A request that this article title be changed to Athletics (baseball) is under discussion . Please do not move this article until the discussion is closed. |
Athletics | |||||
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2024 Athletics season | |||||
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Major league titles | |||||
World Series titles (9) | |||||
AL Pennants (15) | |||||
West Division titles (17) | |||||
Wild card berths (4) | |||||
Front office | |||||
Principal owner(s) | John Fisher | ||||
President | Dave Kaval | ||||
General manager | David Forst | ||||
Manager | Mark Kotsay | ||||
Website | mlb.com/athletics |
The Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in West Sacramento, California. [4] The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West Division. The team will play its home games at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento for the 2025–2027 seasons before its permanent move to Las Vegas. [5] While in West Sacramento, the team is being referred to as simply the "Athletics" and "A's", with no city name attached. [6] The franchise's nine World Series championships, fifteen pennants, and seventeen division titles are the second-most in the AL after the New York Yankees.
One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the team was founded in Philadelphia in 1901 as the Philadelphia Athletics . They won three World Series championships in 1910, 1911, and 1913, and back-to-back titles in 1929 and 1930. The team's owner and manager for its first 50 years was Connie Mack, and Hall of Fame players included Chief Bender, Frank "Home Run" Baker, Jimmie Foxx, and Lefty Grove. The team left Philadelphia for Kansas City in 1955 and became the Kansas City Athletics , before moving to Oakland, California, in 1968 and becoming the Oakland Athletics. The Athletics played their home games at the Oakland Coliseum from 1968 until 2024. Nicknamed the "Swingin' A's", under owner Charlie O. Finley they won three consecutive World Series in 1972, 1973, and 1974, led by players including Vida Blue, Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, and Rollie Fingers. After being sold by Finley to Walter A. Haas Jr., the team won three consecutive pennants and the 1989 World Series behind the "Bash Brothers", Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire, as well as Hall of Famers Dennis Eckersley, Rickey Henderson and manager Tony La Russa. In 2002, the Athletics set the record for most consecutive wins in a season with twenty, an event that would go on to be the pioneering step in the application of sabermetrics in baseball.
From 1901 through the end of 2024, the franchise's overall win–loss record is 9,329–9,859–87 (.486). In Oakland, from 1968 to 2024, the Athletics had an overall win–loss record of 4,614–4,387 (.513). [7]
The history of the Athletics Major League Baseball franchise spans from 1901 to the present day, having begun in Philadelphia before moving to Kansas City in 1955 and then to its home in Oakland, California, in 1968. The A's made their Bay Area debut on Wednesday, April 17, 1968, with a 4–1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles at the Coliseum, in front of an opening-night crowd of 50,164. [8] With four locations, the A's have had the most home cities of any MLB team. [9]
The Athletics' name originated in the term "Athletic Club" for local gentlemen's clubs—dates to 1860 when an amateur baseball team, the Athletic (Club) of Philadelphia, was formed. The team later turned professional in 1875, becoming a charter member of the National League in 1876, but were expelled from the N.L. after one season. A later version of the Athletics played in the American Association from 1882 to 1891. [10]
The familiar blackletter "A" is one of the oldest sports logos still in use. An image in Harper's Weekly with the rival Brooklyn Atlantics shows that the "A" appeared on the original Athletics' uniform as early as 1866. [11]
After New York Giants manager John McGraw told reporters that Philadelphia manufacturer Benjamin Shibe, who owned the controlling interest in the new team, had a "white elephant on his hands", team manager Connie Mack defiantly adopted the white elephant as the team mascot, and presented McGraw with a stuffed toy elephant at the start of the 1905 World Series. [12] McGraw and Mack had known each other for years, and McGraw accepted it graciously. By 1909, the A's were wearing an elephant logo on their sweaters, and in 1918 it turned up on the regular uniform jersey for the first time. [13]
In 1963, when the A's were located in Kansas City, then-owner Charlie Finley changed the team mascot from an elephant to a mule, the state animal of Missouri. This is rumored to have been done by Finley in order to appeal to fans from the region who were predominantly Democrats at the time. (The traditional Republican Party symbol is an elephant, while the Democratic Party's symbol is a donkey.) [14] Since 1988, the Athletics' 21st season in Oakland, an illustration of an elephant has adorned the left sleeve of the A's home and road uniforms. Beginning in the mid-1980s, the on-field costumed incarnation of the A's elephant mascot went by the name Harry Elephante, a play on the name of singer Harry Belafonte. [15] In 1997, he became Stomper, debuting Opening Night on April 2. [16] [17]
Over the seasons, the Athletics' uniforms have paid homage to their amateur forebears. Until 1954, when the uniforms had "Athletics" spelled out in script across the front, the team's name never appeared on either home or road uniforms. Furthermore, neither "Philadelphia" nor the letter "P" appeared on the uniform or cap. The Philadelphia uniform had only a script "A" on the left front, and likewise the cap usually had the same "A" on it. In the early days of the American League, the standings listed the club as "Athletic" rather than "Philadelphia", in keeping with the old tradition. Eventually, the city name came to be used for the team, as with the other major league clubs.
After buying the team in 1960, owner Charles O. Finley introduced road uniforms with "Kansas City" printed on them, with an interlocking "KC" on the cap. Upon moving to Oakland, the "A" cap emblem was restored, and in 1970 an "apostrophe-s" was added to the cap and uniform emblem to reflect that Finley was officially changing the team's name to the "A's".
While in Kansas City, Finley changed the team's colors from their traditional red, white and blue to what he termed "Kelly Green, Wedding Gown White and Fort Knox Gold". It was here that he began experimenting with dramatic uniforms to match these bright colors, such as gold sleeveless tops with green undershirts and gold pants. The uniform innovations increased after the team's move to Oakland, which came with the introduction of polyester pullover uniforms.
During their dynasty years in the 1970s, the A's had dozens of uniform combinations with jerseys and pants in all three team colors, and never wore the traditional gray on the road, instead wearing green or gold, which helped to contribute to their nickname of "The Swingin' A's". After the team's sale to the Haas family, the team changed its primary color to a more subdued forest green in 1982 and began a move back to more traditional uniforms.
The 2023 team wore home uniforms with "Athletics" spelled out in script writing and road uniforms with "Oakland" spelled out in script writing, with the cap logo consisting of the traditional "A" with "apostrophe-s". The home cap, which was also the team's road cap until 1992, is forest green with a gold bill and white lettering. This design was also the basis of their batting helmet, which is used both at home and on the road. The road cap, which initially debuted in 1993, is all-forest green. The first version had the white "A's" wordmark before it was changed to gold the following season. An all-forest green batting helmet was paired with this cap until 2008. In 2014, the "A's" wordmark returned to white but added gold trim.
From 1994 until 2013, the A's wore green alternate jerseys with the word "Athletics" in gold, for both road and home games.
During the 2000s, the Athletics introduced black as one of their colors. They began wearing a black alternate jersey with "Athletics" written in green. After a brief discontinuance, the A's brought back the black jersey, this time with "Athletics" written in white with gold highlights. The cap paired with this jersey is all-black, initially with the green and white-trimmed "A's" wordmark, before switching to a white and gold-trimmed "A's" wordmark. Commercially popular but rarely chosen as the alternate by players, the black uniform was retired in 2011 in favor of a gold alternate jersey.
The gold alternate has "A's" in green trimmed in white on the left chest. With the exception of several road games during the 2011 season, the Athletics' gold uniforms were used as the designated home alternates. A green version of their gold alternates was introduced for the 2014 season, serving as a replacement to the previous green alternates. The new green alternates featured the piping, "A's" and lettering in white with gold trim.
In 2018, as part of the franchise's 50th anniversary since the move to Oakland, the A's wore a kelly green alternate uniform with "Oakland" in white with gold trim, and was paired with an all-kelly green cap. [18] This set was later worn with an alternate kelly green helmet with gold visor. This uniform eventually supplanted the gold alternates by 2019, and in 2022, after the forest green alternate was retired, it became the team's only active alternate uniform.
The nickname "A's" has long been used interchangeably with "Athletics", dating to the team's early days when headline writers used it to shorten the name. From 1972 through 1980, the team name was officially "Oakland A's", although the Commissioner's Trophy, given out annually to the winner of baseball's World Series, still listed the team's name as the "Oakland Athletics" on the gold-plated pennant representing the Oakland franchise. According to Bill Libby's Book, Charlie O and the Angry A's, owner Charlie O. Finley banned the word "Athletics" from the club's name because he felt that name was too closely associated with former Philadelphia Athletics owner Connie Mack, and he wanted the name "Oakland A's" to become just as closely associated with him. The name also vaguely suggested the name of the old minor league Oakland Oaks, which were alternatively called the "Acorns". New owner Walter Haas restored the official name to "Athletics" in 1981, but retained the nickname "A's" for marketing. At first, the word "Athletics" was restored only to the club's logo, underneath the much larger stylized-"A" that had come to represent the team since the early days. By 1987, however, the word returned, in script lettering, to the front of the team's jerseys.
From 2025 to 2027, while the team temporarily plays its home games in West Sacramento, all of its uniforms would feature the "Athletics" wordmark.
Prior to the mid-2010s, the A's had a long-standing tradition of wearing white cleats team-wide (in line with the standard MLB practice that required all uniformed team members to wear a base cleat color), which dated to the Finley ownership. Since the mid-2010s, however, MLB has gradually relaxed its shoe color rules, and several A's players began wearing cleats in non-white colors, such as Jed Lowrie's green cleats.
The Oakland Coliseum—originally the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum, and later named as Network Associates, McAfee, Overstock.com/O.co and RingCentral Coliseum—was built as a multi-purpose facility. Louisiana Superdome officials pursued negotiations with Athletics officials during the 1978–79 baseball offseason about moving the Athletics to their facility in New Orleans. The Athletics were unable to break their lease at the Coliseum, and remained in Oakland. [19]
After the Oakland Raiders football team moved to Los Angeles in 1982, many improvements were made to what was suddenly a baseball-only facility. The 1994 movie Angels in the Outfield was filmed in part at the Coliseum, filling in for Anaheim Stadium.
In 1995, the Raiders moved back to Oakland. The Coliseum was expanded to 63,026 seats. The bucolic view of the Oakland foothills that baseball spectators enjoyed was replaced with a jarring view of an outfield grandstand contemptuously referred to as "Mount Davis" after Raiders' owner Al Davis. Because construction was not finished by the start of the 1996 season, the Athletics were forced to play their first six-game homestand at 9,300-seat Cashman Field in Las Vegas, Nevada. [20]
Although official capacity was listed as 43,662 for baseball, seats were sometimes sold in Mount Davis, pushing actual capacity to nearly 60,000. The ready availability of tickets on game day made season tickets a tough sell, while crowds as high as 30,000 often seemed sparse in such a venue. On December 21, 2005, the Athletics announced that seats in the Coliseum's third deck would not be sold for the 2006 season, but would instead be covered with a tarp, and that tickets would no longer be sold in Mount Davis under any circumstances. That effectively reduced capacity to 34,077, making the Coliseum the lowest-capacity stadium in Major League Baseball. Beginning in 2008, sections 316–318 immediately behind home plate were the only third-deck sections open for A's games, which brought the total capacity to 35,067 until 2017, when new team president Dave Kaval took the tarps off of the upper deck, increasing capacity to 47,170. The Athletics were the last MLB team to share a stadium full-time with an NFL team, a situation that ended when the Raiders moved to Las Vegas in 2020.
The Athletics' spring training facility is Hohokam Stadium, in Mesa, Arizona. From 1982 to 2014, their spring training facility was Phoenix Municipal Stadium, in Phoenix, Arizona; they also spent time playing in Scottsdale, Arizona. [21] [22]
In 2017, the team created an outdoor plaza in the space between the Coliseum and Oracle Arena. The grassy area is open to all ticketed fans, and it features food trucks, seating and games like corn hole for every Athletics home game. [23] [24] The following year, the team introduced The Treehouse, a 10,000-square-foot (930 m2) area open to all fans with two full-service bars, standing-room and lounge seating, numerous televisions with pre-game and postgame entertainment. The A's Stomping Ground transformed part of the Eastside Club and the area near the right-field flag poles into a fun and interactive space for kids and families. The inside section features a stage and video wall for interactive events, a digital experience that lets youngsters race their favorite Athletics players, replica team dugouts, a simulated hitting and pitching machine, foosball, and a photo booth. The outside area includes play areas, a grassy seating area, drink rails for parents, and picnic tables, a miniature baseball field and spiderweb play area. [25]
The team added three new premium spaces, including The Terrace, Lounge Seats, and the Coppola Theater Boxes, to the Coliseum for the 2019 season. The new premium seating options offer fans a high-end game-day experience with luxury amenities. The team also added two new group spaces – the Budweiser Hero Deck and Golden Road Landing – to the Coliseum. [26]
In addition, the tarps on the upper deck were removed; a modern version of the beloved mechanical Harvey the Rabbit to deliver the first pitch ball was re-introduced, while the playing surface at the Coliseum was renamed "Rickey Henderson Field". The team held the first free game in MLB history for 46,028 fans on April 17, 2018, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Athletics first game in Oakland. [27] The team tried a new concept in season ticketing in the A's Access plan that involved "general admission access to every home game with a set number of reserved-seat upgrades allotted", which was meant to replace previous attempts at subscription-based services that they tried with Ballpark Pass and Treehouse Pass. [28] On July 21, 2018, the Athletics set a Coliseum record for the largest attendance with a crowd of 56,310 when the team hosted to the San Francisco Giants. [28] [29]
Since the early 2000s, the A's have been in talks with Oakland and other Northern California cities about building a new baseball-only stadium. The team had said it wanted to remain in Oakland. A 2017 plan would have placed a new 35,000 seat A's stadium near Laney College and the Eastlake neighborhood on the site of the Peralta Community College District's administration buildings. The plan was announced by team president Dave Kaval in September 2017. [30] However, three months later, negotiations abruptly ended. [31] On November 28, 2018, the Athletics announced that the team had chosen to build its new 34,000-seat ballpark at the Howard Terminal site at the Port of Oakland. The team also announced its intent to purchase the Coliseum site and renovate it into a tech and housing hub, preserving Oakland Arena and reducing the Coliseum to a low-rise sports park as San Francisco did with Kezar Stadium. [32] In April 2023, the City of Oakland ended discussions with the Athletics organization after the announcement of a new ballpark in Las Vegas, amid widespread claims that the team was not negotiating in good faith and was using the proposed site in Oakland to leverage a better deal in Las Vegas instead of any real intention to stay within the city. [33]
On November 7, 2006, the news media announced the Athletics would be leaving Oakland as early as 2010 for a new stadium in Fremont, confirmed the next day by the Fremont City Council. The plan was strongly supported by Fremont Mayor Bob Wasserman. [34] The team would have played in Cisco Field, a 32,000-seat, baseball-only facility. [35] The proposed ballpark would have been part of a larger "ballpark village" which would have included retail and residential development. On February 24, 2009, however, Lew Wolff released an open letter announcing the end of his efforts to relocate the A's to Fremont, citing "real and threatened" delays to the project. [36] The project faced opposition from some in the community who thought the relocation of the A's to Fremont would increase traffic problems in the city and decrease property values near the ballpark site.
In 2009, the City of San Jose attempted to open negotiations with the team regarding a move to the city. Although land south of Diridon Station would be acquired by the city as a stadium site, the San Francisco Giants' claim on Santa Clara County as part of their home territory would have to be settled before any agreement could be made. [37]
By 2010, San Jose was "aggressively wooing" A's owner Lew Wolff, the city as the team's "best option", but Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said he would await a report on whether the team could move to the area, because of the Giants conflict. [38] In September 2010, 75 Silicon Valley CEOs drafted and signed a letter to Bud Selig urging a timely approval of the move to San Jose. [39] In May 2011, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed sent a letter to Bud Selig asking the commissioner for a timetable of when he might decide whether the A's can pursue this new ballpark, but Selig did not respond. [40]
Selig addressed the San Jose issue via an online town hall forum held in July 2011, saying, "Well, the latest is, I have a small committee who has really assessed that whole situation, Oakland, San Francisco, and it is complex. You talk about complex situations; they have done a terrific job. I know there are some people who think it's taken too long and I understand that. I'm willing to accept that. But you make decisions like this; I've always said, you'd better be careful. Better to get it done right than to get it done fast. But we'll make a decision that's based on logic and reason at the proper time." [41]
On June 18, 2013, the City of San Jose filed suit against Selig, seeking the court's ruling that Major League Baseball may not prevent the Oakland A's from moving to San Jose. [42] Wolff criticized the lawsuit, stating he did not believe business disputes should be settled through legal action. [43]
Most of the city's claims were dismissed in October 2013, but a U.S. District Judge ruled that San Jose could move forward with its claim that MLB illegally interfered with a land agreement between the city and the A's. On January 15, 2015, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the claims were barred by baseball's antitrust exemption, established by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1922 and upheld in 1953 and 1972. San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo commented that the city would seek a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court. [44] On October 5, 2015, the United States Supreme Court rejected San Jose's case. [45]
Following the California Golden Seals' relocation to Cleveland in 1976, the Golden State Warriors' move across the bay to San Francisco in 2019, and the Oakland Raiders' move to Las Vegas in 2020, the Athletics were left as the sole remaining professional sports team in Oakland. However, on April 20, 2023, the Athletics announced they had entered a land purchase agreement with Red Rock Resort located near Las Vegas to build a new ballpark on the Las Vegas Strip, finalizing their plans to relocate to the Las Vegas area. [46] [47] [48] [49] On May 9, 2023, the Athletics switched their planned location in the Las Vegas area to the site of the Tropicana Las Vegas hotel and casino, which was subsequently demolished in October to construct a 33,000-seat partially retractable ballpark and a 1,500-room hotel and casino. [50] [51] [52] By June 15, 2023, Nevada governor Joe Lombardo signed an MLB stadium funding bill known as SB1 into law after the bill was approved by the Nevada Legislature, and the Athletics officially announced they would begin the relocation process. [53]
On November 16, 2023, the Athletics' move to Las Vegas was unanimously approved by MLB team owners. [54] According to the team, the new Las Vegas ballpark will not be completed until 2028. The lease to the Oakland Coliseum expired after the 2024 season. Before the scheduled move to Las Vegas in 2028, the team will play in West Sacramento, California at Sutter Health Park (home of the San Francisco Giants' Triple-A affiliate, the Sacramento River Cats) for the 2025–2027 seasons (with an option for the 2028 season if necessary). [55] While in West Sacramento the team will be referred to as simply the "A's" and "Athletics," with no city name attached. [6] The relocation will mark the first move by an MLB team since the Montreal Expos moved to Washington, D.C., becoming the Washington Nationals in 2005.
The Bay Bridge Series is the name of a series of games played between (and the rivalry of) the A's and San Francisco Giants of the National League. The series takes its name from the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge which links the cities of Oakland and San Francisco. Although competitive, the regional rivalry between the A's and Giants is considered a friendly one with mostly mutual companionship between the fans, as opposed to White Sox–Cubs, or Yankees–Mets games where animosity runs high. Hats displaying both teams on the cap are sold from vendors at the games, and once in a while the teams both dress in original team uniforms from the early era of baseball. The series is also occasionally referred to as the "BART Series" for the Bay Area Rapid Transit system that links Oakland to San Francisco. However, the name "BART Series" has never been popular beyond a small selection of history books and national broadcasters and has fallen out of favor. Bay Area locals almost exclusively refer to the rivalry as the "Battle of the Bay". [56]
Originally, the term described a series of exhibition games played between the two clubs after the conclusion of spring training, immediately prior to the start of the regular season. It was first used to refer to the 1989 World Series in which the Athletics won their most recent championship and the first time the teams had met since they moved to the San Francisco Bay Area (and the first time they had met since the A's also defeated the Giants in the 1913 World Series). Today, it also refers to games played between the teams during the regular season since the commencement of interleague play in 1997. Through the 2021 regular season, the Athletics have won 71 games, and the Giants have won 65 contests. [57]
Through the 2021 season, the A's also have edges on the Giants in terms of overall postseason appearances (21–13), division titles (17–10) and World Series titles (4–3) since both teams moved to the Bay Area, even though the Giants franchise moved there a decade earlier than the A's did.
On March 24, 2018, the Oakland A's announced that for the Sunday, March 25, 2018, exhibition game against the San Francisco Giants, A's fans would be charged $30 for parking and Giants fans would be charged $50. However, the A's stated that Giants fans could receive $20 off if they shout "Go A's" at the parking gates. [58]
In 2018, the Athletics and Giants started battling for a "Bay Bridge" Trophy [59] made from steel taken from the old east span of the Bay Bridge, which was taken down after the new span was opened in 2013. [60] [61] The A's won the inaugural season with the trophy, allowing them to place their logo atop its Bay Bridge stand. [62]
The A's have held a rivalry with the Los Angeles Angels since their relocation to California in 1968, and the charter membership of both teams in the AL West in 1969. The A's and Angels have often competed for the division title. [63] The peak of the rivalry was during the early part of the millennium as both teams were perennial contenders. During the 2002 season, the A's famous "Moneyball" tactics led them to a league record 20-game winning streak, knocking the Angels out of the first seed in the division. The A's finished 4 games ahead while the Angels secured the Wild Card berth. [64] Despite the 103-win season for Oakland, they lost to the underdog Minnesota Twins in the ALDS. The Angels beat the heavily favored New York Yankees, then beat the Twins, and then won the 2002 World Series. During the 2004 season, the teams were tied for wins headed into the final week of September with the last three games being played in Oakland against the Angels. [65] Both teams were battling to secure the division championship. Oakland lost two of the three games to the Angels, and they were eliminated from the playoff hunt. The Angels were swept in the playoffs by the eventual champion Boston Red Sox. [66] The Athletics lead the series 527–479, and the two teams have yet to meet in the postseason.
The City Series was the name of baseball games played between the Philadelphia Athletics and the Philadelphia Phillies of the National League, that ran from 1903 through 1955. After the A's move to Kansas City in 1955, the City Series rivalry came to an end. Since the introduction of interleague play in 1997, the teams have since faced each other during the regular season (with the first games taking place in 2003) but the rivalry had effectively died in the intervening years since the A's left Philadelphia. In 2014, when the A's faced the Phillies in inter-league play at the Oakland Coliseum, the Athletics did not bother to mark the historical connection, going so far as to have a Connie Mack promotion the day before the series while the Texas Rangers were in Oakland. [67]
The first City Series was held in 1883 between the Phillies and the American Association Philadelphia Athletics. [68] When the Athletics first joined the American League, the two teams played each other in a spring and fall series. No City Series was held in 1901 and 1902 due to legal warring between the National League and American League.
Oakland Athletics Hall of Famers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Affiliation according to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Oakland Athletics Ford C. Frick Award recipients | |||||||||
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Affiliation according to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum | |||||||||
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The Athletics have retired six numbers; additionally, Walter A. Haas, Jr., owner of the team from 1980 until his death in 1995, was honored by the retirement of the letter "A". Of the six players with retired numbers, five were retired for their play with the Athletics and one, 42, was universally retired by Major League Baseball when they honored the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's breaking the color barrier. No A's player from the Philadelphia era has his number retired by the organization. Though Jackson and Hunter played small portions of their careers in Kansas City, no player that played the majority of his years in the Kansas City era has his number retired either. The A's have retired only the numbers of Hall-of-Famers who played large portions of their careers in Oakland. The Athletics have all of the numbers of the Hall-of-Fame players from the Philadelphia Athletics displayed at their stadium, as well as all of the years that the Philadelphia Athletics won World Championships (1910, 1911, 1913, 1929, and 1930). Dave Stewart was about to have his #34 jersey retired by the Athletics in 2020, but the ceremony was postponed until further notice, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Questions were raised if there would be a formal ceremony after no news about a reschedule happened in 2021 before it was announced in April 2022 that Stewart would have his jersey retired on September 11, 2022. [69] [70] Stewart broke the A's tradition in that his number was a re-retirement, as well as his not being in the Hall of Fame.
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On August 14, 2018, the team publicly announced the creation of a team Hall of Fame, complete with the first seven names to be inducted. [71] On September 5, the Athletics held a ceremony to induct seven members into the inaugural class. Each member was honored with an unveiling of a painting in their likeness and a bright green jacket. Hunter, who died in 1999, was represented by his widow, while Finley, who died in 1996, was represented by his son. If the team ever gets a new stadium, a physical site will be designated for the Hall of Fame, as the Coliseum does not have enough space for a full-fledged exhibit. [72] In August 2021, it was announced that players Sal Bando, Eric Chavez, Joe Rudi, director of player development Keith Lieppman, and clubhouse manager Steve "Vuc" Vucinich would be part of the class of 2022; in November 2021, Ray Fosse, who had died the previous month, was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame. [73] [74] The 2023 class was inducted in August. [75] On August 17, 2024, the Hall of Fame will see the induction of Jose Canseco, Terry Steinbach, Miguel Tejada, Dick Williams, Bill King, and Eddie Joost. [76]
Bold | Member of the Baseball Hall of Fame |
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† | Member of the Baseball Hall of Fame as an Athletic |
Bold | Recipient of the Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award |
Athletics Hall of Fame | ||||
Year | No. | Player | Position | Tenure |
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2018 | 43 | Dennis Eckersley † | P | 1987–1995 |
32, 38, 34 | Rollie Fingers † | P | 1968–1976 | |
39, 35, 22, 24 | Rickey Henderson † | LF | 1979–1984 1989–1993 1994–1995 1998 | |
27 | Catfish Hunter | P | 1965–1974 | |
9, 44 | Reggie Jackson | RF | 1967–1975 1987 | |
34, 35 | Dave Stewart | P | 1986–1992 1995 | |
— | Charlie Finley | Owner General Manager | 1960–1981 | |
2019 | 10, 11, 22, 29, 42 | Tony La Russa | IF Manager | 1963 1968–1971 1986–1995 |
14, 17, 21, 28, 35 | Vida Blue | P | 1969–1977 | |
19 | Bert "Campy" Campaneris | SS | 1964–1976 | |
25 | Mark McGwire | 1B | 1986–1997 | |
— | Walter A. Haas, Jr. | Owner | 1981–1995 | |
— | Walter A. Haas, Jr. | Owner | 1981–1995 | |
2021 | — | Connie Mack † | Manager Owner | 1901–1950 1901–1954 |
— | Eddie Collins | 2B | 1906–1914 1927–1930 | |
— | Frank "Home Run" Baker † | 3B | 1908–1914 | |
— | Charles "Chief" Bender † | P | 1903–1914 | |
2 | Mickey Cochrane | C | 1925–1933 | |
2, 3 | Jimmie Foxx | 1B | 1925–1935 | |
10 | Lefty Grove | P | 1925–1933 | |
— | Eddie Plank † | P | 1901–1914 | |
6, 7, 28, 32 | Al Simmons † | LF Coach | 1924–1932 1940–1941, 1944 1940–1945 | |
— | Rube Waddell † | P | 1902–1907 | |
2022 | 30, 3 | Eric Chavez | 3B | 1998–2010 |
6 | Sal Bando | 3B | 1966–1976 | |
15, 45, 8, 36, 26 | Joe Rudi | LF / 1B | 1967–1976 1982 | |
10 | Ray Fosse | C Broadcaster | 1973–1975 1986–2021 | |
— | Keith Lieppman | Director of Player Development | 1971–present | |
— | Steve Vucinich | Clubhouse manager | 1966–present | |
2023 | 16 | Jason Giambi | LF / 1B | 1995–2001 2009 |
26, 7, 4 | Bob Johnson | LF | 1933–1942 | |
5, 4 | Carney Lansford | 3B | 1983–1992 | |
24, 38, 18 | Gene Tenace | C / 1B | 1969–1976 | |
— | Roy Steele | Public address announcer | 1968–2005 2007–2008 | |
2024 | 33 | Jose Canseco | RF / DH | 1985–1992 1997 |
1 | Eddie Joost | SS Manager | 1947–1954 1954 | |
36 | Terry Steinbach | C | 1986–1996 | |
4 | Miguel Tejada | SS | 1997–2003 | |
23 | Dick Williams † | LF / 3B Manager | 1959–1960 1971–1973 | |
— | Bill King | Broadcaster | 1981–2005 |
17 members of the Athletics organization have been honored with induction into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame.
Athletics in the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame | ||||
No. | Player | Position | Tenure | Notes |
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12 | Dusty Baker | OF | 1985–1986 | |
14, 17, 21, 28, 35 | Vida Blue | P | 1969–1977 | |
19 | Bert "Campy" Campaneris | SS | 1964–1976 | |
12 | Orlando Cepeda | 1B | 1972 | Elected mainly on his performance with San Francisco Giants |
4, 6, 10, 14 | Sam Chapman | CF | 1938–1941 1945–1951 | Born and raised in Tiburon, California |
43 | Dennis Eckersley | P | 1987–1995 | Grew up in Fremont, California |
32, 34, 38 | Rollie Fingers | P | 1968–1976 | |
— | Walter A. Haas, Jr. | Owner | 1981–1995 | Grew up in San Francisco, California, attended UC Berkeley |
24 | Rickey Henderson | LF | 1979–1984 1989–1993 1994–1995 1998 | Raised in Oakland, California |
27 | Catfish Hunter | P | 1965–1974 | |
9, 31, 44 | Reggie Jackson | RF | 1968–1975 1987 | |
1 | Eddie Joost | SS Manager | 1947–1954 1954 | Born and raised in San Francisco, California |
10, 11, 22, 29, 42 | Tony La Russa | IF Manager | 1963 1968–1971 1986–1995 | |
1, 4 | Billy Martin | 2B Manager | 1957 1980–1982 | Elected mainly on his performance with New York Yankees, Born in Berkeley, California |
44 | Willie McCovey | 1B | 1976 | Elected mainly on his performance with San Francisco Giants |
8 | Joe Morgan | 2B | 1984 | Elected mainly on his performance with Cincinnati Reds, raised in Oakland, California |
19 | Dave Righetti | P | 1994 | Born and raised in San Jose, California |
34 | Dave Stewart | P | 1986–1992 1995 | Born and raised in Oakland, California |
The Athletics have all of the numbers of the Hall-of-Fame players from the Philadelphia Athletics displayed at their stadium, as well as all of the years that the Philadelphia Athletics won World Championships (1910, 1911, 1913, 1929, and 1930).
Also, from 1978 to 2003 (except 1983), the Philadelphia Phillies inducted one former Athletic (and one former Phillie) each year into the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame at the then-existing Veterans Stadium. 25 Athletics have been honored. In March 2004, after Veterans Stadium was replaced by the new Citizens Bank Park, the Athletics' plaques were relocated to the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society in Hatboro, Pennsylvania, [77] [78] [79] and a single plaque listing all of the A's inductees was attached to a statue of Connie Mack that is located across the street from Citizens Bank Park. [80] [81]
Year | Year inducted |
---|---|
Bold | Member of the Baseball Hall of Fame |
† | Member of the Baseball Hall of Fame as a member of the A's |
Bold | Recipient of the Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award |
Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame | ||||
No. | Player | Position | Tenure | Inducted |
---|---|---|---|---|
— | Frank "Home Run" Baker † | 3B | 1908–1914 | 1993 |
— | Charles "Chief" Bender † | P | 1903–1914 | 1991 |
4, 6, 10, 14 | Sam Chapman | CF | 1938–1951 | 1999 |
2 | Mickey Cochrane | C | 1925–1933 | 1982 |
— | Eddie Collins | 2B | 1906–1914 1927–1930 | 1987 |
— | Jack Coombs | P | 1906–1914 | 1992 |
5 | Jimmy Dykes | 3B/2B Coach Manager | 1918–1932 1940–1950 1951–1953 | 1984 |
11 | George Earnshaw | P | 1928–1933 | 2000 |
5, 8 | Ferris Fain | 1B | 1947–1952 | 1997 |
2, 3, 4 | Jimmie Foxx | 1B | 1925–1935 | 1979 |
10 | Lefty Grove | P | 1925–1933 | 1980 |
4, 7, 26 | "Indian Bob" Johnson | LF | 1933–1942 | 1989 |
1 | Eddie Joost | SS Manager | 1947–1954 1954 | 1995 |
— | Connie Mack † | Manager Owner | 1901–1950 1901–1954 | 1978 |
9, 27 | Bing Miller | RF | 1922–1926 1928–1934 | 1998 |
1, 2, 9, 19 | Wally Moses | RF | 1935–1941 1949–1951 | 1988 |
— | Rube Oldring | CF | 1906–1916 1918 | 2003 |
— | Eddie Plank † | P | 1901–1914 | 1985 |
14 | Eddie Rommel | P | 1920–1932 | 1996 |
21, 30 | Bobby Shantz | P | 1949–1954 | 1994 |
6, 7, 28, 32 | Al Simmons † | LF Coach | 1924–1932 1940–1941, 1944 1940–1945 | 1981 |
10, 15, 21, 35, 38 | Elmer Valo | RF | 1940–1954 | 1990 |
— | Rube Waddell † | P | 1902–1907 | 1986 |
12 | Rube Walberg | P | 1923–1933 | 2002 |
6, 19, 30 | Gus Zernial | LF | 1951–1954 | 2001 |
Athletics in the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. | Name | Position | Tenure | Inducted | Notes |
— | Connie Mack | Manager Owner | 1901–1950 1901–1954 | 2004 | |
2, 3, 4 | Jimmie Foxx | 1B | 1925–1935 | 2004 | |
10 | Lefty Grove | P | 1925–1933 | 2005 | |
6, 7, 28, 32 | Al Simmons | LF Coach | 1924–1932 1940–1941, 1944 1940–1945 | 2006 | |
2 | Mickey Cochrane | C | 1925–1933 | 2007 | |
— | Eddie Collins | 2B | 1906–1914 1927–1930 | 2009 | |
21, 30 | Bobby Shantz | P | 1949–1954 | 2010 | |
5 | Jimmy Dykes | 3B/2B Coach Manager | 1918–1932 1940–1950 1951–1953 | 2011 | Born in Philadelphia |
— | Eddie Plank | P | 1901–1914 | 2012 | |
— | Charles "Chief" Bender | P | 1903–1914 | 2014 | |
— | Herb Pennock | P | 1912–1915 | 2014 | Elected mainly on his performance with New York Yankees |
— | By Saam | Broadcaster | 1938–1954 | 2014 | |
4, 7, 26 | Bob Johnson | LF | 1933–1942 | 2017 | |
— | Home Run Baker | 3B | 1908–1914 | 2019 |
The records of the Athletics' last ten seasons in Major League Baseball are listed below.
Season | Wins | Losses | Win % | Place | Playoffs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2015 | 68 | 94 | .420 | 5th in AL West | |
2016 | 69 | 93 | .426 | 5th in AL West | |
2017 | 75 | 87 | .463 | 5th in AL West | |
2018 | 97 | 65 | .599 | 2nd in AL West | Lost ALWC vs. New York Yankees, 7–2 |
2019 | 97 | 65 | .599 | 2nd in AL West | Lost ALWC vs. Tampa Bay Rays, 5–1 |
2020 | 36 | 24 | .600 | 1st in AL West | Lost ALDS vs. Houston Astros, 3–1 |
2021 | 86 | 76 | .531 | 3rd in AL West | |
2022 | 60 | 102 | .370 | 5th in AL West | |
2023 | 50 | 112 | .309 | 5th in AL West | |
2024 | 69 | 93 | .426 | 4th in AL West | |
10-Year Record | 707 | 811 | .466 | — | — |
All-Time Record | 9,329 | 9,859 | .486 | — | — |
40-man roster | Non-roster invitees | Coaches/Other | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pitchers
| Catchers
Infielders
Outfielders
Designated hitters
| Manager Coaches
Restricted list 34 active, 0 inactive, 0 non-roster invitees 7-, 10-, or 15-day injured list |
The Athletics farm system consists of six minor league affiliates. [82]
Class | Team | League | Location | Ballpark | Affiliated |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Triple-A | Las Vegas Aviators | Pacific Coast League | Summerlin, Nevada | Las Vegas Ballpark | 2019 |
Double-A | Midland RockHounds | Texas League | Midland, Texas | Momentum Bank Ballpark | 1999 |
High-A | Lansing Lugnuts | Midwest League | Lansing, Michigan | Jackson Field | 2021 |
Single-A | Stockton Ports | California League | Stockton, California | Banner Island Ballpark | 2005 |
Rookie | ACL Athletics | Arizona Complex League | Mesa, Arizona | Fitch Park | 1988 |
DSL Athletics | Dominican Summer League | Boca Chica, Santo Domingo | Juan Marichal Complex | 1989 |
As of the 2020 season, the Athletics have had 14 radio homes. [83] The Athletics' flagship radio station is KNEW and the team has a free live 24/7 exclusive A's station branded as A's Cast to stream the radio broadcast within the Athletics market and other A's programming via iHeartRadio. [84] Going into the 2020 season, the Athletics had a deal with TuneIn for A's Cast and no flagship radio station in the Bay Area but changed their plans due to the COVID-19 pandemic keeping fans from attending games. [85] The announcing team features Ken Korach and Vince Cotroneo.
Television coverage is exclusively on NBC Sports California. Some A's games air on an alternate feed of NBCS, called NBCS Plus, if the main channel shows a Sacramento Kings or San Jose Sharks game at the same time. On TV, Jenny Cavnar covers play-by-play, and Dallas Braden provides color commentary. Some games would feature Chris Caray on play-by-play; Caray is a fourth-generation baseball announcer that included great-grandfather Harry Caray, grandfather Skip Caray, and father Chip Caray.
The 2003 Michael Lewis book Moneyball chronicles the 2002 Oakland Athletics season, with a focus on Billy Beane's economic approach to managing the organization under significant financial constraints. Beginning in June 2003, the book remained on The New York Times Best Seller list for 18 consecutive weeks, peaking at number 2. [86] [87] In 2011, Columbia Pictures released a film adaptation based on Lewis' book, which featured Brad Pitt playing the role of Beane. On September 19, 2011, the U.S. premiere of Moneyball was held at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, which featured a green carpet for attendees to walk, rather than the traditional red carpet. [88]
The blog that spawned the full-fledged popular sports blog site SBNation was dedicated to the Oakland Athletics. [89] [90]
Eric Shaun Lynch, a former member of The Howard Stern Show's Wack Pack who went by the name "Eric the Actor" (and previously, "Eric the Midget"), was a huge fan of the Athletics and would occasionally talk about them on Stern's show. Following his death in September 2014, the team broadcasters offered a tribute by using Lynch's signature sign off "bye for now" at the end of an Athletics game broadcast. During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, when American baseball teams were using cutouts of fans to show solidarity in their absence, the Athletics placed a cutout of Lynch among other cutouts of the team's fans.
The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West Division. Founded in 1883 as the New York Gothams, the team was renamed the New York Giants three years later, eventually relocating from New York City to San Francisco in 1958. The Giants play their home games in Oracle Park in San Francisco.
Charles Oscar Finley, nicknamed "Charlie O" or "Charley O", was an American businessman who owned Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics. Finley purchased the franchise while it was located in Kansas City, moving it to Oakland in 1968. He is also known as a short-lived owner of the National Hockey League's California Golden Seals and the American Basketball Association's Memphis Tams.
The Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum is a multi-purpose stadium in Oakland, California, United States. It is part of the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Complex, with the adjacent Oakland Arena, near Interstate 880. In 2017, the playing surface was dedicated as Rickey Henderson Field in honor of Major League Baseball Hall of Famer and former Athletics left fielder Rickey Henderson.
Oracle Park is a ballpark in the SoMa district of San Francisco, California. Since 2000, it has been the home of the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball (MLB). The stadium stands along San Francisco Bay; the section of the bay beyond Oracle Park's right field wall is unofficially known as McCovey Cove, in honor of former Giants player Willie McCovey. Previously named Pacific Bell Park, SBC Park, and AT&T Park, the stadium's current name was purchased by the Oracle Corporation in 2019.
The Athletics–Giants rivalry, formerly termed the Bay Bridge Series, or the Battle of the Bay, was a series of baseball games played between—and the rivalry of—Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics of the American League and San Francisco Giants of the National League. The formerly termed Bay Bridge Series took its name from the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge which links the cities of Oakland and San Francisco. Beginning in 2018, the winner of the annual series retained a trophy fashioned from a piece of the original bridge.
Howard Terminal Ballpark was a proposed baseball stadium to be built in the Jack London Square neighborhood of Oakland, California. If approved and constructed, it would have served as the new home stadium of the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball, replacing the Oakland Coliseum. The 34,000-seat stadium was the last of several proposals to keep the Athletics in Oakland. The site is currently a parcel of land owned by the Port of Oakland. After securing the site, the Athletics planned to have the stadium built and operational after the team's lease expired at the Oakland Coliseum in 2024.
Mount Davis, or Mt. Davis, is a section of 20,000 capacity seating at the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, California, United States. It was built in 1995 at the behest of Oakland City Council with the intent of bringing the Los Angeles Raiders American football team back to Oakland and is named after former Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis. Since 2006, the top-tier seating of Mount Davis has been covered by tarpaulin during all Oakland Athletics baseball games, and the Oakland Raiders followed suit in 2013. The Raiders would relocate to Las Vegas in 2020, and the Athletics would later move to Sacramento in 2025 ahead of a potential move to Las Vegas in 2028.
The 1972 Oakland Athletics season involved the A's winning the American League West with a record of 93 wins and 62 losses. In the playoffs, they defeated the Detroit Tigers in a five-game ALCS, followed by a seven-game World Series, in which they defeated the Cincinnati Reds for their sixth overall World Championship and first since 1930, when the club was in Philadelphia.
The San Francisco Bay Area, which includes the major cities of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, hosts five major league sports franchises, with a major women's sports franchise soon to start play, as well as several other professional and college sports teams, and hosts other sports events.
The 2008 Major League Baseball season began on March 25, 2008, in Tokyo, Japan with the 2007 World Series champion Boston Red Sox defeating the Oakland Athletics at the Tokyo Dome 6–5 in the first game of a two-game series, and ended on September 30 with the host Chicago White Sox defeating the Minnesota Twins in a one-game playoff to win the AL Central. The Civil Rights Game, an exhibition, in Memphis, Tennessee, took place March 29 when the New York Mets beat the Chicago White Sox, 3–2.
The history of the Athletics Major League Baseball franchise spans the period from 1901 to the present day, having begun as a charter member franchise in the new American League in Philadelphia before moving to Kansas City in 1955 for 13 seasons and then to the San Francisco Bay in Oakland, California, in 1968 for 57 seasons. The team endured numerous attendance issues stemming from the aging Oakland Coliseum before the MLB owners approved the team's application to relocate to Las Vegas, Nevada in 2023. With four locations, the A's have had the most homes of any MLB team.
John Joseph Fisher is an American businessman. He is the principal owner of the Athletics of Major League Baseball, the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer, and the Texas Rattlers of the Professional Bull Riders organization.
Robert Dean Manfred Jr. is an American lawyer and business executive who is serving as the tenth commissioner of Major League Baseball. He previously served as MLB's chief operating officer. Manfred succeeded Bud Selig as commissioner on January 25, 2015.
The Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas was a successful effort by the owner of the Oakland Raiders to relocate the American football team from Oakland, California, to Paradise, Nevada, after the 2019 National Football League (NFL) season. The team began play as the Las Vegas Raiders in the 2020 NFL season.
David A. Kaval is an American sports executive. He is the seventh president of the Athletics of Major League Baseball. He previously served as president of Major League Soccer club San Jose Earthquakes and founded the Golden Baseball League.
Hal Giuliani Gordon is an American economist and former hot dog vendor. He is best known for selling hot dogs at Oakland Athletics games from 2015 to 2022, during which time he became known as an unofficial mascot for the team.
The Oakland Athletics relocation to Las Vegas is an ongoing effort by the ownership of the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball (MLB) to relocate the franchise from Oakland, California, to Las Vegas, Nevada. The team was based in Oakland from 1968 through 2024, during which it won four World Series titles. Their relocation would make them the second major sports franchise to move from Oakland to Las Vegas, following the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League (NFL) making the same move in 2020. With four locations, the A's have had the most homes of any MLB team.
The New Las Vegas Stadium is a future fixed roof ballpark to be built on the site of the former Tropicana Las Vegas on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is planned as the new home stadium of the Las Vegas Athletics of Major League Baseball (MLB), after they complete their relocation from Oakland to Las Vegas.
Before Finley came on board, the then-Kansas City A's wore baseball's standard blue-and-red combination. In 1963, that all changed as Finley outfitted the team in glorious gold (Finley said it was the same shade the United States Naval Academy used) and kelly green for the very first time.
How many big league teams do you know that wear green and yellow, the most fantastic color scheme in the world? Exactly: Only one.
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)Awards and achievements | ||
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Preceded by | World Series champions Philadelphia Athletics 1910–1911 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | World Series champions Philadelphia Athletics 1913 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | World Series champions Philadelphia Athletics 1929–1930 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | World Series champions Oakland Athletics 1972–1974 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | World Series champions Oakland Athletics 1989 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | American League champions Philadelphia Athletics 1902 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | American League champions Philadelphia Athletics 1905 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | American League champions Philadelphia Athletics 1910–1911 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | American League champions Philadelphia Athletics 1913–1914 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | American League champions Philadelphia Athletics 1929–1931 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | American League champions Oakland Athletics 1972–1974 | Succeeded by |
Preceded by | American League champions Oakland Athletics 1988–1990 | Succeeded by |