Oakland Athletics | |||||
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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 Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the Oakland A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West Division. The team currently plays its home games at the Oakland Coliseum, with plans to temporarily move to Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, California, for the 2025–2027 seasons (with an option for the 2028 season), prior to their permanent move to Las Vegas.[4] The relocation will mark the first move by an MLB team since the Montreal Expos moved to Washington, D.C., becoming the Washington Nationals. The nine World Series championships, fifteen pennants, and seventeen division titles that the A's have won throughout their history is the second-highest in the American League after the New York Yankees.
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 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 in 1968. 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.
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, Nevada to build a new ballpark on the Las Vegas Strip, finalizing the Athletics' plans to relocate from Oakland to the Las Vegas Valley.[5][6][7][8] 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 will be demolished to construct a 33,000-seat partially retractable ballpark and a 1,500-room hotel and casino.[9] 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.[10] On November 16, 2023, MLB owners unanimously approved the Athletics' request to relocate to the Las Vegas area.[11][12] 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).[13] While in West Sacramento, the team plans on being referred to as simply the "A's" and "Athletics," with no city name attached.[14]
From 1901 through the end of 2023, the franchise's overall win–loss record is 9,260–9,766–87 (.487). Since moving to Oakland in 1968, the Athletics have an overall win–loss record of 4,545–4,294 (.514) through the end of 2023.[15]
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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