Greatest Bat Flip in Baseball History: Oakland Athletics’ Bert ‘Campy’ Campaneris

How many times has a pitcher drilled a hitter with a pitch and then the batter just simply walks to first base? Yawn. This is predictable and with a quick calculation, it has happened close to a billion times. In Oakland Athletics’ history, how many times has a pitcher drilled a batter and the batter then angrily throws the bat at the pitcher? One time to be exact. This moment is one of the greatest incidents in Oakland Athletics’ history involving the greatest shortstop and toughest A’s player, Bert “Campy” Campaneris.  Watch the clip below of Campy’s bat throw. This better get all A’s fans fired up as you don’t mess with Oakland!

The greatest moment in Oakland Athletics’ history happened during the 1972 ALCS against the Detroit Tigers. Bert Campaneris comes up to the plate against Tigers’ pitcher Lerrin LaGrow. LaGrow threw a pitch low and inside, and hit Campy in the ankle. Campy, who had an old school mentality and would settle getting hit in his own way, threw the bat at LaGrow almost drilling him in the face. When the bat left Campy’s hand, the bat was like a ‘helicopter’ in the air, as it whizzed past LaGrow. LaGrow, who must have been in shock, didn’t do anything to retaliate. Tigers’ manager Billy Martin came out of the dug out to defend his pitcher and screamed at Campy. Martin then had to be restrained by the umpires as he attempted to go after Campy. After the game, Billy Martin told reporters, “I don’t know what that idiot was thinking… I’m not going to get after him now, but if there’s ever another fight, I’m going to find him and beat the s- out of him.”

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Martin and the Tigers never got their revenge as the A’s beat them in that series and would ultimately go on to win the World Series that year in ’72. As the greatest incident in Oakland history, this should be acknowledge more and replayed for Athletics’ fans to see more often. Perhaps even a montage should be played before Oakland home games to remind all fans of this moment – the greatest bat flip of all time. Players were tough back then and would literally knock you out if they thought it was necessary. The passion that Campy played with is admirable and, to do that against the Tigers in Detroit, the worst city in the world, makes it extra sweet. This should be a lesson to anyone, don’t mess with the A’s, City of Oakland and especially the greatest A’s shortstop in Bert Campaneris.