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Ken Holtzman

Ken Holtzman

Ken Holtzman was a Jewish-American major league baseball pitcher, mostly for the Chicago Cubs and the Oakland Athletics. The lefty's early years were with the rising Cubs team of the mid and late 1960s. In 1967 he spent much of his time in the National Guard, pitching on the occasional weekend, in what turned out to be a storybook season for him, as he was a perfect 9-0 in the 12 games in which he appeared. With his military obligations behind him, he became a strong second starter behind Ferguson Jenkins, and the Cubs began making noise, in the East Division of the National League, for the first time since World War II. In their famous and bittersweet season of 1969, Holtzman pitched a no-hitter against the eventual West Division winning Atlanta Braves before a packed weekday crowd at Wrigley Field on August 19. In the seventh inning, veteran slugger Henry Aaron hit a towering drive to left field, which would landed on Waveland Avenue on a normal day... but with a strong north wind blowing in, it was one of those "pitcher's days" at Wrigley, and the ball was barely kept in the park. Billy Williams leaped up at the "well" of the left field bleachers and snared the ball against the vines. Nowadays, a fly ball like that probably would land in the "basket" that was installed in the early 1970s to prevent fan interference. Radiocaster Vince Lloyd covered the play this way, in an amusing transition from despair to delight: :(loud crack of the bat) Aaron swings, look out, that baby is hit... It is way back there... Billy Williams, back to the wall... back to the corner... HE GRABS IT!!!" (loud roar from the crowd) Aaron also faced Holtzman in the ninth, and Holtzman got him to ground out to complete the no-hitter. Showing a knack for facing down powerful-hitting teams, Holtzman repeated the feat at Cincinnati in 1971, blanking the "Big Red Machine" during what would prove to be his final year with the Cubs. In 1972 Holtzman was traded to the A's just in time to ride the Oakland Championship freight train, as the A's went on to win 3 consecutive World Series championships. Holtzman would go 4-1 in his Series appearances, even knocking a home run in a key situation. During his 15-year career, he had only 2 regular-season home runs. In the late 70s Holtzman bounced around the Bigs for awhile, finishing back with the Cubs. He went on to a successful business career.

External links

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- [http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/H/Holtzman_Ken.stm BaseballLibrary.com] - biography Holtzman, Ken Holtzman, Ken Holtzman, Ken Holtzman, Ken Holtzman, Ken Holtzman, Ken Holtzman, Ken Holtzman, Ken Holtzman, Ken Holtzman, Ken

Jewish-American

American Jews (also commonly Jewish Americans) are Americans (citizens of the United States) of Jewish descent or religion who maintain a connection to the Jewish community, either through actively practicing Judaism or through cultural and historical affiliation. The United States contains the world's second largest Jewish population, second only to Israel's. American Jews span a range from the Haredi communities to the large segment of Jews who are entirely secular.

History

See main article: History of the Jews in the United States Though Jews arrived in the United States as early as the 17th century, Jewish immigration grew in the 19th century. During the early 19th century, many secular Jews from the former Holy Roman Empire arrived in the United States and primarily became merchants and shop-owners. There were approximately 250,000 Jews in the United States by 1880, and many of them were middle class and secular. As a result of persecution in parts of Eastern Europe, Jewish American immigration increased dramatically in the 1880s, with most of the new immigrants coming from the poor rural populations of Russia and Eastern Europe. Over two million Jews arrived between the late 19th century and 1924, when immigration restrictions increased. A large number of these immigrants settled in New York City and its immediate environs, establishing what became one of the world's major concentrations of Jewish population. At the beginning of the 20th century, these newly-arrived Jews lived primarily in urban immigrant neighborhoods, and built support networks consisting of many small synagogues and landsmanschaftn (associations of Jews from the same town or village). Jewish American writers of the time urged assimilation and integration with the wider American culture, and Jews quickly became part of American life. Five hundred thousand American Jews (or half of all Jewish males between 18 and 50) fought in World War II, and after the war, Jewish families joined the new trend of suburbanization. There, Jews became increasingly assimilated as rising intermarriage rates with non-Jews combined with a trend towards secularization. At the same time, new centers of Jewish communities formed, as Jewish school enrollment more than doubled between the end of World War II and the mid-1950s, while synagogue affiliation jumped from twenty percent in 1930 to sixty percent in 1960.

Population

As of 2005, there are somewhere between 5.1 and 5.8 million Jews in the United States, accounting for around 2% of the population. Jews in the U.S. settled largely in and near the major cities, first in the Northeast and Midwest but in recent decades increasingly in the South and West. In descending order, the metropolitan areas with the highest Jewish populations are: New York City (1,750,000), Miami (535,000), Los Angeles (490,000), Philadelphia (254,000), Chicago (248,000), San Francisco (210,000), Boston (208,000), and Washington DC (165,000). Miami's Jewish community skews older than most other U.S. Jewish centers as it heavily consists of retirees from the big cities of the northeast (however, this has been offset somewhat by more recent immigration to the area by younger Jews from Latin American countries such as Argentina and Brazil). Several other major cities have large Jewish populations per capita, like Cleveland, Baltimore, and St. Louis. Also, some areas of the Sunbelt outside of Florida and California (which have always had significant Jewish communities) that have seen a large general population growth have also seen both the size and proportion of their Jewish population grow significantly. Examples of this are Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Charlotte, NC, and especially Atlanta and Las Vegas. In many cities the majority of Jewish families have moved to the suburbs. According to the [http://www.ujc.org/content_display.html?ArticleID=83784 2001 National Jewish Population Survey], 4.3 million American Jews have some sort of strong connection to the Jewish community, whether religious or cultural.

Assimilation and Population Changes

The same social and cultural characteristics of the United States of America that facilitated the extraordinary economic, political, and social success of the American Jewish community have also contributed to assimilation, a controversial and significant issue in the modern American Jewish community. While not all Jews disapprove of intermarriage, many members of the Jewish community have become concerned that the high rate of interfaith marriage will result in the eventual disappearance of the American Jewish community. Intermarriage rates have risen from roughly 6% in 1950 to approximately 40%-50% in the year 2000.[http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/rcah/html/ah_047702_religiouscul.htm][http://www.jewishla.org/news/html/populationdrop.html] Only about a third of intermarried couples raise their children with a Jewish religious upbringing. However, it is more common for intermarried families to raise their children as Jewish in areas with high Jewish populations, like New York City/Long Island/New Jersey/Westchester County, New York. As well, some children raised through intermarriage go through a "born-again experience" when they themselves marry and have children. This in combination with the comparatively low birthrate in the Jewish community has led to a 5% decline in the Jewish population of the United States over the last decade.[http://www.jewishla.org/news/html/populationdrop.html]. In addition to this, when compared with the general American population, the American Jewish community is slightly older.[http://www.jewishla.org/news/html/populationdrop.html]. In contrast, some communities within American Jewry, such as Orthodox Jews, have significantly higher birth rates and lower intermarriage rates, and are growing rapidly. Daniel Pipes noted in an essay in 2005 that the proportion of Jewish synagogue members who were Orthodox rose from 11% in 1971 to 21% in 2000, while the overall Jewish community declined in number.[http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2370]

Religion

Although Judaism is generally considered an ethnic identity as well as a religious one, the Jewish religion is the root of Jewish identity and culture. Jewish religious practice in America is quite varied. Among the 4.3 million strongly connected American Jews, over 80% have some sort of engagement with Judaism, ranging from Passover seders to lighting Hanukkah candles. The survey found that of the 4.3 million strongly connected Jews, 46% belong to a synagogue. Among those who belong to a synagogue, 38% are members of Reform synagogues, 33% Conservative, 22% Orthodox, 2% Reconstructionist, and 5% other types. The survey discovered that Jews in the Northeast and Midwest are generally more observant than Jews in the South or West. In recent years, there has been a noticeable trend of secular Jewish Americans returning to a more religious Orthodox lifestyle, called Baal teshuva, although it is not clear how widespread or demographically important this movement is.

Education

American Jews are generally more educated than the American public as a whole. 55% of Jewish adults 18 years of age and older have at least a bachelor's degree, and 24% have a graduate degree. The comparable numbers for the general population are 29% with a bachelor’s degree or higher and 6% with a graduate degree. There is also an active Jewish education system, with a wide network of Jewish day schools, as well as Jewish colleges and universities. Jewish education is also commonly offered at synagogues in the form of supplementary Hebrew schools or Sunday schools.

List of Major Jewish American Communities

- Florida
- Miami Beach, Florida
- New York
- Long Island
- Great Neck, New York
- Plainview, New York
- Woodbury, New York
- New York City
- Borough Park, Brooklyn
- Kew Gardens, Queens
- Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Brooklyn

Jewish American culture

See also: Secular Jewish culture As the last major wave of Jewish immigration to America was the two million Eastern European Jews who arrived between 1890 and 1924, Jewish secular culture in the United States has become integrated in almost every important way with American culture more broadly. Many aspects of Jewish American culture have, in turn, become part of the wider culture of the United States.

Food

Several staples of Jewish cuisine have been adopted into mainstream American culture; bagels and lox (cured salmon) are examples. Initially, they were adopted as part of New York City's culture, and then spread to the rest of America. For example, bagels have been a staple of New Yorkers both Jewish and non-Jewish for decades, but really didn't spread "west of the Hudson" until the 1980's.

Language

Although almost all American Jews are native English speakers, many haredi Jews are still raised speaking Yiddish. Once spoken as a primary language by most of the several million European Jews who immigrated to the United States, Yiddish has had an influence on American English. The following are examples of words borrowed from Yiddish: chutzpah ("effrontery", "gall"), nosh ("snack"), shlep ("drag"), and schmuck ("fool", lit. "penis"). Many American Jews also study Hebrew, the language of most Jewish religious literature, the Tanakh (bible), Siddur (prayerbook), and the modern State of Israel. Some American communities of Iranian Jews, notably the large group in and around Los Angeles, CA and Beverly Hills, primarily speak Persian in the home and synagogue and support Persian newspapers. In the 1970s and again in the 1990s, large numbers of Jews immigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union. These Jews tend to live in their own communities, particularly in and around Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and especially New York City (most famously in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Brighton Beach). As a group they are far more secular than other American Jews, and speak Russian as their primary language. Both of these are the result of assimilation into Soviet Russian culture during the twentieth century.

Jewish American literature

Although American Jews have contributed greatly to American arts overall (see the following section), there remains a distinctly Jewish American literature. Generally exploring the experience of being a Jew, especially a Jew in America, and the conflicting pulls of secular society and history, the literary traditions of Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Chaim Potok, and Bernard Malamud all fall in this category. Younger authors, like Paul Auster, Michael Chabon and Jonathan Safran Foer continue this view of Jewish American literature, examining the Holocaust, and the meaning of being an American Jew.

Jewish contributions to the United States

Popular culture

:See also: List of Jewish American writers, List of Jewish American artists, List of Jewish American musicians, and List of Jewish American show business figures Many individual Jews have made significant and diverse contributions to American popular culture. Probably the most famous examples are the early Hollywood moguls such as Samuel Goldwyn, Louis B. Mayer, William Fox, Jesse L. Lasky, Carl Laemmle, Marcus Loew, Adolph Zukor, and the original Warner Brothers and the characteristically Jewish humor of the Marx Brothers, Milton Berle, Woody Allen, Joan Rivers, and Gilda Radner, but the legacy also includes songwriters as diverse as Irving Berlin, Burt Bacharach, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Lou Reed, and Paul Simon and writers as diverse as J.D. Salinger, Joseph Heller, E.L. Doctorow, Lillian Hellman, Allen Ginsberg (who continued to consider himself a Jew even after he began practicing Buddhism), Isaac Asimov, and Harlan Ellison in addition to the authors listed above. On the countercultural and radical political front, Jewish hippies Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, with help from Allen Ginsberg, formed the controversial Youth International Party ("Yippies"), and the four main organizers of the 1969 Woodstock Festival concert were all Jewish, as was Max Yasgur, the man on whose farm the legendary concert took place. In addition, master sound mixer and producer Eddie Kramer was Jewish, as is Bob Dylan, born Robert Zimmerman.

Government and military

Since 1845, 29 Jews have served in the Senate, including present-day senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein (both D-CA), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Joe Lieberman (D-CT), and seven have served in the Supreme Court. Sixteen American Jews have won the Congressional Medal of Honor. The Manhattan Project, America's World War II effort to develop the atomic bomb, included the contributions of American Jewish physicists, many of whom were refugees from Hitler's Germany or from anti-semitic persecution in other European nations: J. Robert Oppenheimer, Richard P. Feynman, Wolfgang Pauli, Leo Szilard, John von Neumann, Isidor I. Rabi, Edward Teller, Eugene Wigner, Otto Frisch, Samuel Goudsmit, Jerome Karle, Stanislaw Ulam, Robert Serber, Louis Slotin, George Kistiakowsky, Walter Zinn, Robert Marshak, Felix Bloch, Emilio G. Segrè, James Franck, Harold C. Urey, Sir Joseph Rotblat, Joseph Joffe, Eugene Rabinowitch, Hy Goldsmith, Samuel Cohen, Victor F. Weisskopf, David Bohm, and Sir Rudolph Peierls. Hans Bethe and Niels Bohr both had Jewish mothers.

Science and academia

See also: List of Jewish American scientists, List of Jewish American academics Jews have traditionally been drawn to academia (see Secular Jewish culture for some of the causes), and have made major contributions in science and the humanities. Of American Nobel Prize winners, 37% have been Jewish Americans (19 times the percentage Jewish population), as have been 71% of the John Bates Clark Medal winners (35 times the percentage Jewish population).

External links

- [http://www.temple.edu/feinsteinctr/fcrelated.html Feinstein Center]. Comprehensive collection of links to Jewish American history, organizations, and issues.
- [http://www.ujc.org/index.html United Jewish Communities of North America]. Also site of population survey statistics.
- [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/jewstoc.html Jews in America] from the Jewish Virtual Library.
- [http://www.jbuff.com/c021501.htm American Jewish Literature]
- [http://www.jewish-history.com Jewish-American History on the Web]
- [http://www.amuseum.org/jahf/ Jewish American Hall of Fame]
- [http://www.jewhoo.com List of Famous Jews] Category:American people by ethnicity Category:Ethnic groups of the United States Category:Jewish American history Category:History of immigration to the United States

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of play in professional baseball in the world. More specifically, Major League Baseball ("MLB") refers to the entity that operates North America's two top leagues, the National League and the American League, by means of a joint organizational structure which has existed between them since 1920. On an organizational level, MLB effectively operates as a single "league", and as such it constitutes one of the major professional sports leagues of North America. Major League Baseball is governed by the Major League Baseball Constitution, an agreement that has undergone several incarnations since 1876 then called the NL Constitution, with the most recent revisions being made in 2005. Major League Baseball, under the direction of its Commissioner, Bud Selig, hires and maintains the sport's umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, and television contracts. As is the case for most North American sports leagues, the 'closed shop' aspect of MLB effectively prevents the yearly promotion and demotion of teams into the Major League by virtue of their performance. MLB also maintains a unique, controlling relationship over the sport, including most aspects of minor league baseball. This is due in large part to a 1922 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Federal Baseball Club v. National League which declared baseball is not considered interstate commerce (and therefore not subject to federal antitrust law), despite baseball's own references to itself as an "industry" rather than a "sport." The production/multimedia wing of MLB is New York-based MLB Advanced Media, which oversees MLB.com and all 30 of the individual teams' websites. Its charter states that MLB Advanced Media holds editorial independence from the League itself, but it is indeed under the same ownership group and revenue-sharing plan. MLB Productions is a similarly-structured wing of the league, focusing on video and traditional broadcast media.

Current Major Leagues

The Major League season runs from late March or early April to late September or early October. Players and teams prepare for the season in spring training, primarily in Florida and Arizona, during February and March. Three rounds of playoffs follow the season, culminating in the World Series in late October.

Teams and schedule

At the time of writing the Commissioner of Baseball, Bud Selig, has often floated the idea of international expansion and realignment of the major leagues. At the moment, however, the major leagues are each split into three divisions, and structured as listed in the table below. In all there are 30 teams in the two leagues: 16 in the older National League ("NL") and 14 in the American League ("AL"). Each has its teams split into three divisions grouped generally by geography. They are (number of teams in each division in parenthesis): NL East (5), NL Central (6), NL West (5), AL East (5), AL Central (5) and AL West (4). Each team's regular season consists of 162 games, a duration established in 1961. From 1904 to 1960, except for 1919, a 154-game schedule was played. Shortened seasons were played in 1918 due to the outbreak of World War I, and in 1972, 1981, 1994 and 1995 due to player strikes and lockouts. Games are played predominantly against teams within each league through an unbalanced schedule which heavily favors intra-divisional play. In 1997 Major League Baseball introduced interleague play, which was criticized by the sport's purists but has since proven very popular with most fans. Each year in June, Major League Baseball conducts a draft for first year players who have never signed a Major or Minor League contract. The MLB Draft is among the least followed of the professional sports drafts in the United States. For a detailed history of the length of the regular season, see Major League Baseball season.

All-Star game

Early July marks the midway point of the season, during which a three day break is taken when the Major League Baseball All-Star Game is staged. The All-Star game pits players from the NL, headed up by the manager of the previous NL World Series team, against players from the AL, similarly managed, in an exhibition game. The 2002 contest ended in an 11-inning tie because both teams were out of pitchers, a ridiculous result which proved highly unpopular with the fans. In 2003 and 2004, the league which won the game received the benefit of home-field advantage (four of the seven games of that year's World Series taking place at their home park). The 2005 contest, played in Detroit, followed this format, and it is expected that it will remain that way until the MLB says otherwise. Since the 1970s, the eight position players for each team who take the field initially have been voted into the game by fans. The remaining position players and all of the pitchers on each league's roster were, for a long number of years, solely at the discretion of that team's manager. In 2004, however, MLB instituted a system where some reserves and pitchers were selected by a vote of MLB players, and some were selected by the manager after consulting with the Commissioner's Office. By MLB regulation, every team in the majors must have at least one designated all-star player, regardless of voting. This rule exists so that fans of every team have a player to watch for in the All Star Game.

Post-season

When the regular season ends around October 1st, eight teams enter the post-season playoffs. The first six teams are each league's three division champions. The remaining two "wild-card" spots are filled by each league's team that has the best regular season record and is not a division champion. Three rounds of series of games are played to determine the champion: # American League Division Series and National League Division Series, each a best-of-five game series; # American League Championship Series and National League Championship Series, each a best-of-seven game series played between the surviving teams from the ALDS and NLDS; and # World Series, a best-of-seven game series played between the champions of each league. The team belonging to the league that won the mid-season All-Star game receives home-field advantage in that series.

MLB Steroid Policy

Over most of the course of Major League Baseball, steroid testing was never a major issue. However, after the BALCO steroid scandal, which involved allegations that top baseball players had used illegal performance enhancing drugs, Major League Baseball has finally decided to issue harsher penalties for steroid users. The new policy, which was accepted by Major League Baseball players and owners, was issued at the start of the 2005 season and goes as follows: The 1st positive test will result in a suspension of up to 10 days. The 2nd positive test will result in a suspension of 30 days. The 3rd positive test will result in a suspension of 60 days. The 4th positive test will result in a suspension of one full year. Finally, the 5th positive test will result in a penalty at the commissioner’s discretion. Players will be tested at least once per year, with the chance that several players can be tested a numerous amount of times per year. (See: List of Major League Baseball players suspended for steroids) This program would replaces the previous steroid testing program under which, for example, no player was even suspended in 2004. Under the old policy, which was established in 2002, a first time offense would only result in treatment for the player. The new agreement makes sure that first time offenders are rightfully suspended. In recent news, Bud Selig, the Commissioner of MLB, has proposed even tougher penalties for positive tests than the ones in place today. The new penalties that Bud Selig has proposed are a “three strikes and you’re out approach” and go as follows: The 1st positive test would result in a 50 game suspension. The 2nd positive test would result in a 100 game suspension. Finally, the 3rd positive test would result in a lifetime suspension from MLB. These new proposed penalties are much harsher, however they must be accepted by MLB players and owners before any changes can be made. MLB's reluctance to take a hard line on drugs (as many other sports feature far more strict testing and penalties) is widely seen as one of the main reasons why baseball has been dropped from the Olympics with effect from 2012.

References

- http://www.wnbc.com/mikedup/4077510/detail.html

Historical Major Leagues

In 1969, the centennial of professional baseball, a commission chartered by Major League Baseball identified the following leagues as "major leagues". The list is sometimes disputed by baseball researchers. The MLB list included the following:
- 1876-present: National League of Professional Baseball Clubs
- 1882-1891: American Association
- 1884: Union Association
- 1890: Players League
- 1901-present: American League
- 1914-1915: Federal League Some researchers contend that the following leagues deserve consideration as major leagues due to the caliber of player and the level of play exhibited:
- The National Association (1871-1875)
- The first year of the American League (1900)
- The Negro Leagues (primarily during the years from 1921-1946) In general, the official stance is that game and statistical records for these particular leagues were not kept in a consistent manner and/or those leagues did not have a significant direct impact on the major leagues. Specifically, the following can be said of these leagues:
- The NA is unquestionably recognized as the first professional league, and is the direct precursor to the NL, most of whose original eight teams came from the NA. The standard position is that the NA was a "transitional" league that was not quite up to major league standards. The NL was a wholly new entity that took the best remnants of the NA and imposed a discipline that was lacking in the failed NA.
- The AL itself asserted that it was a minor league in 1900, although it was already located in most of the cities it would be operating in the following year. However, in 1900 it operated independently and did not conduct raids on major league rosters. That changed in 1901.
- The Negro Leagues are the toughest call. Some historians have labeled their time the era of "shadow ball", a segregated parallel to the (all-white) major leagues. The fact that many young players were able to come into the majors in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and have immediate impact, possibly argues for major status. It could also be argued that the Negro Leagues were more properly equated to the highest levels of minor league ball, such as the Pacific Coast League. It is a debate that has no clear resolution, which is why most historians are content to simply regard them as a category unto themselves. Conversely, some historians question whether the Union Association really qualifies as "major", because it really only had one major-league calliber team (St. Louis) and its membership was a revolving door. The Union's chief claim to major status would rest on having had some direct impact on the other majors, due to roster-raiding. None of the three "non-major" groups listed above could make that claim.

External links

- [http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/index.jsp Official MLB website]
- [http://baseballhalloffame.org National Baseball Hall of Fame]
- [http://www.baseballreference.com Baseball-Reference.com]
- [http://www.baseballprospectus.com Baseball Prospectus]
- [http://www.baseballthinkfactory.com Baseball Think Factory]
- [http://www.all-baseball.com All-Baseball.com]
- [http://www.hardballtimes.com The Hardball Times]
- [http://www.ballparks.com Ballparks.com]
- [http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/index ESPN.com - Baseball Index]
- [http://insidetheparks.com/ InsideTheParks.com]
- [http://www.gridmarks.com/mlb.html MLB Rankings] Category:Sports leagues of the United States
- ko:메이저 리그 야구 ja:メジャーリーグ simple:Major League Baseball

Oakland Athletics

: Philadelphia Athletics redirects to this article, about the baseball team currently active in the American League. For the team that played in the National Association 1871-1875 and in the National League in 1876, see Athletic of Philadelphia. For the team that played in the American Association 1882-1891, see Philadelphia Athletics (American Association). The Oakland Athletics are a Major League Baseball team based in Oakland, California. They are in the Western Division of the American League. The team is often called the A's.

Origins: The Name, the Emblem, the Elephant Mascot

Origin of the Team Name

American League The name "Athletic" for Philadelphia's baseball team dates back to 1860 when an amateur team, the Athletic of Philadelphia, was formed. (A famous image from that era, at left, published in Harper's Weekly in 1866, shows the Athletic players dressed in uniforms displaying the familiar Old English "A" on the front.) The team later turned professional and joined the National Association in 1871, winning the first-ever major league pennant that year. The Athletic played in the National Association through 1875, becoming a charter member of the National League in 1876, but were expelled from the N.L. after one season. A later version of the Athletics played in the American Association from 1882-1891. The team name is typically pronounced "Ath-LET-ics", but their long-time team owner/manager Connie Mack called them by the old-fashioned colloquial pronunciation "Ath-uh-LET-ics". Newspaper writers also often referred to the team as the Mackmen during their Philadelphia days, in honor of their patriarch.

Old English “A” Uniform Emblem

Over the seasons, Athletic uniforms have usually paid homage to their amateur forebears to one extent or another. Until 1954, when the uniforms had "Athletics" spelled out in script across the front, the team's name never appeared on either home or road uniforms. Furthermore, not once did "Philadelphia" appear on the uniform, nor did the letter "P" appear on the cap or the uniform. The typical Philadelphia uniform had only an Old-English "A" on the left front, and likewise the cap usually had the same "A" on it. Though for a time as a Kansas City team, the A’s wore “Kansas City” on their road jerseys and an interlocking “KC” on the cap, upon moving to Oakland the “A” cap emblem was restored, although in 1970 an “apostrophe-s” was added to the cap and uniform emblem. Currently, though the team wears home uniforms (and alternate home and road uniforms) with "Athletics" spelled out in script writing and road uniforms with "Oakland" spelled out in script writing, the cap and team logo consists of the traditional Old English “A” with “apostrophe-s.”

The A’s Elephant Mascot

After New York Giants manager John McGraw told reporters that Philadelphia manufacturer Benjamin Shibe, who owned the controlling interest in the new team, had a “white elephant on his hands," Mack defiantly adopted the white elephant as the team mascot, though over the years the elephant has appeared in several different colors (currently forest green). The A’s are sometimes, though infrequently, referred to as the Elephants or White Elephants. The elephant was retired as team mascot in 1963 by then-owner Charles O. Finley in favor of a Missouri mule. In 1986, the elephant was restored as the symbol of the Athletics and currently adorns the left sleeve of home and road uniforms.

Franchise History

The Philadelphia Years (1901-1954)

The Beginning

The franchise that would become the modern Athletic team originated as the Indianapolis Indians of the Western League in 1893, a minor league with teams concentrated in the Great Lakes states. The Western league was renamed the American League in 1900 by league president Bancroft (Ban) Johnson, in anticipation of becoming the second major league in 1901. When the American League became a Major League in 1901, Johnson shifted the Indianapolis franchise to Philadelphia to compete with the National League’s Philadelphia Phillies, and recruited former player Connie Mack to run the club. Mack in turn persuaded Ben Shibe as well as others to invest in the team, which would again be called the Philadelphia Athletics, one of eight charter members of the American League. The other teams included the Baltimore Orioles, Boston Americans, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Blues, Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers, and Washington Senators. The team’s inaugural year saw second baseman Nap Lajoie [la-ZHWAY] lead the league in hitting with a .426 batting average, still a modern Major League record. The new league recruited many of its players---including Lajoie---from the existing National League, persuading them to “jump” to the A.L. in defiance of their N.L. contracts. The Athletics as well as the 7 other A.L. teams received a jolt when, on April 21, 1902, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court invalidated Nap Lajoie's contract with the Athletics, and ordered him returned to his former team, the N.L. Philadelphia Phillies. This order, though, was only enforceable in the state of Pennsylvania. Lajoie was traded to the Cleveland Broncos (now the Cleveland Indians) and did not set foot on Pennsylvania soil until the National Agreement was signed between the two leagues in 1903.

The First Dynasty and Aftermath

In the early years, the A’s quickly established themselves as one of the dominant teams in the new American League, winning the A.L. pennant six times (1902, 1905, 1910, 1911, 1913 and 1914), winning the World Series in 1910, 1911 and 1913. They won over 100 games in 1911 and 1912, and 99 games in 1914. The team was known for its “$100,000 Infield,” consisting of John "Stuffy" McInnis (1b), Eddie Collins (2b), Frank "Home Run" Baker (3b) and Jack Barry (ss), as well as pitchers Eddie Plank and Charles "Chief" Bender. Plank holds the club record for career victories, with 284. After the heavily favored A’s lost the 1914 World Series to the underdog Boston Braves in a 4-game sweep, Connie Mack traded, sold or released most of the team’s star players. In his book To Every Thing a Season, Bruce Kuklick points out that there were suspicions that the A's had thrown the Series, or at least "laid down", perhaps in protest of Mack's notorious thriftiness. Mack himself alluded to that rumor years later, but also debunked it, asserting that factions within the team along with the allure of the Federal League had distracted the team. A third major league, the Federal League, had been formed to begin play in 1914. As the A.L. had done 13 years before, the new league raided existing A.L. and N.L. teams for players. Mack refused to match the offers of the F.L. teams, preferring to let the "prima donnas" go and rebuild with younger (and less expensive) players. As a result, the Athletics went from a 99-53 (.651) won-loss record and 1st place finish in 1914, to a record of 43-109 (.283) and 8th (last) place in 1915, and then to a modern major league low winning percentange of 36-117 (.235) in 1916. The team would finish in last place every year after that until 1922, when it finished 7th.

The Second Dynasty, 1927-1933

Federal League After that, Mack began to build another winner. In 1927 and 1928, the Athletics finished second to the New York Yankees, then won pennants in 1929, 1930 and 1931, winning the World Series in 1929 and 1930. In each of the three years, the A's won over 100 games. There are those who feel the 1929 A’s were the best team in baseball history, even surpassing the 1927 Yankees. After a second-place finish in 1932 and 3rd in 1933, Mack again sold or traded his best players in order to reduce expenses. The Great Depression was well under way, and declining attendance had drastically reduced the team’s revenues. The construction of the "spite fence" at Shibe Park, blocking the view from nearby buildings, only served to irritate potential paying fans.

The Meager Years

The Athletics finished fifth in 1934, then last in 1935. Though he intended to rebuild once more, Mack was already 68 years old when the A’s last won the pennant in 1931, and many felt the game was passing him by. Save for a 5th place finish in 1944, the A’s finished in last or next-to-last place every year from 1935-1946. By now Mack and his immediate family were the team’s controlling stockholders, and he had no intention of firing himself. The 1950 season would be 88-year-old Mack’s 50th and last as A’s manager, a Major League record that will surely never be broken. During that year the team wore uniforms trimmed in blue and gold, in honor of the Golden Jubilee of "The Grand Old Man of Baseball."

The Last Years in Philadelphia

In late 1950, the controlling interest in the A's was purchased by Mack's eldest sons, Roy and Earle Mack, who bought out their stepmother, stepbrother Connie Mack, Jr., and other minority stockholders. In order to do this, the Mack brothers mortgaged the team to Connecticut General Life Insurance Company. It soon became obvious that the cashflow was insufficient to service the new debt. Roy and Earle Mack began feuding with each other. The team continued to slide, attendance plummeted, and revenues continued to dwindle. The only bright spot during the last seasons in Philadelphia were the A.L. batting championships won by Ferris Fain in 1951 (.344) and 1952 (.327). The latter would be the last year in which an Athletic has led the American League in hitting. Though last minute offers were put on the table to buy the Athletics to keep them in Philadelphia (including one made by a group which included Chicago insurance executive Charles O. Finley), the American League owners were determined to "solve the Philadelphia problem" by moving the team elsewhere. On October 12, 1954, the owners voted to approve the sale of the Athletics to another Chicago businessman, Arnold Johnson, so that he could move the team to Kansas City for the 1955 season. Connie Mack once said, “You can’t win them all.” The Philadelphia A’s didn’t come close. Though they won 5 World Series and 9 A.L. pennants, their overall record from 1901-1954 was 3,886 games won and 4,239 games lost, for an overall winning percentage of but .478.

The Kansas City Years (1955-1967)

The Johnson Era: A New Venue, but for How Long?

From the start, it was clear that Johnson was motivated solely by profit, not because of any regard for the baseball fans of Kansas City. He had long been a business associate of Yankee owners Dan Topping and Del Webb. He was the owner of Yankee Stadium, though the American league owners forced Johnson to sell the property before acquiring the Athletics. The lease he signed with Municipal Stadium gave Johnson a three-year escape clause if the team failed to draw one million or more customers per season. The subsequent lease signed in 1960 also contained an escape clause if the team failed to draw 850,000 per season. Rumors abounded that Johnson's real motive was to operate the Athletics in Kansas City for a few years, then move the team to Los Angeles. Whatever Johnson's motives were, the issue soon became moot. The Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles after the 1957 season, thereby precluding any move there by the Athletics. Moreover, on March 10, 1960, Arnold Johnson died at the age of 53. Whatever the concern about the move to Kansas City, fans turned out in record numbers for the era. In 1955, the new Kansas City Athletics drew 1,393,054 to newly renovated and newly renamed Municipal Stadium, a club record easily surpassing the previous record of 945,076 in 1948. (To put this figure in perspective, in 1955 only the New York Yankees and Milwaukee Braves had higher home attendance than did the A's.) What no one realized at the time was that number would remain the club record for attendance until 1982 -- the Athletics’ 15th season in Oakland!

The “Special Relationship” with the Yankees

During the Johnson ownership, any good young players on the Athletics were invariably traded by general manager Parke Carroll to the Yankees for aging veterans and cash. The cash was used to pay the bills, with the veterans perhaps having star appeal that could improve attendance. Though Johnson promised the fans that the trades would soon bring a World Series championship to Kansas City, it didn’t work that way. The team remained mired in the second division. Attendance declined, with fans and even other clubs charging that the A’s were little more than a minor league farm team for the Yankees, as the Kansas City Blues had been before them, citing Johnson's pre-existing cozy relationship with the Yankees' front office, an obvious conflict of interest that was winked at by the rulers of the game at that time. Johnson once gushed to The Sporting News, "I'd pay a million dollars for Mickey Mantle!" Assuming he had a million to give, that was a safe offer, as there was no chance the Yanks were going to trade their superstar to Kansas City. The trade no one ever forgot was the one made after the 1959 season, when the A’s sent young right fielder Roger Maris to New York for his aging counterpart, Hank Bauer, in a seven-player deal. However, there were others. The Yankees brought up a promising young pitcher, Ralph Terry, in 1956, but were reluctant to use him in critical situations. So, in June, 1957 they traded him to the A's in an eight-player deal. After getting nearly two years of experience facing A.L. batters, Terry apparently was ready to return. In May, 1959 the Yankees sent Jerry Lumpe and two washed-up pitchers to the Athletics for Terry. Once "home," Terry became a 20-game winner for New York. (It is perhaps not a coincidence that the "Old" Yankees became less competitive after new owner Charles O. Finley bought the A's and stopped providing talent to the Yankees.)

The Finley Era Commences: The Savior of Kansas City Baseball?

On December 19, 1960, Chicago insurance executive Charles O. Finley purchased a controlling interest in the team from Johnson's estate. He bought out the minority owners a year later. Finley promised the fans a new day. In a highly publicized move, he purchased a bus, pointed it in the direction of New York City, and had it burned, to symbolize the end of the “special relationship” with the Yankees. He called another press conference to burn the existing lease at Municipal Stadium which included the despised "escape clause." He spent over $400,000 of his own money in stadium improvements (though in 1962 the city reimbursed $300,000 of this). He introduced new uniforms which---significantly---had "Kansas City" on the road uniforms and an interlocking "KC" on the cap. He told the fans, "My intentions are to keep the A's permanently in Kansas City and build a winning ballclub. I have no intention of ever moving the franchise." The fans, in turn, regarded Finley as the savior of Major League Baseball in Kansas City. Finley immediately hired Frank Lane, a man with a reputation as a prolific trader, as general manager. Lane began engineering trades with several other teams, including the Yankees, the bus-burning stunt notwithstanding. Lane lasted less than one year, being fired during the 1961 season. He was replaced by Pat Friday, whose sole qualification for the job was that he managed one of Finley's insurance offices. On paper, Friday remained general manager until 1965, when he was replaced by Hank Peters, who held the post for less than a year, after which the team had no formal general manager. In fact, Friday and Peters were mere figureheads. With the firing of Lane in 1961, Finley became his own general manager (in fact if not in name), and would remain so for the duration of his ownership. Finley made further changes to the team’s uniforms. In 1963, he changed the team’s colors to “Kelly Green, Fort Knox Gold and Wedding Gown White” and replaced the traditional elephant mascot with a Missouri mule --- not just a cartoon logo, but a real mule, which he named after himself: “Charlie O, the Mule.” In 1967, he replaced the team’s traditional black cleats with white ones. In 1970 (after the move to Oakland) he added an "apostrophe-s" to the traditional Old English "A" logo, and began phasing out the team name "Athletics" in favor of, simply, "A's." Finley poured resources into the minor league system for the first time in the history of the franchise. He was assisted in this endeavor by the creation of the baseball draft in 1965, which forced young prospects to sign with the team that drafted them – at the price offered by the team – if they wanted to play professional baseball. Thus, Finley was spared from having to compete with wealthier teams for top talent. The Athletics, owners of the worst record in the American League in 1964, had the first pick in the first draft, selecting Rick Monday on June 8, 1965. Under the Mack and Johnson ownerships, the A's minor league system was almost non-existent. By 1966, it was one of the best.

Finley Looks for a Way Out

But, while laying the groundwork for a future championship team, Finley began shopping the Athletics to other cities, despite his promises that the A’s would remain in Kansas City. Soon after the lease-burning stunt, it was discovered that what actually burned was a blank boilerplate commercial lease available at any stationery store. The actual lease was still in force---including the escape clause. Finley later admitted he had no intention of re-writing the lease, that the whole thing was a publicity stunt. On September 18, 1962, after less than two full years of ownership, Finley asked the A.L. owners for permission to move the Athletics to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. His request was denied by a 9-1 vote. In January, 1964, he signed an agreement to move the A’s to Louisville, Kentucky (and hinted the team's name would change to "Louisville Sluggers"). By another 9-1 vote his request was denied. Six weeks later, by the same 9-1 margin, the A.L. owners denied Finley's request to move the team to Oakland. These requests came as no surprise, as rumors of impending moves to these cities, as well as to Atlanta, Milwaukee, New Orleans, San Diego and Seattle---all of which Finley had considered as new homes for the Athletics---had long been afloat. He also threatened to move the A's to a "cow pasture" outside of town, complete with temporary grandstands. Finally, American League President Joe Cronin persuaded Finley to sign a four-year lease with Municipal Stadium. According to some reports, he promised Finley that he could move the team after the 1967 season as an incentive to sign the lease. Finally, on October 18, 1967, A.L. owners gave Finley permission to move the Athletics to Oakland for the 1968 season. Then-U.S. Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri blasted Finley on the floor of the Senate, calling him "one of the most disreputable characters ever to enter the American sports scene,” and said Oakland was “the luckiest city since Hiroshima.” In 1969, Kansas City was awarded an American League expansion team, the Kansas City Royals. During the Johnson years, the Athletics' home attendance averaged just under one million per season, respectable numbers for the era, especially in light of the team's won-loss record. In contrast, during the years of Finley's ownership, the team averaged under 680,000 per year in Kansas City. During their 13-year existence, the Kansas City Athletics were arguably one of the worst teams ever in baseball, finishing in last or next to last place in 10 of those years. Their overall record was 829-1,224, for a winning percentage of .404.

The Oakland Years (1968 to present)

The Third Dynasty, 1972-1975

The Athletics arrived in Oakland just as the team was beginning to gel. Managed by Bob Kennedy, the Oakland Athletics finished the 1968 season with an 82-80 record – their best record since 1952. With expansion to 12 teams in 1969, the American League was divided into two 6-team divisions. During that year, the Athletics finished second in the A.L. West Division behind the Minnesota Twins – their highest finish in 37 years! After another second-place finish in 1970, the A’s won the A.L. West title in 1971, only to lose to the Baltimore Orioles in the American League Championship Series. Finley had built himself a winner. The Athletics won World Series championships in 1972, 1973 and 1974. Unlike earlier Athletic championship teams, which thoroughly dominated their opposition, the A’s teams of the 1970s played well enough to win their division, then defeated teams that had won more games during the regular season, with good pitching, good defense, and clutch hitting. Finley termed this team the “Swingin’ A’s.” The players, in turn, often said they played so well as a team due to their universal dislike for their employer. Players such as Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Joe Rudi, Bert Campaneris, Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers, and Vida Blue formed the nucleus of these teams. Vida Blue The A’s teams of the 1970s were also known for their sartorial and tonsorial appearance. Beginning in 1972, the Athletics began wearing jerseys of solid green or solid gold color, with contrasting white pants, at a time when most other teams wore all-white uniforms at home and all-grey ones on the road. Furthermore, in conjunction with a Moustache Day promotion, Finley offered $500 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 Squares,” as Cincinnati wore traditional uniforms and forbade facial hair on its players. A contemporaneous book about the team was called Moustache Gang. The A's seven-game victory over the heavily-favored Reds gave the team its first World Series Championship since 1930. The Athletics' victory over the New York Mets in the 1973 World Series was marred by owner Finley's antics. Finley forced player Mike Andrews to sign a false affadavit saying he was injured after the reserve infielder committed two consecutive errors in the 12th inning of the A's Game Two loss to the Mets. When other team members, manager Dick Williams, and virtually the entire sports-viewing public rallied to Andrews' defense, Finley was forced to back down, and Andrews was reinstated. As it was, the incident allowed the Mets, a team that went but 82-79 during the regular season, to go seven games before losing to a superior team. After the Athletics' victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1974 World Series, 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 New York Yankees for the 1975 season. Despite the loss of Hunter, the A’s repeated as West Division champions in 1975, but lost the ALCS to Boston in a 3-game sweep.

Free Agency, the Dismantling of the A’s, and the End of the Finley Years

As the 1976 season got underway, the basic rules of player contracts were changing. Arbitrator Seitz had ruled that baseball’s reserve clause only bound players for one season after their contract expired. Thus, all players not signed to multi-year contracts would be eligible for free agency at the end of the 1976 season. The balance of power had shifted from the owners to the players for the first time since the days of the Federal League. Like his predecessor Connie Mack had done twice before, Charles Finley reacted by trading star players and attempting to sell others. On June 15, 1976, Finley sold left fielder Rudi and relief pitcher Fingers to Boston for $1 million apiece, and pitcher Blue to the New York Yankees for $1.5 million. Three days later, Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn voided the transactions in the “best interests of baseball.” After 1976 the season, most of the Athletics’ veteran players did become eligible for free agency, and predictably almost all left. Three thousand miles and several decades later, one of baseball’s most storied franchises suffered yet another dismemberment of a dynasty team. The 1977 version of the A’s finished in last place, behind even the expansion Seattle Mariners, who entered the American League that year. In 1979, only 306,763 paying customers showed up to watch the A's, the team's worst attendance since leaving Philadelphia. After three dismal seasons on the field and at the gate, the team started to gel again. In a masterstroke, Finley hired Billy Martin to manage the young team. Martin made believers of his young charges, “Billyball” was used to market the team, and the Athletics finished second in 1980. But, the Finley era was coming to a close. The man who brought American League baseball to the San Francisco Bay Area was being sued for a divorce. As his estranged wife would not accept part of a baseball team in a property settlement, the team had to be sold. Though Finley found a buyer who would have moved the Athletics to Denver, the tentative deal was voided when the Oakland Coliseum refused to let the team out of its lease. He then looked to local buyers, selling the Athletics to San Francisco clothing manufacturer Walter A. Haas, Jr. (then president of Levi Strauss & Co.) prior to the 1981 season.

Local Ownership for the Athletics: the Haas Era

Despite winning three World Series Championships and two other A.L. West Division titles, the A's on-field success did not translate into success at the box office during the Finley Era in Oakland. Average home attendance from 1968-1980 was 777,000 per season, with 1,075,518 in 1975 being the highest attendance for a Finley-owned team. In marked contrast, during the first year of Haas ownership, the Athletics drew 1,304,052---in a season shortened by a player strike. Were it not for the strike, the A's were on a pace to draw over 2.2 million in 1981! During the 15 years of Haas ownership, the Athletics became one of baseball’s most successful teams at the gate, drawing 2,900,217 in 1990, still the club record for single season attendance, as well as on the field. Average annual home attendance during those years (excluding the strike years of 1981 and 1994) was over 1.9 million. Haas restored the team’s official name of “Athletics” in 1981. While the team colors remained green, gold, and white, the garish Kelly green was replaced with a more subdued forest green. And, after a 23-year hiatus, the elephant was restored as the club mascot in 1986. Under the Haas ownership, the minor league system was rebuilt, which bore fruition later that decade as Athletics José Canseco (1986), Mark McGwire (1987) and Walt Weiss (1988) were chosen as A.L. Rookies of the Year. During the 1986 season, Tony La Russa was hired as the Athletics’ manager, a post he held until the end of 1995. In 1987, La Russa’s first full year as manager, the team finished at 81-81, its best record in 7 seasons. Beginning in 1988, the Athletics won the A.L. pennant three years in a row. Reminiscent of their Philadelphia predecessors, this A’s team finished with the best record of any team in the major leagues during all 3 years, winning 104 (1988), 99 (1989), and 103 (1990) games, featuring such stars as McGwire, Canseco, Weiss, Carney Lansford, Dave Stewart, and Dennis Eckersley. Regular season dominance did not translate into post-season success, however. The Athletics lost the World Series in 1988 and 1990, losing the latter to the underdog Cincinnati Reds in a shocking 4-game sweep reminiscent of the A’s loss to the Braves 76 years earlier. The A’s lone victory was a 4-game sweep of their cross-bay rivals, the San Francisco Giants, in the 1989 World Series. The team began a steady decline, winning the A.L. West championship in 1992 (but losing to Toronto in the ALCS), then finishing last in 1993.

The Schott-Hofmann Years: Continuous Rebuilding and Playoff Frustration

Walter Haas died in 1995, and the team was sold to San Francisco Bay Area real estate developers Stephen Schott (no relation to one-time Cincinnati Reds’ owner Marge Schott) and Kenneth Hofmann, prior to the 1996 season. Once again, the Athletics’ star players were traded or sold, as the new owners’ goal was to cut payroll drastically. Many landed with the St. Louis Cardinals, including McGwire, Eckersley, and manager La Russa. In a turn of events eerily reminiscent of the A’s Roger Maris trade 28 years before, Mark McGwire celebrated his first full season with the Cardinals by setting a new major league home run record! In fact, McGwire came close to the record in 1997, when he split 58 homers between the A's and the Cards. The Schott-Hofmann ownership allocated resources to building and maintaining a strong minor league system while almost always refusing to pay the going rate to keep star players on the team once they become free agents. Perhaps as a result, the A’s at the turn of the 21st century were a team that usually finished at or near the top of the A.L. West Division, but could not advance beyond the first round of playoffs. The Athletics made the post season playoffs for four straight years, 2000-2003, but lost the first round (best 3-out-of-5) in each case, 3 games to 2. In two of those years (2001 against New York and 2003 against Boston), the Athletics won the first two games of the series, only to lose the next three straight and hence the playoffs. In 2004, the A's missed the playoffs altogether, losing the final series of the season—and the divisional title—to the Anaheim Angels. In recent years, the Athletics were best known for starting pitchers Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, and Barry Zito, collectively referred to as “The Big Three,” as well as infielders Eric Chavez, Jason Giambi, and Miguel Tejada. After becoming free agents, Giambi left for the New York Yankees after the 2001 season, while Tejada departed for the Baltimore Orioles after the 2003 season. The general manager of the Athletics, Billy Beane, has become notable in recent years for his novel approach to business decisions and scouting. The Athletics organization began redefining the way that major league baseball teams evaluate player talent. They began filling their system with players who did not possess typical baseball "tools" - throwing, fielding, hitting, hitting for power and running. Instead, they drafted for unconventional statistical prowess - on base percentage for hitters (rather than power) and strikeout/walk ratios for pitchers (rather than velocity). These undervalued stats came cheap. With the the sixth lowest payroll in baseball in 2002, the Oakland Athletics won an American League best 103 games. They spent $41M that season, while the Yankees, who also won 103 games, spent $132M. The Athletics have continually succeeded winning, and defying market economics, keeping their payroll near the bottom of the league. For example, after the 2004 season, in which the A's placed second in their division, Beane shocked many by breaking up the Big Three, trading Tim Hudson to the Atlanta Braves and Mark Mulder to the St. Louis Cardinals. To many, the trades appeared bizarre, in that the two pitchers were seen to be at or near the top of their game; however, the decision was perfectly in line with Beane's business model as outlined in Moneyball.

The Wolff Era Begins

On March 30, 2005, the Athletics were sold to a group headed by Los Angeles real estate developer Lewis Wolff. Rumors speculate that he wishes to move the team to San Jose, but those plans are complicated by the claims of the cross-bay San Francisco Giants that they own the territorial rights to San Jose and Santa Clara County. While not ruling out relocating the A's elsewhere in the Bay Area, Wolff has stated his primary focus is finding a site in Oakland for a new baseball-only stadium. In 2005, many pundits picked the Athletics to finish last as a result of Beane's dismanting of the Big Three. At first, the experts appeared vindicated, as the A's were mired in last place on May 31st with a 19-32 (.373) won-loss record. After that, the team began to gel, playing at a .622 clip for the remainder of the season, eventually finishing 88-74 (.543), seven games behind the newly-renamed Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and for many weeks seriously contending for the AL West crown. Pitcher Huston Street was voted the A.L. Rookie of the Year in 2005, the second year in a row an Athletic won that award, shortstop Bobby Crosby having won in 2004. For the fifth straight season, third baseman Eric Chavez won the A.L. Gold Glove Award at that position.

The Stadium Issue

Team owners have been faced for several years with a problematic venue issue. The Oakland Coliseum, though built as a multi-purpose facility, was initially considered by many to be one of the better ballparks in the major leagues. After the Oakland Raiders football team moved to Los Angeles in 1982, many improvements were made to what was suddenly a baseball-only facility. Then, in 1994, a deal was struck whereby the Los Angeles Raiders would move back to Oakland for the 1995 season. The agreement called for the expansion of the Coliseum to more than 63,000 seats. The bucolic view of the Oakland foothills that baseball spectators enjoyed was replaced with a jarring view of an outfield grandstand contemptuously referred to as "Mount Davis" after Raiders' owner Al Davis. The final insult was that construction was not finished by the start of the 1996 season. The Athletics were forced to play their first six–game homestand at 9,300-seat Cashman Field in Las Vegas. Since that debacle, ownership has stated that a new baseball-only facility is necessary to ensure the economic viability of the Athletics. In 2005, new owner Wolff made public his plans to build a 35,000-seat baseball-only stadium not far from the present facility, as part of a larger commercial and residential development. Currently, these plans are at a nascent stage as politicians and business interests mull their options (and perhaps await the next mayoral election). However Wolffe has stated he wants and answer from the city by opening day of the 2006 season which may force the issue along.

Rivals

:See also: Bay Bridge Series (Athletics-Giants rivalry), City Series (former Athletics-Phillies rivalry) The Athletics are without a rivalry on the order of Yankees-Red Sox, Dodgers-Giants, or Cubs-Cardinals. This is partly due to the team having been a cellar-dweller (or close to it) for their last two decades in Philadelphia and their entire time in Kansas City, and partly due to the two moves over the years. While the A's have been a member of the American League since 1901, their divisional rivals are of a more recent vintage. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim date from 1961, as do the Texas Rangers (but only since 1972 as a Dallas-Fort Worth team). The Seattle Mariners were organized in 1977. During the 1970s, the A's established a strong rivalry with the Kansas City Royals (then an A.L. West team), fueled by the Kansas City fans' resentment of the A's move to Oakland in 1968, and by the rivalry of the Oakland Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs football teams. Arguably, the Athletics' biggest American League rivals in recent years have been the teams that were their old traditional rivals from decades ago in Philadelphia---the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox---if only because of the hard-fought playoff games between the teams. The A's have also established a strong geographic rivalry with the San Francisco Giants. The teams faced each other in the 1989 World Series (won by the Athletics in a four-game sweep). But also, with both teams having long and storied histories, they have faced each other three times in the World Series prior to their respective moves west, with the Athletics winning two and the Giants one of those Series.

Events and Records of Note

- 20-Game Win Streak: The Oakland Athletics won an American League record 20 games in a row, from August 13 to September 4, 2002. The last three games were won in dramatic fashion, each victory coming in the bottom of the ninth inning. The streak was finally snapped in Minnesota. The Major League record for consecutive wins is 26, set by the NL's New York Giants in 1916. There was a tied game embedded in that winning streak (ties were not uncommon in the days before stadium lights) and the record for consecutive wins with no ties is 21, held by the Chicago Cubs on their way to the NL pennant in 1935.
- City Series Renewed: The Athletics played their former co-occupants of Shibe Park, the Philadelphia Phillies, for the first time in a championship season in June of 2003. Previously they had only played each other in exhibition games, dubbed "The City Series", which was played annually. However, since the teams never faced each other in the World Series, they never played each other in games that counted; interleague play made the recent matchup possible. Ceremonies were held for the first game of the 3 game series at Veterans Stadium, as former Philadelphia A's players were honored on the field. The Phillies took the series against the A's, 2-1. They played each other again in June of 2005 in Oakland, this time the White Elephants defeating their former rivals two games to one.

Quick facts

:Founded: 1893, as the Indianapolis franchise in the minor Western League, which became the American League in 1900. Moved to Philadelphia in 1901 when the A.L. became a Major League. Moved to Kansas City in 1955 and to Oakland in 1968. :Current Uniform colors: Green, Gold and White: 1963-Present :Previous Uniform colors: Blue and White: 1901-04, 1909-49, 1951-53, 1961; Blue, Red and White: 1905-08, 1954-60, 1962; Blue, Gold and White: 1950, :Logo design: An Old English "A's". The team also uses an elephant logo. :Playoff appearances (22): 1905, 1910, 1911, 1913, 1914, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1981, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003

Current roster

Baseball Hall of Famers

United States National Guard

Background

The United States National Guard is a significant component of the United States armed forces military reserve. The Militia Act of 1903, also known as the Dick Act, organized the various state militias into the present National Guard system. Because the National Guard remains under the authority of the states (unless called into federal service), it should not be confused with the reserves of the various services which serve primarily as training units for replacements to active component forces. The Army National Guard is part of the United States Army, comprising approximately one half of its available combat forces and approximately one third of its support organization. The Air National Guard is part of the United States Air Force. Both are maintained through the National Guard Bureau, whose Chief is a Lieutenant General. Various State Militias also exist which are reserves to the National Guard and are collectively known as State Defense Forces. The State Militias, in some cases, pre-date the existence of the National Guard and are maintained on both an organized and unorganized level. The organized militia exists to supplement the National Guard in the event of manpower shortages while the unorganized militia comprises every able bodied male in a state which may be called up for extreme emergencies such as an invasion of the United States or a major catastrophe inside her shores. The last time that the unorganized state militias were activated was during the Civil War. The National Guard equips and outfits its personnel in the same manner as the United States Armed Forces. The same ranks and insignia are used and National Guardsmen are eligible to receive all United States military awards. The National Guard also bestows a number of state awards for local services rendered in a service member's home state. It is perhaps best known for its slogan used in commercials: "One weekend a month, two weeks a year". This indicated the amount of time an individual would need to spend actively in the Guard to be a Guardsman with benefits and such. It was dropped during the Iraq War after it became clear that Guardsmen were now serving considerably more time in service. Prior to the attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, the National Guard's policy regarding deployment was that Guardsmen would be required to serve no more than six months overseas at any time. Due to strains placed on active duty units following the attacks, the possible deployment time was increased to 18 months. Additional strains placed on military units as a result of the invasion of Iraq further increased the amount of time a Guardsman could be deployed to 24 months. Current DOD policy is that no Guardsman will be involuntarily activated for a total of more than 24 months (cumulative) in one six year enlistment period.

Constitutional charter of the Guard

- The Army National Guard's charter is the Constitution of the United States. ----
- Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution contains a series of "militia clauses," vesting distinct authority and responsibilities in the federal government and the state governments. These clauses and follow-on legislation have sculpted the Guard as you see it today. Here are summaries that will help you understand how the Guard came to be what it is today. ----
- Article I, Section 8; Clause 15
- The Congress shall have Power ... To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions. ----
- Article I, Section 8; Clause 16
- The Congress shall have Power ... To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress. ----
- Article I, Section 8, Clause 12
- "The Congress shall have Power ... To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;" ----
- Article I, Section 10 Clause 3
- "No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay." ----
- The Second Amendment
- "A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed." ----
- Article IV, Section 4
- The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence. ----
- Article II, Section 2
- The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment. ----
- The Militia Act of 1792
- Providing for the authority of the President to call out the Militia, and providing federal standards for the organization of the Militia.
- For the 111 years that the Militia Act of 1792 remained in effect, it defined the position of the militia in relation to the federal government. The War of 1812 tested this uniquely American defense establishment. To fight the War of 1812, the republic formed a small regular military and trained it to protect the frontiers and coastlines. Although it performed poorly in the offensive against Canada, the small force of regulars backed by a well-armed militia, accomplished its defensive mission well. Generals like Andrew Jackson proved, just as they had in the Revolution, that regulars and militia could be effective when employed as a team. ----
- The Militia Act of 1862
- Providing for the service of persons of African Descent in the Militia, and the Emancipation of Slaves owned by Confederate Rebels. ----
- Posse Comitatus Act
- Congress' suspension of southern states' right to organize a militia resulted in Posse Comitatus, a limiting of the president's use of military forces in peacetime. ----
- The States revise the military codes - 1881 to 1892 ----
- The Militia Act of 1903
- affirmed the National Guard as the primary organized reserve force. ----
- The National Defense Act, 1916
- This act abandoned the idea of an expandable Regular Army and firmly established the traditional concept of the citizens' army as the keystone of our defense forces. It established the concept of merging the National Guard, the Army Reserve, and the Regular Army into the Army of the United States in time of war. The act further expanded the National Guard's role, and guaranteed the State militias' status as the Army's primary reserve force. The law mandated use of the term "National Guard" for that force, and the President was given authority, in case of war or national emergency, to mobilize the National Guard for the duration of the emergency. The number of yearly drills increased from 24 to 48 and annual training from five to 15 days. Drill pay was authorized for the first time. ----
- The National Defense Act Amendments of 1920
- This act established that the chief of the Militia Bureau (later the National Guard Bureau) would be a National Guard officer, that National Guard officers would be assigned to the general staff and that the divisions, as used by the Guard in World War I, would be reorganized. ----
- The National Guard Mobilization Act, 1933
- made the National Guard a component of the Army. ----
- the National Defense Act of 1947
- Section 207 (f) established the Air National Guard, under the National Guard Bureau. ----
- The Total Force Policy, 1973
- Requires all active and reserve military organizations be treated as a single integrated force; reinforced the original intent of the founding fathers (a small standing army complemented by citizen-soldiers.) ----

Duties

National Guard units can be mobilized at any time by presidential order to supplement regular armed forces, and upon declaration of a state of emergency by the governor of the state in which they serve. Unlike Army Reserve members, National Guard members cannot be mobilized individually (except through voluntary transfers and Temporary DutY Assignments TDY), but only as part of their respective units.

History

unit Throughout the 19th century the regular Army was small, and the militia provided the majority of the troops during the Mexican War, the start of the American Civil War, and the Spanish-American War. In 1903, part of the militia was federalized and renamed the National Guard and organized as a Reserve force for the Army. In World War I, the National Guard made up 40 percent of the U.S. combat divisions in France. In World War II the National Guard made up 19 divisions. One hundred forty thousand guardsmen were mobilized during the Korean War and over 63,000 for Operation Desert Storm. They have also participated in the US peacekeeping forces in Somalia, Haiti, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bosnia, and Kosovo as well as for natural disasters, strikes, riots and security for the Olympics when they have been in the states. The National Guard is not subject to the Posse Comitatus Act and can engage in law enforcement activities, except when federalized. Following World War II, the National Guard aviation units became the Air National Guard. There is no Naval National Guard due to the constitutional provision against states having ships of war in time of peace, though Alaska, California, New Jersey, New York, and Ohio have incorporated Naval Militia units. National Guard members and reservists now comprise a larger percentage of frontline fighting forces than in any war in U.S. history (About 43 percent in Iraq and 55 percent in Afghanistan). There are now 183,366 National Guard members and reservists on active duty nationwide who leave behind about 300,000 dependents, according to U.S. Defense Department statistics. The oldest military units in the country are the 182d Infantry Regiment and 101st Engineer Battalion of the Massachusetts Army National Guard, which were first organized in 1636. National Guard units played a major role in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, in September 2005.

Current status

The Air National Guard has more than 106,000 personnel and the Army National Guard (ARNG) around 350,000 personnel (2001).
- Army National Guard Forces
- Air National Guard Units
- Naval Militias

External links

- [http://www.ngb.army.mil/ The National Guard Bureau]
- [http://www.1800goguard.com/ The Army National Guard Recruiting Site]
- [http://www.VirtualArmory.com/ Virtual Armory (login not required)]
- [http://gko.ngb.army.mil/ Guard Knowledge Online (login required)]
- [http://www.us.army.mil/ Army Knowledge Online (login required)]
- National Guard

National League

:This article refers to the American baseball league. For the English cricket league of the same name, please see National League (cricket). There is also a political party called the Indian National League. ---- The term National League generally refers to the organization more properly referred to as the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, the older (founded on February 2, 1876) of the two leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. (The other major league is the American League.) Beginning with the 1903 season, the regular season champions of the two leagues have met annually in the World Series, with the exception of 1904 and 1994. After the absorption of the American Association by the League in 1892, the temporarily-redubbed "National League and American Association" was the only Major League until the American League rose to Major League status in 1901. The National League in 1876 consisted of eight teams, six of which were previously members of the defunct National Association. The teams were: the Chicago White Stockings (now the Cubs), the St. Louis Brown Stockings (folded in 1877), the Hartford Dark Blues (folded in 1877), the Boston Red Caps (now the Atlanta Braves), the Louisville Grays (folded in 1877), the Mutual of New York (folded in 1876), the Athletic of Philadelphia (folded in 1876), and the Cincinnati Red Stockings (folded in 1880; not the same as the modern Reds, who began play in 1882 as the Red Stockings and joined the National League in 1890). Of these teams, only the White Stockings (Cubs) and the Red Caps (Braves) have survived to the present day. The National League, which for the first 93 years of its existence competed equally in a single grouping, re-organ

Ken Holtzman

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