to be one of the most nostalgic baseball games in recent memory, especially for fans of the two Bay Area teams, but you can’t help but think it’s also going to be one of the saddest games of the year, especially for A’s fans. 

The much-talked about matchup between veteran hurlers Tim Hudson, on the mound for the Giants, and Barry Zito, on the mound for the A’s, will be a somewhat hurtful remembrance of what could have and should have been. 

In the early ‘00s, Hudson, Zito and another young gun pitcher named Mark Mulder were the budding threesome that were supposed to hold down the A’s rotation for many years to come and bring the struggling team back to their World Series winning ways of the ‘70s and ‘80s. Hudson, Zito and Mulder were also going to be the next Big Three rotation, taking the baton from Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz with the Atlanta Braves. There was so much hope in the A’s fanbase and with good reason. These kids were good. 

In just his second full season in 2000 Hudson would finish second in the American League Cy Young vote going 20-6 with a 4.14 ERA (in an era of inflated offensive numbers due to rapid performance enhancing drug usage). That would also be the same year that Zito and Mulder would make their Major League debuts. Starting in 2000, the young Big Three would lead the A’s to the playoffs in four consecutive years with the three going a full 100 games over .500 (194-94) in that four-year span. Remarkably each of the three pitchers would lead the A.L. in wins from 2000-2002. Hudson winning 20 games in 2000, Mulder winning 21 games in 2001 and Zito winning 23 games in 2002. Zito would win the A.L. Cy Young Award in 2002 with one of the finest pitching seasons in the last few decades going 23-5 with a 2.75 ERA. Unfortunately, the A’s would lose in the American League Division Series in all four seasons, twice to the New York Yankees and once each to the Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox. 

The A’s would fail to make the playoffs in 2004, despite Hudson and Mulder having All Star seasons. Zito started to slip going 11-11. 

And, in the blink of an eye the A’s Big Three was over. In fact, two-thirds of the Big Three would be traded following the 2004 season as A’s maverick general manager Billy Beane knew the A’s couldn’t afford to re-sign these pitching stars once their contacts were up and they were all coming toward an end. Mulder was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for three prospects and Hudson was traded to the Atlanta Braves for three prospects. Zito remained as the A’s lone ace, but it would only be two more workhorse seasons before he would sign a huge seven-year, $126 million contract with the San Francisco Giants. 

The A’s no longer had a member of that rotation that looked so promising. 

Things didn’t work out so well for Mulder in St. Louis or Zito in San Francisco. Mulder would have a great first year with the Cardinals in 2005 going 16-8 with a 3.64 ERA, but then his arm would essentially fall off and after three injury plagued seasons he’d be forced into retirement at the young age of 30. Still, he’d win a World Series title with the Cardinals in 2006, despite not being able to pitch in the playoffs due to injury. 

Zito never lived up to the huge contract the Giants gave him. He’d compile a record of 63-80 and a 4.62 ERA with them over seven measly seasons, becoming the most overrated and overpaid player in the game and even losing a National League high 17 games in 2008. Still, he would come up huge for them on the biggest stage of all in game one of the 2012 World Series when he would outpitch Detroit Tigers’ ace Justin Verlander and get the Giants started on a four-game sweep of the series. 

Mulder and Zito didn’t live up to their early days with the A’s in the National League, but both would win World Series rings and you know that had to hurt the A’s fanbase deep down inside. 

Hudson would be the one pitcher of the Big Three to continue on his winning ways. He pitched brilliantly for the Braves for nine seasons going 113-72 with a 3.56 ERA for an underachieving team that would only make the playoffs two years while he was there. These seasons solidified a career that many say makes Hudson a borderline Hall of Fame candidate. 

In 2014, Hudson signed as a free agent with the San Francisco Giants and at age 38 would ride a hot start to an All Star game appearance. Hudson would make his first World Series appearance against the Kansas City Royals in the fall classic and even though it didn’t go well would be crowned a champion on the back of the greatest playoff pitching performance ever by teammate Madison Bumgarner. 

All three of the A’s former Big Three had now won a championship. But, they were all supposed to do it together as a team, as one of the greatest rotations to ever play our pastime, much earlier. 

Plans don’t always work out the way they’re supposed to, and in sports more often than not they don’t.

Zito hasn’t pitched in the majors since the 2013 season, but wanting to make one last comeback he signed a minor league deal with the A’s organization at the beginning of the season in hopes of coming home one last time. He rode around the country on busses all season long pitching in the minors with the hope he’d get one last bit of action in “the show.” On Sept. 16, the A’s called him up and inserted him into their bullpen. He’s made one appearance out of the pen. Tomorrow should prove to be the veteran’s final career start and quite potentially his final MLB appearance. Hudson, who announced before the season began that he’d be retiring after the season, has gone 8-8 with a 4.20 ERA for the Giants.

All of this is why Saturday’s matchup between two longtime friends and old teammates Hudson and Zito has got to be depressing for much of the A’s fanbase. It’s made even more depressing by the fact that Mulder will be returning to the Oakland Coliseum, as well, to join his former young guns in the ceremonial first pitch. 

The media has been playing up the nostalgia aspect of this matchup all week long, but nobody seems to be bringing up the fact that many of the A’s fans will probably shed a tear or two during the game thinking about their dynasty that should’ve been and never was. 

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