Oakland Athletics

Oakland Athletics
2018 Oakland Athletics season
Established in 1901
Based in Oakland since 1968
Team logo Cap insignia
Major league affiliations
American League (1901–present) West Division (1969–present)
Current uniform
Retired numbers	9 24 27 34 43 A's 42
Colors
Kelly green, gold, white[lower-alpha 1][2][3]
Name
Oakland Athletics (1987–present) Oakland A's (1968–1986) Kansas City Athletics (1955–1967) Philadelphia Athletics (1901–1954)
Other nicknames
The A's, The Swingin' A's, The White Elephants, The Elephants, The Green and Gold
Ballpark
Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum (1968–present) Municipal Stadium (1955–1967) Shibe Park (1909–1954) Columbia Park (1901–1908)
Major league titles
World Series titles (9)	1910 1911 1913 1929 1930 1972 1973 1974 1989
AL Pennants (15)	1902 1905 1910 1911 1913 1914 1929 1930 1931 1972 1973 1974 1988 1989 1990
West Division titles (16)	1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1981 1988 1989 1990 1992 2000 2002 2003 2006 2012 2013
Wild card berths (3)	2001 2014 2018
Front office
Owner(s)	John J. Fisher
Manager	Bob Melvin
General Manager	David Forst
President of Baseball Operations	Billy Beane

The Oakland Athletics, often referred to as the A's, are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The team plays its home games at the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum. They have won nine World Series championships, the third-most of all current MLB teams. The 2017 season was the club's 50th while based in Oakland.

One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the team was founded in Philadelphia in 1901 as the Philadelphia Athletics. They won three World Series championships from 1910 to 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 in 1968. They won three consecutive World Championships between 1972 and 1974, led by players including Vida Blue, Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, ace reliever Rollie Fingers, and colorful owner Charlie O. Finley. 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.

History

The history of the Athletics Major League Baseball franchise spans the period from 1901 to the present day, having begun in Philadelphia before moving to Kansas City in 1955 and then to its current 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.^[4]

Team uniform

Through the seasons, the Athletics' uniforms have usually paid homage to their amateur forebears to some extent. 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" ever appeared on the uniform or cap. The typical 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 new road uniforms with "Kansas City" printed on them, as well as an interlocking "KC" on the cap. Upon moving to Oakland, the "A" cap emblem was restored, although in 1970 an "apostrophe-s" was added to the cap and uniform emblem to reflect the fact that Finley was in the process of officially changing the team's name to the "A's."

The Athletics logo (1983–1992)

Also 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 also 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 innovative uniforms only increased after the team's move to Oakland, which also came at the time of 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 in fact did not wear 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 and began a move back to more traditional uniforms.

Justin Duchscherer pitched for the Oakland Athletics

Currently, the team wears 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 is green with a gold bill and white lettering, while the road cap, debuting in 2014, is all green with "A's" in white with gold trim. Regardless of road or home games, the batting helmets used are green with gold brim. However, before 2009, when the black A's helmets appeared, road helmets were green with green brim.

From 1994 until 2013, the A's wore green alternate jerseys with the word "Athletics" in gold. It was used on 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. Commercially popular but rarely chosen as the alternate by players, in 2011 they were replaced by a new gold alternate jersey with "A's" in green on the left chest. With the exception of several road games during the 2011 season, the Athletics' gold uniforms are used as the designated home alternates. A green version of their gold alternates was introduced for the 2014 season to replace their previous green alternates. The new green alternates feature 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.^[9]

The nickname "A's" has long been used interchangeably with "Athletics", dating to the team's early days when headline writers wanted a way to shorten the name. From 1972 through 1980, the team nickname was officially "Oakland A's", although, during that time, 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 purposes. 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.

The A's are the only MLB team to wear white cleats, both at home and on the road, another tradition dating back to the Finley ownership.

Stadium

The Oakland Alameda Coliseum—originally known as the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum, and later named as Network Associates, McAfee and Overstock.com 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 the Superdome in New Orleans. The Athletics were unable to break their lease at the Coliseum, and remained in Oakland.^[10]

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.

The Coliseum as seen in its original open grandstand configuration before being enclosed.

Then, in 1995, a deal was struck whereby the Raiders would move back to Oakland for the 1995 season. The agreement called for the expansion of the Coliseum 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.^[11]

Although official capacity was stated to be 43,662 for baseball, seats were sometimes sold in Mount Davis as well, pushing "real" capacity to the area of 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 smallest stadium in Major League Baseball. Beginning in 2008, sections 316–318 were the only open third-deck sections 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 are the only remaining MLB team still sharing a stadium with an NFL team on a full-time basis.

The Athletics' Spring training facility is Hohokam Stadium, located in Mesa, Arizona. From 1982 to 2014, their spring training facility was Phoenix Municipal Stadium, located in Phoenix, Arizona.^[12] Previous spring-training sites since they moved to Oakland in 1968 were Yuma and Mesa, Arizona, as well as Las Vegas, Nevada, all in the 1970s.

Rivals

Achievements

Retired numbers

See also: List of Major League Baseball retired numbers

The Athletics have retired six numbers, and honored one additional individual with the letter "A". 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 Fame members 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).

Reggie Jackson RF   Retired May 22, 2004 Rickey Henderson LF   Retired August 1, 2009 Catfish Hunter P   Retired June 9, 1991 Rollie Fingers P   Retired July 5, 1993 Dennis Eckersley P   Retired August 13, 2005 Walter A. Haas, Jr. Owner   Honored 1995 Jackie Robinson All MLB Retired April 15, 1997

Athletics Hall of Fame

On September 5, 2018, the Athletics held a ceremony to induct seven members into the inaugural class of the team's Hall of Fame. Each member was honored with an unveiling of a painting in their likeness and a bright green jacket. Fisher, 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. ^[33][34]

Key

Year	Year inducted
Bold	Member of the Baseball Hall of Fame
	Member of the Baseball Hall of Fame as an Athletic
Bold	Recipient of the Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award

Oakland Athletics Hall of Fame
No.	Player	Position	Tenure	Inducted
43	Dennis Eckersley	P	1987–1995	2018
34	Rollie Fingers	P	1968–1976	2018
24	Rickey Henderson	LF	1979–1984 1989–1993 1994–1995 1998	2018
27	Catfish Hunter	P	1965–1974	2018
9	Reggie Jackson	RF	1967–1975 1987	2018
34	Dave Stewart	P	1986–1992 1995	2018
—	Charlie Finley	Owner General Manager	1960–1981	2018

Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame

Dave Stewart, Oakland Athletics pitcher from 1986 to 1992 and 1995

Main article: Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame

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
12	Dusty Baker	OF	1985–1986
14, 17, 21, 28, 35	Vida Blue	P	1969–1977
19	Bert "Campy" Campaneris	SS	1968–1976
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
32, 34, 38	Rollie Fingers	P	1968–1976
—	Walter A. Haas, Jr.	Owner	1981–1995	Grew up in San Francisco, attended UC Berkeley
27	Catfish Hunter	P	1968–1974
9, 31, 44	Reggie Jackson	RF	1968–1975 1987
1	Eddie Joost	SS Manager	1947–1954 1954	Born and raised in San Francisco
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
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
19	Dave Righetti	P	1994	Born and raised in San Jose
34, 35	Dave Stewart	P	1986–1992 1995	Born and raised in Oakland

Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame

See also: Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame

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,^[35][36][37] 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.^[38][39]

Key

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

Season-by-season records

The records of the Athletics' last ten seasons in Major League Baseball are listed below.

Current roster

Minor league affiliations

The Oakland Athletics farm system consists of seven minor league affiliates.^[41]

Radio and television

As of 2011, the Athletics' flagship radio station is KGMZ 95.7 FM.^[42] The current announcing team is 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 game at the same time. On TV, Glen Kuiper covers play-by-play, and Ray Fosse typically provides color commentary. Kuiper and Fosse are frequently joined by Dallas Braden, who adds additional color from the field level.

In popular culture

The 2003 Michael Lewis book Moneyball chronicles the 2002 Oakland Athletics season, with a specific 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.^[43][44] 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.^[45]

See also

• List of Oakland Athletics team records
• List of Oakland Athletics no-hitters
• List of Oakland Athletics owners and executives
• List of Oakland Athletics managers
• Oakland Athletics award winners and league leaders
• List of Oakland Athletics first-round draft picks
• List of Oakland Athletics Opening Day starting pitchers

Notes

References

Further reading

• Bergman, Ron. Mustache Gang: The Swaggering Tale of Oakland's A's. Dell Publishing Co., New York, 1973.
• Dickey, Glenn. Champions: The Story of the First Two Oakland A's Dynasties—and the Building of the Third. Triumph Books, Chicago, 2002. ISBN 1-57243-421-X
• Jordan, David M. The Athletics of Philadelphia: Connie Mack's White Elephants, 1901–1954. McFarland & Co., Jefferson NC, 1999. ISBN 0-7864-0620-8.
• Katz, Jeff. "The Kansas City A's & The Wrong Half of the Yankees." Maple Street Press, Hingham, Massachusetts, 2006. ISBN 978-0-9777436-5-0.
• Kuklick, Bruce. To Everything a Season: Shibe Park and Urban Philadelphia 1909–1976. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ, 1991. ISBN 0-691-04788-X.
• Lewis, Michael. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., New York, 2003. ISBN 0-393-05765-8.
• Markusen, Bruce. Baseball's Last Dynasty: Charlie Finley's Oakland A's. Master Press, Indianapolis, 1998.
• Peterson, John E. The Kansas City Athletics: A Baseball History 1954–1967. McFarland & Co., Jefferson NC, 1999. ISBN 0-7864-1610-6.
• 2005 Oakland Athletics Media Guide

External links

• Oakland Athletics official website
• Official website
• Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society
• Oakland Athletics stats and minor league statistics
• Sports E-Cyclopedia
• Oakland A's prospect information