Late Friday, the A’s made two announcements regarding patches: first, they would wear a Rickey Henderson memorial patch for the entirety of the 2025 season. This was an expected move — the Man of Steal was almost certainly the single most iconic Athletics player in history, and among the most iconic in MLB history. The team has not yet revealed the design of the patch, but the team’s press release indicates that it will include Henderson’s No. 24. The A’s are giving away a rally towel on Opening Day featuring a Rickey Henderson logo, so that may be the patch, but nothing’s been confirmed yet.
The other announcement was more intriguing — the team is adding a brand-new patch to honor their temporary home of Sacramento. The patch itself is decidedly meh — it’s very vertical, which is unusual for baseball uni patches which are usually more wide than tall when in a rectangle.
— Athletics (@Athletics) January 17, 2025
The really interesting thing here is the “Sacramento” wordmark below the bridge. It’s in the same style as every other A’s wordmark, and could be the base for an A’s away uniform for their time in Sacramento. I’m still pretty sure their road unis are just going to be grey versions of their home uniforms, because the team’s official name until the move to Vegas is just “The Athletics,” with no location attached — but at the same time, I wouldn’t have expected the A’s to add a patch honoring Sacramento, too.
It should be noted that every photo and video of the Tower Bridge patch shows it on the left sleeve. As you probably know by now, since MLB adopted jersey ads back before the 2023 season, sleeve ad patches are placed on the dominant arm of the player to get more visibility, meaning that (for the teams that still have them) non ad-patches are moved to the player’s non-dominant sleeve. All of this creates a very un-uniform look. As of right now, the Athletics are one of just a small handful of teams that do not have ad patches. In 2023, the A’s did move their team patch to the non-dominant sleeves of their players; they went back to placing the team patch on the left sleeve only in 2024. I guess John Fisher realized that no one wanted to advertise on the uniforms of a horrible team that was openly at war with its own fans.
This actually brings up another wrinkle, too — to make room for the Tower Bridge patch, the A’s are removing that incredible elephant patch, which had been worn since 1988. Sports YouTuber Brodie Brazil actually noticed the removal of the elephant patch over a week ago when four A’s players visited a Sacramento cafe in jerseys without the elephant patch (and without the Sacramento patch). As Brazil notes in his video, the A’s connection to the elephant traces back over a century, three relocations ago.
The loss of this patch is a damn shame. The elephant balancing on a baseball has always looked incredible, and its removal is just another way the A’s seem to be distancing themselves from their own history. And it’s another example of professional sports going away from complicated illustrations towards something sleeker. As we go further down this road in pro sports, we get further and further away from the character and charm that made many of us fall in love with the whole thing.
Wondering if the patch will only be put on the home uniforms, or if it will be on the road and alternate uniforms as well. If not, the elephant may not be gone for good. Also hoping they bring back that great yellow jersey.
I wonder if they will even have any alt uniforms this season. Moving to a temporary location I’d think they would want to streamline their laundry. Home whites (one of the best in baseball) and road greys to keep it simple.
As far as the Sacramento patch goes, one could put almost any city name under that bridge. I don’t know enough about Sactown to recognize any local landmarks and I’m gathering a lot of people would say the same. However, it is a nice tribute to the residents there.
The Sacramento bridge had been prominent in the Triple A RiverCats logo and was also featured in the Sacramento-filmed Oscar-nominated film Lady Bird, so the patch seems appropriate for the A’s. The Swingin’ A’s of the 1970s didn’t wear the elephant patch either.
It’s called the Tower Bridge.
Using a bridge is an admission that neither the team nor the city has any identity. What does it say?
“Our stadium isn’t actually in Sacramento but here’s the bridge you take to get there.”
“That famous riverboat wouldn’t do a deal with us because our organization is toxic, so here’s the bridge next to our stadium.”
I like the move by the A’s. Proper to acknowledge Sacramento as their home for a time in some way aesthetically on the uniforms.
Interesting times in MLB. We’ll have 2 teams playing in minor league parks this year.
Also interesting times in the Big Four leagues. We have a hockey club with no team name and a baseball club with only a team name. The A’s needed to change their name temporarily by dropping Oakland from it. I would have preferred if they could have temporarily become the California A’s prior to the move. Knowing pro sports now there is or may be some legal complication allowing that of course.
To add to this, not big on removing the elephant though. Like earlier comment, would be good to see elephant on road or alternate jerseys.
There’s no way the A’s would casually adopt the “California” name when one of their division rivals was called that for more than 30 years.
The NHL team certainly DOES have a name. They are the Utah Hockey Club.
I was never a fan of “California” for the Angels, since they are a Southern California team that the rest of the State doesn’t support. However, since Sacramento is the State Capital, this makes a lot of sense.
I always liked the California monicker for the Angels…though never liked the halo hats.
I’m sure they had a good amount of statewide support…not the entirety, and surely more then than now.
The Angels were called the California Angels when they moved to Anaheim because at the time they were the only American League team in the state. That was when the leagues never played each other except for the World Series. I spoke to an Angels VP when they were changing their name to “Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim”, before getting an agreement with Anaheim to just use “Los Angeles”. I expressed my concern that the fans from Orange County wanted nothing to do with Los Angeles. He said the Angels wanted to benefit from the entire Media Market of Southern California. I suggested that call themselves the “Southern California Angels”, or Southern Cal Angels. I still think this is better options than Los Angeles.
What if they adopted the punny “Capitol A’s” as the team name? ;-)
I’ll show myself out
I think there is a very subtle behind the scenes tug of war going on here. Do not be surprised of Vivek Ranadive steps up and buys the team to keep in Sacramento.
I give them a 20% chance of staying in Sacramento, but only if funding in Vegas collapses. However, it’s been so shaky all along, that funding in Vegas collapsing is not unrealistic.
How does this kind of thing work? Presumably the Aviators will cease to exist if the As go to Vegas? Or they relocate a certain distance away from the As stadium? Because I personally think the Sacramento move would be the best solution for fans, and for Sacramento, and frankly for the As that just aren’t a big market kind of team with a wide appeal, and would probably do better staying in a more reasonably sized market and not trying to become a tourist attraction team, but the river cats are already there and are a very popular team in the area. So they just cease to exist, or do they move to the nearest feasible city and let Brandiose give them some ridiculous new locator?
Yeah, I think MLB will grow tired of all the Vegas issues and while they don’t want two teams in the Bay Area, they could see Sac as the best of both worlds in terms of getting new fans and keeping existing ones
Another A’s note, they were having their international signings wear the gold alternate jersey that says A’s on the chest. Also gave them the jersey in the old template.
So few observations there.
1. The gold jersey may be back in the rotation. If I recall, it was never officially deactivated, they just stopped wearing it. Makes sense if they want all of their uniforms to just say Athletics or A’s.
2. I’ve seen a few examples now this offseason of teams supplying players/signings with the old template. At Fenway Fest, every Red Sox player and coach there was wearing the old template, including their new signings.
I’m wondering if MLB is doing something similar to the NFL this season in which they kind of allow their teams to pick their own template for some or all of their uniforms. I know all the greys will be old template but maybe it’s the same with other sets for specific teams, pending availability? Back to the A’s, all the golds were 2023 template but when you see guys in the white jersey it’s been the 2024 template so who knows. In the NFL the Giants wear the old template only for their classic blue alts so maybe we’ll get something like that in MLB?
Or, maybe these teams just had old jerseys laying around and slapped numbers on them because they didn’t want to waste jersey’s they’ll need for games. Might be something for the Uni-Watch crew to look into.
Oakland hasn’t worn their (excellent) gold jerseys since 2018! But they also only have three currently in their rotation (white, gray, kelly), so they could easily bring them back without violating Nike’s 4+1 rule.
However, given [waves hand in the general direction of John Fisher], they’re prolly just repurposing whatever old jerseys they have laying (lying?) around.
[Sigh] I love the gold jerseys. Just the best.
Getting rid of the elephant is unforgivable
Add it to the list..
The “Philadelphia/Kansas City/Oakland Athletics of Sacramento and Maybe One Day Las Vegas” has a nice ring to it, at least to my ears.
Does anyone else find it strange that the A’s played in the Bay Area for over 50 years and never had a bridge-centric logo, but temporarily move to Sacramento and immediately add a bridge-centric patch?
Yes. When I think of major Northern California cities with iconic bridges, Sacramento is a distant third.
They did have a “sky bridge” on the A’s 40th anniversary patch. It was the The Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building in Oakland.
Instinctively, yes, but if you search both cities on Google Images, the bridge is far more prevalent in the images of Sacramento. I was surprised too.
Bridges are boring.
Relax. The Athletics spent 57 years in Oakland and captured four titles; which compares very favorably with their tenure in Philadelphia (54 seasons, five rings). When the A’s set up shop in
Sin City, Las Vegas will be very much the pipsqueak, having to demonstrate they can even improve on the Kansas City experiment. The elephant’s absence is a brief sabbatical. Count on it.
Weren’t the A’s, along with the Angels, the only teams that had no mention of their City/State/Region on either road or home uniforms. I’m including hat logos reflecting the City/State/Region, like the Dodgers in the past not having a “Los Angeles” road uniform, but having “LA” on the hat and sleeve.
The Rockies wore “ROCKIES” on home and away unis from 1993-1999.
Having the last letter as an “O” and then extending that to the underline isn’t really a good visual. Seems like a stretch. Much more natural coming off the bottom of an “S”.
I’m afraid I disagree. That script is a masterpiece.
On a different topic, I guess the blue pants weren’t so lucky, after all.
Too soon?
Nope-terrible look…predictable outcome.
Better luck next year.
The elephant patch was added in 1987 when the A’s introduced their new unis.
The tower patch doesn’t even look sewn on in these pics, appears to be just put on with an adhesive. Typical of the quality of this team/
One of the very few times a patch upgrades a uniform and the A’s remove it. No more elephant. Sigh.
Off-topic…
Great photo choice to demonstrate the “very un-uniform look” the ad sleeve patches created!
I Miss/Still Call Them The Florida Marlins.
Re: the Ricky patch: there’s a local artist in Oakland who makes (or made) a shirt with a pick of Ricky and it says “everything I know about stealing, I learned in Oakland”. A classic shirt. I’d love for that to be the patch, but it’s a bit wordy.
As a lifelong A’s fan, it is a shame to see them move. I have collected their jerseys going all the way back to the Philly A’s. The elephant sleeve logo elevated these classic uniforms (including the sunglass wearing, crossed bats in trunk elephant logo on the daytime forest green jerseys). This team has provided the highest highs and lowest lows in the field of any team I can think of, but their uniforms have always been outstanding. I would love to see the elephant remain on the sleeve (and no ads).
Why is it a shame to see them move again? this is their fourth city. We’re not talking about the white sox or any team with a century of playing in the same place. It’s like being shocked that the Raiders moved to Vegas when they’ve moved a bunch of other times
I lived in Oakland for a while when I was young, and I have always associated the team and their unique vibe with that particular city (and that includes the contributions the Raiders added to that great atmosphere, also). Realistically, I get it, but I would like to have seen them work out a solution with the city to remain in Oakland.
The As’ elephant patch is (was?) the best niche item in all of MLB uniforms.
Interesting about the Henderson patch, considering he never played for Sacramento.
It’s not unprecedented for the Athletics to not feature their “city” on either their home or road uniforms. During their stop in Philly, the uniform never once had the word Philadelphia on their jerseys. It wasn’t even until their last season in Philly that they put the whole name on the jersey (having gone with just the letter “A” for the most of their existence).
Surely you mean Kansas City
Couldn’t they have found a way to incorporate the elephant into it?
I have a bad feeling that when they move to Vegas, they’ll have a Vegas themed patch and the elephant will go the way of the Dodo.
The A’s didn’t use the elephant the first 20 years they were in California. Missing a season isn’t the end of the world.
People need to stop acting like the elephant is gone forever. I still see it for sale on new merch (that isn’t tagged as Oakland) and Stomper has made appearances in Sacramento
I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re getting an ad patch too hence why none of this looks set yet. The truth is that there are probably more companies that are willing to spend on the A’s in Sacramento than there were in the Bay Area. I mean why advertise with the A’s when you can with the Giants a few bart stops away. Same with luxury boxes and other revenue streams, companies in Sac will probably spend (they’ve sold out of season tickets already) while Bay Area companies would probably rather spend that on the dubs, niners, sharks, or giants. Also showing that in summer they’re the only team in town and year round only have to compete with the Kings.
I really think that people that oppose the A’s move are just being stubborn and afraid of change. The Bay Area doesn’t want to support two teams especially with the collapse of RSNs the money just isn’t there.
The Elephant is on the gold jersey I saw their new Japanese signing pose in. I expect the Elephant to be on every jersey except the home jersey. They would be stupid to abandon it totally, it is a beloved mascot. On the other hand, they are set to leave for Las Vegas at some point and the Tower Bridge will certainly be replaced by some poker themed mascot as a tie-in with a casino uniform ad. The Elephant will probably not be part of the Las Vegas identity.