36 Athletics At White Sox, July 28, 1936, From Philadelphia To Vegas

24 April 2023

Album art features the Athletic's Philadelphia home.

With the news that the Athletic are set to leave Oakland for the shiny bright lights of Las Vegas, it's worth remembering just how often the club has moved around.

Way back in 1901, a new Philadelphia team was founded, and it joined the nascent American League, winning the Pennant six times and the World Series three times in the first twelve years. Their next period of dominace was during the Great Depression, with three Pennans and two more World Series. But that was the last glory for the Athletic in Philadephia as a lack of finance and poor management saw success fade away.

The Athletic then moved to Kansas City. The move did not change the fortunes of the team with their best year a 73-81 record. A new owner, Charlie Finlay, bought the team in 1960 with grand promsies, but was quick to start shopping the franchise around. After thirteen years (and an overal .404 record), the Athletic moved once more ahead of the 1968 season.

Oakland was its new home and the team broke .500 in that first year, and the early seventies saw success return, with a World Series win in 1973. The franchise was linked with moves to Chicago, Denver, and New Orleans in the 70s.

As the 21st centruy dawned, the Athletic contineud to look to move out of the Oakland Colosseum and into San Jose, but that territor belonged to cross-bay rivals the San Francisco Giants, and the Giants were never ready to accommodate a move. So we come to 2023, and the Athletic are ready to move again. A new stadium will be built in Las Vegas, and Nevada will have a new baseball team in 2027.

With such a long history, let's go back as far as we can in the current archive to listen to the Philadephia Athletic take on the Chicago White Sox. It's 1936, and the Athletic are in the first years of a decades long slump. Russ Hodges is in the studio, and we join the game early in the top of the first.

You can find the boxscore here.

This game was played on July 28th, 1936.