The Oakland Athletics, 94-68 on the year, came into the 1973 World Series having just defeated the AL East Champion Baltimore Orioles three game to two in a series that saw the victorious Oakland team with only a dreary .200 batting average against the Orioles. The NL Champion New York Mets finished just over .500, at 82-79, and then they’d strikingly won the NLCS over the Reds.
The World Series against the Mets would not be without controversy that saw A’s owner Charles Finley not only irritating MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn a few times, but his own manager, Dick Williams, who would go on to announce that he was quitting at the end of the season.