1989 World Series - Aftermath

Aftermath

The A's would return to the World Series the following season, making it three years in a row. However, they were unsuccessful in defending their championship as the Cincinnati Reds swept them in the World Series. Oakland has not returned to the World Series since then and has only made two appearances in the American League Championship Series, losing in 1992 to the Toronto Blue Jays and in 2006 to the Detroit Tigers. At the time of the 1989 World Series, the A's had not seen a World Series win since 1974.

The Giants, meanwhile, failed to repeat as National League Champions and would not return to the playoffs until 1997, when they were defeated by the Florida Marlins. The Giants would not return to the World Series until 2002, where they lost a seven-game series to the Anaheim Angels after holding a 3–2 series lead. It took the Giants until 2010 to get back to the World Series, and they won their first world championship since 1954, when the team was still located in New York, by defeating the Texas Rangers in five games. In 2012 the Giants would go back to the World Series and defeat the Detroit Tigers in a four-game sweep.

On the A's, players Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco would later play for other teams. McGwire would be traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1997, where he would beat Roger Maris' single-season home run record in 1998 and retire as a Cardinal in 2001. Canseco was traded during the 1992 season to the Texas Rangers and after that bounced around from team to team including a return to Oakland in 1997. He would later win the 2000 World Series with the New York Yankees. Canseco retired in 2001 after a stint with the Chicago White Sox. Manager Tony La Russa remained with the A's until 1995, when he resigned to take the managerial position in St. Louis where he again got the chance to manage McGwire. La Russa would remain with the Cardinals for the rest of his career, retiring in 2011 after having led the team to three World Series and two world championships.

Giants manager Roger Craig (affectionately known as "Humm Baby") was fired after 1992 season and replaced by Dusty Baker, who managed the team to their next World Series. The final member of the 1989 team, Matt Williams, was traded to the Cleveland Indians after the 1996 season in a trade that brought future Giants star Jeff Kent to the team. Williams would eventually win a World Series as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001, and retired in 2003.

Kevin Mitchell would never regain the form that helped him win the National League MVP award in 1989, and after his production declined in the next two seasons he was traded to the Seattle Mariners in the 1991 offseason. Brett Butler would leave after one more season with the Giants, going to play for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Wins leader Rick Reuschel was gone after the following season, retiring in 1991. Finally, Will Clark was let go by the Giants after 1993 due to a decline in production thanks in large part to injuries that kept him out of the lineup for much of the previous three seasons. Clark signed with the Texas Rangers and despite not being able to escape the injury bug, he was a productive member of the team for the next five seasons. Clark retired following the 2000 season, where he made one last trip to the postseason as a member of La Russa's Cardinals.

On June 13, 2009, immediately prior to the second game of the interleague regular season meeting between the Giants and A's, the Giants honored 27 members of their 1989 team.

The A's victory continued a string of success for any Bay Area-based professional sports team. The San Francisco 49ers of the NFL continued its '80s dynasty by winning Super Bowl XXIII and XXIV in between the Athletics' World Series triumph. The last championship for the city of Oakland came in 1980, when the Oakland Raiders of the NFL won Super Bowl XV (the Raiders were in Los Angeles when they won Super Bowl XVIII in 1984). This would be the first time that the World Series ended on the last week of October, until the 2001 World Series when the 9/11 attacks ultimately canceled the NFL and MLB games for a week and caused a delay, which ultimately the World Series ended in November.