Oakland A’s
The Oakland Athletics are a professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball’s American League. From 1968 to the present, the Athletics have played in the Oakland Coliseum.
The “Athletics” name originates from the late 19th century “athletic clubs”, specifically the Athletic of Philadelphia. They are most prominently nicknamed “the A’s”, in reference to the blackletter “A”, a trademark of the team and the old Athletic of Philadelphia. This has gained very prominent use, and in some circles is used more frequently than the full “Athletics” name. They are also known as “the White Elephants” or simply “the Elephants”, in reference to then New York Giants‘ manager John McGraw’s calling the team a “white elephant”. This was embraced by the team, who then made a white elephant the team’s mascot, and often incorporated it into the logo or sleeve patches.
One of the American League’s eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1901. Then the Philadelphia Athletics, the team moved to Kansas City in 1955 and became the Kansas City Athletics. It was not until 1968 that the team moved to Oakland.
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 1882-1891.
The team name is typically pronounced “Ath-LET-ics”, but their longtime team owner/manager Connie Mack called them by the old-fashioned colloquial Irish pronunciation “Ath-uh-LET-ics”. Newspaper writers also often referred to the team as the Mackmen during their Philadelphia days, in honor of their patriarch.
