WEST SACRAMENTO -- Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito have done a lot together.
“We learned together,” Mulder said. “We’ve had a lot of success together. We failed together.”
On Saturday, the three talented pitchers were united once again at Sutter Health Park for a special honor. Along with longtime play-by-play broadcaster Monte Moore, the trio was inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame before Saturday’s game against the Reds.
To the three hurlers, who were each drafted by the A's and whose tenures in Oakland overlapped from 2000 to 2004, it felt only fitting they would receive the call as one.
“To be shoulder-to-shoulder with Huddy and Mulder, that’s everything,” Zito said. “It would be very strange doing that without them.”
Known as the “Big Three,” the trio led the A’s to four straight postseason appearances from 2000-03. Their run was interrupted after 2004, with Mulder traded to the Cardinals and Hudson dealt to the Braves, but the special rotation lives forever in A’s history.
“The time they were here was a very successful period -- four consecutive playoff runs,” said A’s manager Mark Kotsay, who played for the A’s from 2004-07. “They were teammates of mine, so I’m honored to have played with them and be a part of their career.”
Kotsay has stayed close with his old friends, seeking advice from Hudson on where to live in Atlanta after being traded to the Braves in 2008. As it happens, his final Major League at-bat -- with the Padres in 2013 -- came against Zito, then pitching for the Giants. Kotsay struck out swinging on a fastball outside the zone, a moment both players both remember well.
"I thought it was going to be my last-ever pitch in the big leagues,” Zito recalled. “I was like, ‘How cool. He’s the last hitter I face, and I’m the last pitcher to face him.’”
It wasn’t the end for Zito, who returned to the A’s for a short stint in 2015. He finished his career with the club with a 102-63 record and a 3.58 ERA, surpassing 1,000 strikeouts in eight seasons in green and gold.
He, Hudson and Mulder combined to make the A’s rotation absolutely lethal. Hudson finished second in American League Cy Young Award voting in 2000, and Mulder did the same the next season. In 2002, Zito won the Cy with a 2.75 ERA in 35 starts.
With that kind of firepower at the top of the rotation, it’s no wonder the A’s won the AL West in 2000, 2002 and 2003. From 2000-04, their five years featuring all three of the “Big Three,” they averaged 96.6 wins per year.
“They were just dominating guys,” former A’s infielder Carney Lansford said. “The pitching’s what gets you to the postseason.”
Lansford was one of many franchise icons on hand to see a new group of A’s legends receive their green Hall of Fame jackets. “Bash Brothers” Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco attended the celebration in West Sacramento, as did Bert Campaneris, Rollie Fingers and former A’s player and manager Tony La Russa. The group’s elder statesman, at age 95, was Moore, who was behind the mic for the A’s World Series “three-peat” from 1972-74.
For many of these A’s greats, it was the first time in years they had gotten together.
“First of all, I see, ‘Damn, we’re getting old. Holy moly,’” Canseco said. “Forty years have flown by.”
Still, the memories remain.
Kotsay recalls watching pure pitching artistry from his position in center field, reveling in the location, execution and approach that often seem hard to find in the modern game.
“I have fond memories of wanting to just come off the field before the 3-2 pitch was made by Zito because you knew he was going to land a breaking ball and the hitter was going to take it, or he was going to throw the changeup 3-2 and get the swing and miss,” the A’s skipper said. “It’s nice.”
While a lot has changed, some things haven’t. Mulder, Zito and Hudson catch up -- and sometimes “talk smack to each other” via a group text message.
That way, at least, they’re still together.
“I think it’s very fitting that this ceremony happens with all three of us together,” Hudson said. “What an honor and what an incredible experience today.”