{"id":558984,"date":"2026-02-07T03:34:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T03:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/558984\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T03:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T03:34:14","slug":"mark-mcgwire-returns-to-the-athletics-as-a-special-assistant-to-player-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/558984\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark McGwire returns to the Athletics as a special assistant to player development"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">Former slugger Mark McGwire is back with his first organization, rejoining the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/mlb\/oakland-athletics-team\" class=\"entity\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Athletics<\/a> as a special assistant to player development.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">He played at least parts of 12 seasons for the then-Oakland Athletics and was a nine-time All-Star. McGwire was the AL Rookie of the Year in 1987 after hitting 49 home runs, at that time the record for a first-year player. He also was an instrumental part of A&#8217;s teams that went to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/mlb\/world-series\" class=\"entity\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">World Series<\/a> from 1988-90, winning it all in 1989 by sweeping the Bay Area rival <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/mlb\/san-francisco-giants-team\" class=\"entity\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">San Francisco Giants<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">The A&#8217;s inducted McGwire into their hall of fame in 2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">McGwire was traded to St. Louis in the 1997 season, and he went on to break Roger Maris&#8217; single-season home run record by belting 70 in 1998 during a chase with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/mlb\/chicago-cubs-team\" class=\"entity\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chicago Cubs<\/a>&#8216; Sammy Sosa. Their competition reignited interest in baseball, but both became tied to the sport&#8217;s steroid scandal that tarnished their reputations and has kept them out of the Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">After his playing days, McGwire went to serve as bench coach for San Diego (2017-18) and as a hitting coach for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/mlb\/los-angeles-dodgers-team\" class=\"entity\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> (2013-15) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/mlb\/st-louis-cardinals-team\" class=\"entity\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cardinals<\/a> (2010-12). <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">The A&#8217;s are about to play the second of at least three seasons at a Triple-A ballpark in West Sacramento, California. They are scheduled to move to Las Vegas and play in a $2 billion 33,000-person capacity stadium beginning in 2028.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">___<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-d04fc069=\"\">AP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/mlb\" class=\"entity\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MLB<\/a>: https:\/\/apnews.com\/mlb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former slugger Mark McGwire is back with his first organization, rejoining the Athletics as a special assistant to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2408],"tags":[537,5,24,162,57,19,4,378,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342,67,1039],"class_list":{"0":"post-558984","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-giants","8":"tag-athletics","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-giants","12":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","13":"tag-major-league-baseball","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-san-francisco","16":"tag-san-francisco-giants","17":"tag-sanfrancisco","18":"tag-sanfranciscogiants","19":"tag-sf","20":"tag-sf-giants","21":"tag-sfgiants","22":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","23":"tag-world-series"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116027252130032372","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}