Profile
Affiliations | AL West |
---|---|
Ballpark | Oakland Coliseum |
World Series Titles | 9 |
AL Pennants | 15 |
Introduction
The Athletics 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 Coliseum. 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", they won three consecutive World Series in 1972, 1973, and 1974, led by players including Vida Blue, Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers, and 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. In 2002, the Athletics set the record for most consecutive wins in a single 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 only Oakland franchise among the five major American professional sports leagues with teams in the San Francisco Bay Area. On April 20, 2023, the Athletics announced that they had entered a land purchase agreement with Red Rock Resort in Paradise, Nevada, near the Las Vegas Strip for a new ballpark, finalizing their plans to leave Oakland and move to the Las Vegas Valley. On May 9, 2023, the Athletics switched their planned location to the site of Tropicana Las Vegas, which will be demolished to make room for a 33,000-seat partially retractable ballpark and a 1,500-room hotel and casino. By June 15, 2023, Nevada governor Joe Lombardo signed an MLB stadium funding bill known as SB1 into law after it was approved by the Nevada Legislature, and the Athletics officially announced they would begin the relocation process to Las Vegas.
From 1901 to 2023, the Athletics' overall win–loss record was 9,260–9,766 (.487).
Related Tags
Philadelphia Phillies: Their former cross city rival when the A's played in Philadelphia.
Kansas City Royals: Current MLB team from Kansas City after departure of the A's
San Francisco Giants: Their Cross Bay Rival.
Golden State Warriors (NBA): Formerly playing in Oakland before moved to San Francisco.
Las Vegas Raiders (NFL): Formerly playing in Oakland even they shared their home stadium before they leaving to Las Vegas.