The Oakland Athletics are a professional baseball team based in Oakland, California.

The Athletics are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League.

They are most prominently nicknamed "the A's", in reference to the blackletter "A", a trademark of the team and the old Athletic of Philadelphia.

This has gained very prominent use, and in some circles is used more frequently than the full "Athletics" name.

They are also known as "the White Elephants" or simply "the Elephants", in reference to then New York Giants' manager John McGraw's calling the team a "white elephant".

On May 8, 1968 in a game against the Minnesota Twins, Jim "Catfish" Hunter pitched the first perfect game in the American League since 1922, while burgeoning superstar Reggie Jackson clubbed 29 home runs.

Finley officially changed the team name from the Athletics to the "A's" in 1970, the first year that an "apostrophe-s" appeared after the traditional "A" logo.

Everything finally came together for the A's as the 1970s dawned.

The 1972 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds was termed "The Hairs vs. the Big Squares," as the Reds wore more traditional uniforms and required their players to be clean-shaven and short-haired.

Finley forced Mike Andrews to sign a false affidavit saying he was injured after the reserve second baseman committed two consecutive errors in the 12th inning of the A's Game Two loss to the Mets.

When other Oakland Athletics team members, manager Dick Williams, and virtually the entire viewing public rallied to Andrews' defense, Kuhn forced Finley to back down.

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