The Oakland Athletics (frequently referred to as the Oakland A’s) were an American Major League Baseball (MLB) team based in Oakland, California from 1968 to 2024. The Athletics were a member club of the American League (AL) West Division and played its home games at the Oakland Coliseum throughout their entire time in Oakland. The franchise’s nine World Series championships, fifteen pennants, and seventeen division titles are the second-most in the AL after the New York Yankees.
The Athletics moved to Oakland from Kansas City in 1968, where the team had previously relocated in 1954 from its original home in Philadelphia. The Athletics were successful in Oakland, winning four World Series championships, six American League pennants, and 17 Western Division titles. Despite the team’s accomplishments, the Athletics left Oakland after the 2024 season, citing the aging Oakland Coliseum and inability to secure taxpayer funding for a new ballpark in the East Bay or San Jose areas. The team relocated to West Sacramento as the Athletics, with an eventual planned relocation to the Las Vegas metropolitan area on a permanent basis. The move marked the end of professional major league sports in Oakland.
The Oakland Athletics had an overall win–loss record of 4,614–4,387–1 (.513) during their 56 years in Oakland. Seventeen former Oakland Athletics players were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame with Dennis Eckersley, Rollie Fingers, Rickey Henderson, and Dick Williams depicted with an Oakland Athletics cap.
In 1954, Arnold Johnson bought the Athletics and moved the team from their original home of Philadelphia to Kansas City, Missouri. After Johnson’s death in 1960, the organization was purchased by Chicago businessman Charlie Finley, who initially promised to keep the team in their current home.
As early as 1961, Finley sought a new home for the Athletics, including cities such as Dallas–Fort Worth, Louisville, Atlanta, Milwaukee, New Orleans, San Diego, and Seattle. In January 1964, he signed an agreement on to move the A’s to Louisville, promising to change the team’s name to the “Kentucky Athletics”. American League owners turned it down by a 9–1 margin on January 16, with Finley being the only one voting in favor. Six weeks later, by the same 9–1 margin, the AL owners denied Finley’s request to move the team to Oakland. In agreement with AL President Joe Cronin, Finley signed a four-year lease with Municipal Stadium in February 1964.
During the World Series on October 11, 1967, Finley announced his choice of Oakland over Seattle as the team’s new home. A week later on October 18 in Chicago, AL owners gave him permission to move the Athletics to Oakland for the 1968 season.
The Athletics’ Oakland tenure opened with a 3–1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on April 10, 1968, and their first game in Oakland was on April 17, a 4–1 loss to the Orioles. They played their home games at the recently opened Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum, the home of the AFL‘s Oakland Raiders, with whom they shared the stadium. The Athletics drew national attention when, on May 8, 1968, Jim “Catfish” Hunter pitched a perfect game (the American League’s first during the regular season since 1922) against the Minnesota Twins. The Athletics, under the leadership of manager Bob Kennedy, ended the 1968 campaign with an 82–80 record, their first winning record since 1952 (in Philadelphia). The team’s output also represented a 20-win increase over the prior year’s 62–99 finish. Bob Kennedy was fired at the end of the season.
Expansion brought optimism to Athletics fans after AL owners (unlike their counterparts in the National League) decided to realign their league strictly based on geography. Despite finishing in sixth place and only two games above .500 in 1968, Oakland actually had the best record of the four established teams to join the AL West, which also contained the two expansion teams. The Athletics began the 1969 season under the leadership of Hank Bauer. On July 20, 1969, future ace Vida Blue made his major league debut with a start against the California Angels. The Athletics’ on-field performance continued to improve; led by Reggie Jackson‘s 47 home runs, the A’s finished the season with a record of 88–74. However, this was only good enough for second place behind the Minnesota Twins, and was not good enough for Finley, who had been expecting his team to win the division title. Hank Bauer was fired (and replaced with John McNamara) near the end of the season. The team’s record stood at 80–69 at the time of his firing. McNamara himself would be fired following an 89–73 finish in 1970. He was replaced by former Boston Red Sox manager Dick Williams.
The Athletics, following two consecutive second-place finishes, finally claimed the division crown in 1971. The A’s would win 101 games (their first 100-win season since finishing 107–45 in 1931). However, they lost to the Baltimore Orioles in the American League Championship Series. In 1972, the A’s won their first league pennant since 1931 and faced the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series.
That year, the A’s began wearing solid green or solid gold jerseys, with contrasting white pants, at a time when most other teams wore all-white uniforms at home and all-grey ones on the road. Similar to more colorful amateur softball uniforms, they were considered a radical departure for their time. Furthermore, in conjunction with a Moustache Day promotion, Finley offered $300 to any player who grew a moustache by Father’s Day, at a time when every other team forbade facial hair. When Father’s Day arrived, every member of the team collected a bonus. The 1972 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds was termed “The Hairs vs. the Big Squares”, as the Reds wore more traditional uniforms and required their players to be clean-shaven and short-haired. A contemporaneous book about the team was called Mustache Gang. The A’s seven-game victory over the heavily favored Reds gave the team its first World Series Championship since 1930.
They defended their title in 1973 and 1974. Unlike Mack’s champions, who thoroughly dominated their opposition, the A’s teams of the 1970s played well enough to win their division (which was usually known as the “American League Least” during this time). They then defeated teams that had won more games during the regular season with good pitching, good defense, and clutch hitting. Finley called this team the “Swingin’ A’s”. Players such as Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Joe Rudi, Bert Campaneris, Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers, and Vida Blue formed the nucleus of these teams.
The players often said in later years that they played so well as a team because almost to a man, they hated Finley with a passion. For instance, Finley threatened to pack Jackson off to the minors in 1969 after Jackson hit 47 homers; Commissioner Bowie Kuhn had to intervene in their contract dispute. Kuhn intervened again after Blue won the AL Cy Young Award in 1971 and Finley threatened to send him to the minors. Finley’s tendency for micromanaging his team actually dated to the team’s stay in Kansas City. Among the more notable incidents during this time was a near-mutiny in 1967; Finley responded by releasing the A’s best hitter, Ken Harrelson, who promptly signed with the Red Sox and helped lead them to the pennant.
The Athletics’ victory over the New York Mets in the 1973 Series was marred by Finley’s antics. Finley forced Mike Andrews to sign a false affidavit saying he was injured after the reserve second baseman committed two consecutive errors in the 12th inning of the A’s Game Two loss to the Mets. When Williams, Andrews’ teammates, and virtually the entire viewing public rallied to Andrews’ defense, Kuhn forced Finley to back down. However, there was nothing that said the A’s had to play Andrews. Andrews entered Game 4 in the eighth inning as a pinch-hitter to a standing ovation from sympathetic Mets fans. He promptly grounded out, and Finley ordered him benched for the remainder of the Series. Andrews never played another major league game. As it was, the incident allowed the Mets, a team that went but 82–79 during the regular season, to stretch the Series to the full seven games against a far superior team. Williams was so disgusted by the affair that he resigned after the Series. Finley retaliated by vetoing Williams’ attempt to become manager of the Yankees. Finley claimed that since Williams still owed Oakland the last year of his contract, he could not manage anywhere else. Finley relented later in 1974 and allowed Williams to take over as manager of the California Angels.
After the Athletics’ victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1974 Series (under Alvin Dark), pitcher Catfish Hunter filed a grievance, claiming that the team had violated its contract with Hunter by failing to make timely payment on an insurance policy during the 1974 season as called for. On December 13, 1974, arbitrator Peter Seitz ruled in Hunter’s favor. As a result, Hunter became a free agent, and signed a contract with the Yankees for the 1975 season. Despite the loss of Hunter, the A’s repeated as AL West champions in 1975, but lost the ALCS to Boston in a 3-game sweep.
