A white elephant? The Athletics turned an insult into a a team logo in 1902
September 15th, 2021 Leave a comment
Today the Oakland Athletics sport a white elephant on their uniform. They also use the pale pachyderm in sales and marketing.
What is the link between the A’s and a white elephant?
It all began because of a feud at the dawn of a new century during the inception of the American League.
John McGraw, Ban Johnson, and Connie Mack – Cooperstown men all – were at the center of the battle. What could’ve been a debacle is today an enduring part of baseball history.
America’s National Pastime has a long and glorious history separates it from every other North American sport.
Enjoy the article that links three baseball titans to the present day.
You gotta love baseball!
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I particularly enjoyed this page and George “HIgh Pockets” Kelly’s recollections of John McGraw! My Great Uncle Lee King played on those 1921 and 1922 Championship Giants teams along with High Pockets and according to his nephew, my father, Lee King considered John McGraw just a couple of steps below G*d! No offense to G*d just to put his regard for John McGraw into perspective!
Interesting article! I remember reading a bio of John McGraw in high school; a few years later, I went to a library book sale and could not find it nor any of the other baseball bios I’d read and am sorry I didn’t go to any sales earlier (too taken up w/ lit from college). Are y’all familiar w/ any baseball bio published from around 1960-1975 about older players? McGraw, Mack, Mathewson, Johnson, Gehrig, Alexander, and, later, Campanella, Robinson, and Durocher? And also Branch Rickey? I’d LOVE to be able to get a copy of at least the McGraw bio. Nearly three years ago I rescued a severely ill (degenerative hypoplasia, heat stroke, and malnutrition) kitten found in my backyard and named it Jake Stahl. Two days later, my best friend phoned and said “I’ve got six kitties; do you want to come over?” The kittens had been found abandoned in her sister’s yard up the street, and I took home the kitty who paid the most attention to me and of course I named it John “Muggsy” McGraw. The next day I rescued another ill kitty (same condition as Jake) who I named Zane Grey. Jake and Zane didn’t live very long :(, but Muggsy was fine…and at the vet’s we got a surprise: Muggsy was actually a girl (the vet said gender was difficult to tell in young kittens) and so I looked up Mrs. McGraw’s name and changed kitty’s name to Muggsi Blanche McGraw. She’s nearly three and a joy. But she doesn’t watch baseball–it’s too slow, LOL.