Oakland Athletics

Location:  | Oakland, California
Year Founded:  | 1901
Colors:  | Green, gold, white
Mascot:  | Stomper
Championships:  | 9
Website:  | http://athletics.mlb.com/

The  Oakland Athletics , often abbreviated as the Oakland A's, are a Major League Baseball team in the American League West Division.

The team originated in 1901 as the Philadelphia Athletics (the term "Athletic" referred to athletic "gentlemen's clubs" of the late 1800's and early 1900's; in those days the term referred to clubs organized for amateur athletic competition, as opposed to the modern use of the term as a euphemism for places featuring nudity). The team relocated to Kansas City, Missouri in 1955 and again to Oakland in 1968.

The team itself has been among the more successful of American League franchises (it has won nine World Series and 15 American League pennants, though during its Kansas City tenure it won none of either); however, it has been plagued by poor attendance and financial woes (due in part to being located in the same metropolitan area as the more-established San Francisco Giants and by being located in Oakland as opposed to the Giants being located in wealthier San Francisco).

The team plays in Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (which has had several name changes for naming rights, but as of 2017 reverted to its original name). Until the end of the 2019 season it shared the stadium with the National Football League's Oakland Raiders, the last such arrangement (the Raiders relocated to Las Vegas). Because of this, the stadium's baseball layout gives it far and away the largest amount of foul territory in MLB; balls that would go into the stands elsewhere end up routinely being caught for outs.

World Series Titles: 9 (1910, 1911, 1913, 1929, 1930, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1989)

American League Pennants: 15 (1902, 1905, 1910, 1911, 1913, 1914, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1988, 1989, 1990)

## Minor league affiliations[edit]

The Oakland Athletics farm system consists of six Minor League Baseball affiliates, the closest being Low-A Stockton (66.1 miles away), The baseball affiliates are across the United States and in the Dominican Republic. Four teams are independently owned, while the Athletics own one complex-based rookie level team in the Arizona Complex League and one in the Dominican Summer League.

Level  | Team  | League  | Location

|
|
|

Triple-A  |  Las Vegas Aviators  |  Pacific Coast League  |  Summerlin, Nevada
Double-A  |  Midland RockHounds  |  Texas League  |  Midland, Texas
High-A  |  Lansing Lugnuts  |  Midwest League  |  Lansing, Michigan
Single-A  |  Stockton Ports  |  California League  |  Stockton, California
Rookie league|Rookie  | ACL Athletics  |  Arizona Complex League  |  Mesa, Arizona
DSL Athletics  |  Dominican Summer League  | Santo Domingo

## Book and film[edit]

Book authored by Michael Lewis titled "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game" was published in 2003. This book is about the Oakland Athletics baseball team and its revolutionary front office executive and general manager Billy Beane. Its focus is the team's analytical, evidence-based, saber-metric approach to building a competitive team on a limited budget that can compete against teams with big-money, despite Oakland's small budget. "Moneyball" is a 2011 American sports drama film. The film had six Oscar nominations, most for a baseball movie since 1942's "The Pride of the Yankees", including Best Picture, Best Actor (Brad Pitt), Best Supporting Actor (Jonah Hill) and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film was directed by Bennett Miller and written by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin.

## External links[edit]

* Official Team Website

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