By Jeremy Kahn

OAKLAND-If you want to go back to the late 1980s and early 1990s to find the American League Champions, look no further than the two teams playing at the Coliseum this weekend.

The Minnesota Twins and the Oakland A’s represented the American League in five consecutive World Series with the Twins and A’s combining to win three of those five World Series.

Beginning in 1987, the Twins played the St. Louis Cardinals with the Twins winning their first World Series since they were known as the Washington Senators back in 1924 when they defeated the New York Giants.

Led by Frank Viola, Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek and Gary Gaetti, the Twins defeated the Cardinals in a thrilling seven-game series with the home team winning all the games.

One year later, the A’s who swept the Boston Red Sox to get to their first World Series since 1974 faced the upstart Los Angeles Dodgers, who stunned the New York Mets in seven games to return to their first Fall Classic since winning it all in 1981 against the New York Yankees.

All things pointed towards the A’s defeating the Dodgers and bringing a fourth World Championship to the City of Oakland, and first since 1974, when the A’s defeated the Dodgers in five games.

Unfortunately, somebody forgot to tell the Dodgers that they were supposed to lie for the A’s.

Eventual American League Most Valuable Player Jose Canseco gave the A’s a 4-2 lead in the top of the second inning, as he hit a Grand Slam off of Dodgers pitcher and former farmhand Tim Belcher to straightaway centerfield.

After the Dodgers trimmed the A’s lead down to 4-3, A’s manager Tony LaRussa summoned closer extraordinaire Dennis Eckersley in from for the bottom of the ninth inning.

Eckersley got the first two outs of the inning, and all that was standing in his way was former A’s outfielder Mike Davis, who walked.

Kirk Gibson, who was unable to go when the game started came off the bench and hit the most dramatic home run in World Series history, as he hit a 3-2 backdoor slider into the right field bleachers to give the Dodgers an amazing 5-4 victory.

That home run by Gibson was all that the Dodgers need for momentum, as they would go on to defeat the A’s in five games.

One year later, the A’s would return to the World Series to face their cross bay rivals, the San Francisco Giants.

After winning the first two games in Oakland, the scene switched to CandlestickPark on Tuesday October 17.

Less than a half hour to the game, the San Francisco Bay Area was hit with the most powerful earthquake since the 1906 Earthquake.

Commissioner Faye Vincent, who became the commissioner just a month before after the sudden death of Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti, decided along with other personnel to postpone the World Series until October 27.

Despite the long layoff, it did not faze the A’s at all, as they won the next two games to sweep the Giants and win their first World Series in 15 seasons.

After winning in 1989, all things pointed to the A’s becoming the first team since the 1977 and 1978 New York Yankees to win back-to-back World Series.

Just like in 1988, when the Dodgers stunned the baseball world by defeating the A’s in five games, the Cincinnati Reds did something that was last seen in a World Series in 1976, when they swept the Yankees in four straight games.

The Barry Larkin, Jose Rijo, Chris Sabo and the Nasty Boys of Rob Dibble, Norm Charlton and Randy Myers led Reds swept the A’s in four straight games and that was the last time that the A’s have made it to the World Series.

After finishing in last place in the American League West in 1990, very few people would think that the Twins would make it to the World Series for the second time in five seasons.

The Twins did just that, as they defeated the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series and they would face the Atlanta Braves, who finished in last place in the National League West in 1990.

Just like in 1987, when the home team won all seven games, it happened again, as the Twins defeated the Braves in one of the greatest World Series ever, as Gene Larkin hit a bases loaded single in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Twins a 1-0 victory.

One night earlier, the Twins won in extra innings, as Puckett hit a Charlie Leibrandt pitch over the left-center wall to send the series to a seventh game.