Why Was The Mascot Of The Philadelphia A’S An Elephant?

In the first episode of the “Ever Wonder” series, baseball historian Dave Feldman explains the origins of the Oakland Athletics’ elephant mascot, Stomper. The Philadelphia A’s adopted the elephant as their mascot due to an insult by New York Giants manager John McGraw in 1902. The logo was placed on the left sleeve of all iterations of A’s uniforms and was embraced by fans in Oakland. Today, the elephant mascot has evolved into Stomper, the big and jolly elephant who is featured in the Coliseum’s Stomping Grounds, an area for kids and parents near the right-field seats.

The Oakland Athletics logo features an elephant as a symbol as an opportunity to refute and ridicule McGraw’s claims that the team was a “white elephant” and unwanted. Baseball historian Dave Feldman explains that the elephant originated from a retort to a rival manager’s quip implying the team was a “white elephant” and unwanted. The A’s defiantly adopted the white elephant both as a symbol of pride and an opportunity to refute and ridicule McGraw.

The elephant was introduced on April 2, 1997, but it has been with the A’s for over a century. In 1901, Benjamin Shibe, a Philadelphia sporting goods manufacturer and business owner, bought a white elephant. McGraw responded that the Philadelphia club would make no money with a big white elephant on their hands, which led to then-A’s owner Connie Mack making a white elephant the team’s unofficial mascot as a rallying cry.

The original team was derided as the “big white elephant” in the room, so the owner adopted a white elephant as the mascot. In 1965, the A’s dropped their elephant mascot altogether in favor of a Missouri mule named in honor of team owner Charles O. Finley.