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. (A famous image from that era, published in Harper's Weekly in 1866, shows the Athletic players dressed in uniforms displaying the familiar blackletter "A" on the front.) 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.[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.[8] In 1997, he took his current form, Stomper.[9] Stomper was debuted during Opening Night on April 2, 1997.[10]

In his time as president, Dave Kaval has enhanced the fan experience by making upgrades to the Oakland Coliseum, including the addition of a number of club and premium seating areas, renovating Shibe Park Tavern, and introducing three new fan areas: Championship Plaza, The Treehouse and a kids' zone.

In 2017, the team created this new 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 A's home game.

The A's introduced The Treehouse at the start of the 2018 season. The 10,000-square-foot (930 m²) area is open to all fans and features two full-service bars, standing-room and lounge seating, numerous televisions and pre- 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 A's players, replica A's 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. Later this season, the A's will add a miniature baseball field and spiderweb play area.

The A's 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.

Dave Kaval, the president of the team, has innovated the fan experience by removing the tarps on the upper deck, introducing a modern version of the beloved mechanical Harvey the Rabbit to deliver the first pitch ball, and naming the playing surface at the Coliseum "Rickey Henderson Field." The Club hosted the first free game in MLB history for 46,028 fans on April 17, 2018 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the A's first game in Oakland. On July 21, 2018, the A's set a Coliseum record for the largest attendance with a crowd of 56,310 when the team played host to the San Francisco Giants.

Since the mid-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. 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.[15]

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.[16] The team would have played in what was planned to be called Cisco Field, a 32,000-seat, baseball-only facility.[17] 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.[18] 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.[19]

By 2010, San Jose was "aggressively wooing" A's owner Lew Wolff. Wolff referred to San Jose 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.[20] 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.[21] 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.[22]

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."[23]

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.[24] Wolff criticized the lawsuit, stating he did not believe business disputes should be settled through legal action.[25]

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.[26] On October 5, 2015, the United States Supreme Court rejected San Jose's bid on the Athletics.[27]

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.[28] However, just three months later, college officials abruptly ended the negotiations.[29]

The Bay Bridge Series is the name of a series 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".[30]

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 2018 regular season, the Athletics have won 63 games, and the Giants have won 57 contests.[31]

The A's also have edges on the Giants in terms of overall postseason appearances (18-12), division titles (16-8) 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.[32]

In 2018, the Athletics and Giants started battling for a "Bay Bridge" Trophy[33] made from steel taken from the old bay bridge which was taken down after a new bridge was opened in 2013.[34][35] The A's won the inaugural season with the trophy, allowing them to place their logo atop its bay bridge stand.[36]

The City Series was the name of a series of baseball games played between the 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 has 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.[37]

The first City Series was held in 1883 between the Phillies and the American Association Philadelphia Athletics.[38] 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.

• Catfish Hunter Award (2004–present)

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).

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

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.[39][40]

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

Oakland 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	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

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,[41][42][43] 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.[44][45]

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”[46] with his 2014 to 2018 season averages of .244, .247, .247, .247, and .247.[47]