Tag: oakland-athletics

The New York Yankees are playing a series in the Oakland Coliseum against the A’s for the last time in the Bay Area. After the 2024 season, the A’s will begin the process of moving to Las Vegas by first, stopping in Sacramento for the next three years. By the time the organization plays a regular season game in Vegas, we will again be talking about a Presidential election. The move represents the first time in 20 years that a Major League Baseball team changes addresses, the last being the Montreal Expos morphing into the Washington Nationals. This is a sad chapter in the history of baseball as MLB officials presided over an ownership group that treated Oakland like second rate citizens. With bitter feelings still present, I would like my kids, and everyone else, to understand that although the A’s did not have the best of ownership in Oakland, they certainly were one of the premier organizations for much of the last 50 years.

Disclaimer: This isn’t the first time the A’s have been on the move. They were born in Philadelphia in 1901 and left for Kansas City after the 1954 season. They lasted only 13 years in KC before moving further west . For the purposes of this post, I will stick to the organization’s time to Oakland. Their time in Philadelphia featured some of the biggest names in MLB history such as Jimmie Foxx, Frank “Home Run” Baker and Al Simmons. But that is for another day.

Where to begin? How about a little secret? You have been regaled endlessly about the tales of the 1977-78 Yankees. I know you have heard the name, “Big Red Machine” when referring to the 1970’s Cincinnati Reds. Neither was the team of the decade. It was the A’s. In fact, from 1972-1974, Oakland accomplished what no other organization in the 120 plus years of the World Series has done with the exception of the Yankees: win three consecutive championships. One of those titles came against the Big Red Machine, and they won it without Reggie Jackson, the team’s best player and future Hall of Famer. They won five consecutive AL West championships and very nearly had a sixth in 1976. Because of owner Charlie Finley’s insistence on not paying his players as well as wanting to sell them for cash, a bizarre set of circumstances left Oakland without Rollie Fingers, Joe Rudi and Vida Blue for 12 games. They went 7-5 during that time and missed the division title by only 2.5 games.

Fast forward about a decade later and a new era of winning baseball took place for the organization . The A’s would win the 1989 World Series, and three consecutive pennants from 1988-1990. Since then, no other team besides the Yankees (who else?) has won three straight pennants. In fact, when the Yankees were winning three straight World Series titles from 1998-2000, the team that gave them the hardest time was the 2000 A’s. Though the club has not won it all since 1989, they certainly have had their fair share of winning teams. From 2000-2006, Oakland made the playoffs four times while the other two seasons produced 91 and 88 victories, a pair of second place finishes. Later on, they twice made three consecutive playoff appearance, first from 2012-2014 and then from 2018-2020. All of this success throughout the years has come despite chronically low payrolls courtesy of the various ownership groups that have owned the team at different times.

The success of the A’s because of their low payrolls caught the attention of best selling author Michael Lewis. He wrote a great book on those early 2000’s A’s titled, Moneyball. The book was later turned into a movie starring Brad Pitt. It focused on the use of analytics and how the organization, specifically General Manager Billy Beane, would use them to apply unconventional methods to secure talent and win games despite having one of the lowest payrolls in the game. Speaking of true stories, MLB Network has done their fair share of documentaries on the club and its players, beginning with The Swinging A’s, which chronicled their 70’s glory days. Reggie Jackson. Dennis Eckersley. Rickey Henderson. Billy Martin. All of them may have played and managed (in Martin’s case) in other locales but a significant part of each of their careers came in Oakland. Here’s another little tidbit: Reggie won more championships (and an MVP) with the A’s than the Yankees.

And so a glorious, and sometimes frustrating era in baseball history comes to a close. The green and gold uniforms will look out of place in the desert. Although I missed the early 70’s dynasty, I am glad I got to see the A’s celebrate a World Series title. From their time in the Bay Area until now, only the Yankees (again) have won more World Series titles than the A’s. (The Red Sox and Cardinals have also won four over that time). I hope that thousands of future baseball fans will read up on those great teams that called Oakland home.

Last week, the Oakland A’s announced that this will be their final season in the Bay Area. The team will play for three years in Sacramento (in a Minor League park, no less) until their new stadium is ready in Las Vegas starting with the 2028 season. Thus ends an era in Major League Baseball equally defined in excellence and incompetence. The result of the move out of Oakland and into Las Vegas represents an enormous failure, and perhaps even bigger, an utter contempt for a fanbase.

Let’s get one undeniable truth out of the way. If it was New York or Boston or Los Angeles or St. Louis, there is no way this happens. Those cities are considered baseball royalty with legacies of winning and rabid fan bases. Major League Baseball would not abandon those areas at any cost. They would have insisted that ownership work out a deal with their respective municipalities to keep those franchises where they belong. Oakland? It’s a more of a working class area whose perception (wrongly) is that of the “second” team in the Bay Area. It doesn’t have the celebrity following that the Yankees and the Dodgers and the Red Sox possess. And we know how important celebrities are to the folks that occupy the Commissioner’s Office. Going to Las Vegas raises the “cool” factor of baseball, with the A’s going from the “dreary” Oakland Coliseum to the bright lights of the Strip.

You know what the A’s DO have a history of: winning.

Since the franchise relocated from Kansas City to Oakland in 1968, the A’s have a nearly unmatched record in capturing World Series championships. Their four titles are only exceeded by the Yankees and equal to the amount of the Red Sox. No other club has more than three. Speaking of three, the Oakland A’s are the only team not named the Yankees to have captured three consecutive World Series titles in the over 100 year existence of the Fall Classic. They have appeared in a total of six World Series since the move to Oakland. In 1972, when playing the famed Big Red Machine from Cincinnati, the A’s won the championship without their best player, Reggie Jackson. Think about that. Oakland won a title against a legendary team without their Hall of Famer for any of the seven games. Find another instance of a franchise becoming a champion without their best player.

As for those players? MLB Network thought enough of the greatness of the teams from the 1970’s to make a documentary, but they also produced specials on three players with significant Oakland connections: Jackson, Rickey Henderson and Dennis Eckersley. Jackson was one of the great sluggers of all time, Henderson was the most dynamic player of his generation and Eckersley was virtually unhittable as a closer. Other Hall of Famers that called Oakland home include Rollie Fingers and Jim “Catfish” Hunter. Though not in Cooperstown, Dave Stewart accomplished something that may not happen again: winning at least 20 games in four consecutive seasons. From Joe Rudi and Vida Blue to Tim Hudson, Barry Zito and Mark Mulder to Matt Olson and Marcus Semien, the A’s have enjoyed rosters full of superstars that somehow go almost unnoticed by much of the baseball media. If this franchise stayed in Philadelphia all those years ago or moved to Los Angeles before the Dodgers, they would be recognized as baseball royalty.

How about this? The name “Athletics” or “A’s” needs to stay in Oakland. Current ownership does not deserve to take any bit of this all time franchise east to Las Vegas. Let him make his own history somewhere else. The A’s belong in Oakland and maybe, just maybe, the next commissioner will recognize that it is a tremendous baseball town with a rich history.