Oakland Athletics

The Athletics' name originated in the term "Athletic Club" for local gentlemen's clubs—dates to 1860 when an amateur team, the Athletic (Club) of Philadelphia, was formed. The team later turned professional through 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.

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.[5]

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.[6] 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.

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.)[7] 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.[8] In 1997, he took his current form, Stomper, debuting Opening Night on April 2.[9][10]

In recent years, specifically under team president Dave Kaval, attempts have been made to upgrade the Oakland Coliseum, including the creation a number of club and premium seating areas, a renovation of Shibe Park Tavern and various fan areas.

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.[16][17] 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.

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.

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 re-named "Rickey Henderson Field." The team hosted 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.[18] The team tried a new concept within 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.[19] On July 21, 2018, the Athletics set a Coliseum record for the largest attendance with a crowd of 56,310 when the team played host to the San Francisco Giants.[19][20]

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 has said it wants to remain in Oakland. 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. In 2018 the team 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.[21]

On May 11, 2021, the A's were given permission from the MLB to explore relocation possibilities should the team fail to get a replacement stadium for the aging Coliseum from the city of Oakland.[22] Among the cities and regions in consideration by the team was the Las Vegas Valley area of Nevada, the home of the National Hockey League's Vegas Golden Knights and the National Football League's Las Vegas Raiders with the latter team having left Oakland in 2020 due to being unable to get a football-only stadium in the city. Several days later, the A's started exploring the possibility of relocating to the Las Vegas area and would later organize meetings with local government officials and tour potential sites there led by team owner John Fisher in the next week.[23] After a presentation at a June MLB owners meeting in New York City, team president Dave Kaval said that the A's were considering the Resort Corridor, the Cashman Field site and the Valley cities of Henderson or Summerlin, Nevada as possible locations for a ballpark. Kaval also said that the team was still continuing to explore "parallel paths" in not just Las Vegas but the team's long time home Oakland.[24] Kaval and Fisher would conduct more trips to the area to meet with officials again over the possibility of relocation starting with June 20 and June 21.[25][26] By then, the A's shortlist for a potential ballpark in Southern Nevada ballooned to over 30 sites according to Kaval.[27]

In September 2021, Kaval said that the Athletics would finalize the list of possible ballpark sites in Las Vegas by November.[28] In November, the A's launched a survey for fans of the team's Triple-A affiliate the Las Vegas Aviators to determine potential interest for an MLB team in Las Vegas and a new ballpark.[29] The final results of the survey released a month later indicated that most Aviators fans and Las Vegas residents were interested in having an MLB team in the city.[30] In the same month, the A's made an offer for an undisclosed plot of land in the Valley for a $1 billion ballpark to be built there.[31] The Howard Hughes Corp, the owners of the Aviators, offered free land for the Athletics to build a new ballpark.[32] The team previously met with the Howard Hughes Corp in Summerlin weeks ago.[33]

In April 2022, the A's narrowed down the list to two possibles sites in the Las Vegas Strip.[34] However, the team seemingly lost a potential ballpark site in Tropicana Las Vegas when the resort's non-land assets were sold to the Bally's Corporation and approved by Nevada state regulators later that year.[35] Earlier in December 2021, the A's had submitted a bid to acquire the Tropicana site and redevelop it into a ballpark prior to the Bally's acquisition.[36] The MLB, in reaction to the A's interest in Southern Nevada, decided to remove a relocation fee for the team in the event that they move to the Las Vegas area.[37] In August, A's officials organized two meetings with casino owner and financier Paul Ruffin for the new Las Vegas area ballpark.[38]

In October 2022, Oakland missed a deadline to reach an agreement on a ballpark in the Howard Terminal with negotiations pushed back to another year.[39] Kaval said that the delay in negotiations would "all but doom our efforts" in keeping the team in Oakland.[40] On October 29, Commissioner of Baseball Rob Manfred said in a SiriusXM interview with host Chris "Mad Dog" Russo that he was "not positive" the A's could remain in Oakland and that the team has made progress in exploring Las Vegas as a viable relocation site.[41]

In November 2022, a source familiar with the Athletics' negotiations with Las Vegas said that even if the team were to move to the city, the Triple-A Aviators would stay put and temporarily share Las Vegas Ballpark with their MLB affiliate while a new ballpark was under construction.[42] On November 3, Bally's CEO Lee Fenton said that the Tropicana site was "very much in the cards" for the Athletics to build a ballpark should the team relocate from Oakland to Las Vegas.[43]

After the city of Oakland failed to make any progress toward a stadium, the A's began contemplating a move to the Warm Springs district of suburban Fremont. Fremont is about 25 miles (40 km) south of Oakland; many nearby residents are already a part of the current Athletics fanbase.

On November 7, 2006, many media sources 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.[44] The team would have played in what was planned to be called Cisco Field, a 32,000-seat, baseball-only facility.[45] 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 regarding the end of his efforts to relocate the A's to Fremont, citing "real and threatened" delays to the project.[46] 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 parcels of 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.[47]

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 wait on a report on whether the team could move to the area, because of the Giants conflict.[48] 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.[49] 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.[50]

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."[51]

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.[52] Wolff criticized the lawsuit, stating he did not believe business disputes should be settled through legal action.[53]

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 count that MLB illegally interfered with an option agreement between the city and the A's for land. 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.[54] On October 5, 2015, the United States Supreme Court rejected San Jose's bid on the Athletics.[55]

A 2017 plan would have placed a new 35,000 seat A's stadium near Laney College and the Eastlake neighborhood on the current site of the Peralta Community College District's administration buildings. The plan was announced by team president Dave Kaval in September 2017.[56] However, just three months later, college officials abruptly ended the negotiations.[57]

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".[58]

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.[59]

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.[60]

In 2018, the Athletics and Giants started battling for a "Bay Bridge" Trophy[61] made from steel taken from the old Bay Bridge, which was taken down after a new bridge was opened in 2013.[62][63] The A's won the inaugural season with the trophy, allowing them to place their logo atop its Bay Bridge stand.[64]

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 didn't 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.[65]

The first City Series was held in 1883 between the Phillies and the American Association Philadelphia Athletics.[66] 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.

• The Athletics give out an award named the Catfish Hunter Award since 2004 for the most inspirational Athletic.

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-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 Oakland 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.[67][68] 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.

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 Dave Stewart P   Retired September 11, 2022 Dennis Eckersley P   Retired August 13, 2005 Walter A. Haas, Jr. Owner   Honored 1995 Jackie Robinson All MLB   Retired April 15, 1997

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. 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.[69] The next class to be inducted is the class of 2022, which is yet to be determined. 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; in November 2021, Ray Fosse, who had died the previous month, was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame.[70][71]

Key

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

Athletics Hall of Fame
Year	No.	Player	Position	Tenure
2018	43	Dennis Eckersley	P	1987–1995
	34	Rollie Fingers	P	1968–1976
	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	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
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	6, 26	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

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

17 members of the Athletics organization have been honored with induction into the Bay Area Sports Hall 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,[72][73][74] 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.[75][76]

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

• 6 Sal Bando, 3B, 1969–1976

Khris Davis (outfielder/hitter) has been called “the most consistent hitter in baseball history”[77] with his 2014 to 2018 season averages of .244, .247, .247, .247, and .247.[78]