The Oakland Sacramento Athletics, who will begin play this season in their new home of Sacramento, have had an interesting off-season, especially from a uniform perspective.
Despite abandoning their home of 56 years, and with several seasons of baseball in a Minor League ballpark in front of them, the A’s have actually added a special Sacramento sleeve patch, stripped all references to Oakland from their jerseys, and both kept their popular kelly green jersey AND returned the classic gold jersey to their uniform line up.
The team had also announced they would be wearing a memorial patch for all-time stolen base king Rickey Henderson, who passed away this past December. Now they have officially unveiled said patch.
I was wondering whether the Rickey patch would even feature a uniform number, since he actually wore four different uniform numbers as a member of the Athletics. His rookie number was 39, but he soon switched to No. 35, which he would wear in his first stint with the A’s (1979-84). Rickey returned to the A’s in 1989, where he briefly sported No. 22, but soon returned to No. 24 — the number he had worn with the Yankees between his times with Oakland. Rickey would wear No. 24 for 10 seasons with the A’s. Since he wore No. 24 far longer than No 35 with the A’s, and more recently, it stands to reason that’s the number the team would choose to represent him.
The A’s retired Henderson’s No. 24, and he is a member of the franchise’s Hall of Fame. In 2009, the 10-time All-Star was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as a member of the Athletics. So it certainly makes sense to have No. 24 on the memorial patch.
The patch itself is gold, with a green and white circular outline. “RICKEY” is rendered in green and 24 is green with a white outline.
Here are a couple additional looks at the sleeve patch.
That shot also provides us with our first look at the new Athletics kelly green jersey. While we knew the A’s would retain the kelly green, it had never before read “Athletics” — it had always said Oakland.
Here’s another shot, and this one includes the A’s Spring Training cap, which is a particularly good looking gold cap.
A closer view of the new cap shows the Spring Training patch that teams who train in Arizona will be sporting.
Interestingly, the memorial patch is shown on the jersey’s left sleeve, but nowhere to be seen is the Sacramento patch, which the A’s teased earlier this year:
Since the A’s (thankfully) do not have a jersey advertiser, in theory they will be able to place the new Sacramento patch and the Rickey patch on opposite sleeves. Whether they eventually double-stack them (in anticipation of a potential advertiser) remains to be seen. I am a bit surprised the green jersey isn’t shown with the Sacramento patch. The Style Guide does not show any patches on any of their jerseys.
The A’s haven’t said whether the patch will have the identical colors for the white, gray or gold jerseys. It’s tough to tell, but it only looks to be about an inch or maybe 1.5″ in diameter, and it might be difficult to read on the gold jersey. It should look fine on the white and gray, as it does on the new green alternate.
Good on the A’s for the new patch. They seem to be making a lot of positive moves since their departure from Oakland. They already have one of the best uniforms in baseball (and the best color combination of green and gold), and every possible combination will look good. I’m not a big fan of alternates, but I also grew up when the A’s were famous for their green and gold mix-and-matching, so in their case I’m not only fine with the alternates, but those looks have always been unique to the team.
Your thoughts?
“…who will begin play this season in their new home of West Sacramento…”
FIFY
Being pedantic over the names of cities in the same metropolitan area is so cringe. They play in the Sacramento RiverCats stadium. They represent the Sacramento region. You can just say Sacramento.
It would be like correcting someone every time they said “Los Angeles Rams” with “ERRRR ACTUALLY THEY PLAY IN INGLEWOOD,” except Inglewood is considerably larger than West Sacramento.
Or “New Jersey Jets/Giants,” which seems to be a favorite…
And completely wrong. The Jets, like the Giants, were named for New York CITY not New York State. If folks want to be truly pedantic, they can correct it to “East Rutherford Jets/Giants.” Otherwise it’s simply trolling.
I like the patch. I hope they’re stuck in Sacramento for the next ten years.
It’s hardly being stuck when Sacramento is clearly the backup to Vegas especially since Sac is only slightly smaller than Vegas and has way less competition for entertainment. But yeah I do hope they stay in NorCal.
When Rickey had that cup of coffee (and World Series win) with the Blue Jays for part of 1993, he started with no. 14 before buying no. 24 from Turner Ward.
link
Its a good patch. Simple memorial for an extraordinary player.
The patch seems really small. Maybe they’ll be bigger once the season starts?
My guess is that it’s small so they can have it on the chest when they get a sponsor patch on the other sleeve.
I’m sure the negotiations with Sacramento Bail Bonds, Inc. are processing nicely.
Anyone got an O/U on how many times we’ll see “The
Oakland SacramentoAthletics” this season?I like that the SF Chronicle is going ahead and calling them the Sacramento Athletics.
As a Rick, and Ricky when I was a little boy, I don’t remember seeing any other Ricky spelled with an “e”.
I’ve said this before, but this is strange given he never played for Sacramento.
I’m tired of ‘franchises’ and that their history is movable. Thomas Steen had his number retired in Arizona! What a disgrace. These teams belong to the city not the owner, and frankly are bigger than the name. I think it’s a bit disingenuous to do this in the same year the team is ripped from Oakland.
The A’s have moved more than most franchises. If any franchise history is movable — it’s the Athletics.
I’m curious what your views are on the Raiders, Jets, 49ers, Rams, Nets, Dodgers, Giants (both MLB and NFL), Patriots, Flames, Jazz, Lakers, etc.
Is it better to usurp a previous franchise’s history like the Browns? To me that’s like a step dad putting his face on old family pictures. Just because the kids call you dad now doesn’t mean you were their Little League Coach when they were little.
Just my opinion.
I’ve found that most people who dislike franchises and history moving don’t have much consistency with it. Like it often boils down to they want to keep it set at an arbitrary year in their own past so they’re fine with the Lakers and Dodgers and Warriors moving, but not the Rams or Nets. I’ve even seen it with the same city: people are fine with the Rams keeping their history, but not the Chargers lol.
Then there are the people who complained about the Rams moving from St. Louis to LA who don’t seem to understand that before that the Rams moved from LA to St. Louis.
So, do the Kansas City Royals own the A’s history from the time the team played in that city? Who owns the history of the Philadelphia Athletics since the Phillies also existed at that time? Franchises move. The city of Oakland clearly wasn’t interested in actually keeping any of their professional sports teams. All three left within five years.
This is a good patch. Simple, looks good on all of the A’s jerseys, and does the job. It would have been more moving if they were still playing on Rickey Henderson Field at the Oakland Coliseum, but I get it.
Good patch, stack it with the elephant.
I would have liked to see the patch in the shape of a baseball diamond with four bases in white. Outline it in green and white, and make the “dirt” yellow. Add Rickey and 24 like in the actual patch, and you’d have a winner.
Rickey would love a patch that says Rickey on it because only Rickey’s patch can say Rickey.
A memorial patch that isn’t black at all. This one is an exception! If I can guess the thoughts in the owners’ heads, I bet it was “black won’t show up on green, and we’re not gonna produce two versions, so here’s just one.”
A+ on the Rickey patch.
However, I wish they just stamped the name Sacramento Athletics onto franchise history.
The patch should’ve been in the shape of a base.
Turned on its side, so “RICKEY” stretches from one corner, to another.
That would’ve been rad…