The Athletics Are On the Move Again.
They’ve Seen This Before.
During the summer of 2023 — John Fisher and the Oakland Athletics applied for relocation by the MLB to a larger market.
The Oakland Coliseum was in disrepair, and Fisher felt that he needed a larger market for his team to flourish, pay contracts, and attract top talent.
In 1954, a campaign began in Philly. This wasn’t a campaign of political significance or civic improvements. This campaign was to “Save the A’s.” Philadelphia’s once celebrated five-time World Champion Athletics had fallen on hard financial times. In the pursuit of attracting top players, the team was facing bankruptcy, and the once state-of-the-art Shibe Park was in shambles.
Last Sunday was the Athletics’ last game at the Coliseum in Oakland. After 64 seasons in Oakland in 1968, the team will move to Sacramento for three seasons before finally going to Las Vegas in 2028.
Philadelphia’s Athletics were born out of fiery competition. When Major League Baseball expanded into a western league in 1900, Philadelphia was given a franchise to compete with the Phillies. That American League Team was the Philadelphia Athletics. The opportunity to manage the new club fell to former Milwaukee Brewers Manager and occasional backup catcher Connie Mack, who was joined by investors like Ben Shibe. Mack’s fifty years as a professional manager will likely never be broken in American sports as a record.
By 1902 — the Athletics had won the AL Pennant. By the mid-1930s, the Athletics had formed essentially two dynasties — from 1911–1913 and 1929–1930. In 1927, they fielded a team that may be one of the best teams ever to play MLB baseball. For nearly thirty years, the Athletics pushed the Phillies — in existence since 1883 into a secondary position in Philly baseball.
If you came to Philadelphia to see quality baseball — you came to see the Athletics. My grandpop grew up in Connie Mack Stadium — conveniently ducking into the restroom when the stands cleared out between a double-header to catch the second game.
The 1954 campaign to save the A’s in Philadelphia was unsuccessful. Against Connie Mack’s wishes, the team was finally sold and relocated to Kansas City that year.
The Phillies would end up buying Connie Mack Stadium after the Athletics left Philadelphia.
After standing for nearly centuries hosting entertainment, the Roman Colosseum was finally closed by Emporer Honorius around 404 A.D. Finally, an earthquake in 1349 collapsed its outer walls. Many Athletics fans — keenly aware of the end of this chapter in Athletics history attempted to take seats from the stands and dirt from the Oakland Coliseum field.
Years after the Athletics relocation, they would rise to relevance once again, winning AL Pennants in 1972, 1973, 1974, 1988, 1989, and 1990 and the World Series in 1972, 1973, 1974, and 1989. But the magic that was captured by forming a dynasty in the midst of five World Series Championships in Philadelphia will always remain among the MLB’s greatest.
That honor doesn’t belong to Kansas City or Oakland. It belongs to Philly.
PHOTO: —
Michael Thomas Leibrandt
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