Oakland Athletics Trivia
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59 free Oakland Athletics trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This Oakland Athletics trivia quiz follows the A's from Connie Mack's Philadelphia dynasties through 13 odd years in Kansas City to the Coliseum, and on to their temporary Sacramento home. There are questions on the white elephant and the Missouri mule, Charlie Finley's orange baseballs and mustache bonuses, Catfish Hunter's perfect game, Vida Blue, Reggie Jackson and the three straight titles of 1972-74, Billyball and Rickey Henderson's 130 steals, the Bash Brothers, Dennis Eckersley and Kirk Gibson, the earthquake World Series of 1989, and Billy Beane's 20-game winning streak that became Moneyball. The Coliseum gets a round too: the shared home with the Raiders, Mount Davis, the record foul territory and the final game in 2024, plus the uniforms, Stomper, retired numbers, the Bay Bridge Series and the planned move to Las Vegas. Easy questions suit any A's fan; the hard ones are for people who remember Harvey the mechanical rabbit. Every answer has been checked against an encyclopaedic source and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 59 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which 1969 expansion team replaced the A's after they left for Oakland in 1968?
Royals
Royals: the American League let the A's go only in a deal that promised Kansas City a new club, and with a Missouri senator threatening baseball's antitrust exemption, it was playing by 1969.
Q 02Through 2025, which American League club matched the Athletics' nine World Series titles?
Boston Red Sox
Boston Red Sox: the A's reached nine with their 1989 sweep, when Boston still had five, and the Red Sox then won four titles from 2004 to 2018 to draw level behind the Yankees.
Q 03Which manager ran the Athletics for their first 50 years, wearing a business suit in the dugout?
Connie Mack
Connie Mack managed the Athletics from 1901 to 1950, directing fielders with a rolled-up scorecard from the dugout in a suit; his 3,731 wins and 3,948 losses are both major-league records.
Q 04The A's white elephant mascot began as a jibe from which rival manager?
John McGraw
John McGraw, newly the Giants' manager, sneered in 1902 that Philadelphia's owner had a 'white elephant' on his hands; the A's adopted the animal in defiance and won that year's pennant.
Q 05In Kansas City, Charlie Finley replaced the A's elephant mascot with which live animal?
A mule
A mule: Finley unveiled a live mule named Charlie O, after himself, in 1965 and paraded it at the ballpark; the mule became Missouri's official state animal in 1995.
Q 06Which costumed elephant mascot did the A's introduce on Opening Night in 1997?
Stomper
Stomper debuted on April 2, 1997; an earlier costumed elephant, Harry Elephante, punned on the singer Harry Belafonte, and the elephant itself had only come back as the club's symbol in 1988.
Q 07Which team colours did Charlie Finley introduce, replacing the traditional red, white and blue?
Kelly green and gold
Kelly green and gold arrived in 1963, when Finley dressed his Kansas City team in what he called Kelly Green, Fort Knox Gold and Wedding Gown White, a look that shocked baseball traditionalists.
Q 08Which A's third baseman won six straight Gold Gloves from 2001 to 2006?
Eric Chavez
Eric Chavez swept the award from 2001 to 2006 and added a Silver Slugger in 2002, yet in 17 big-league seasons he was never picked for an All-Star team.
Q 09Which pitcher threw a perfect game for the A's against Minnesota on May 8, 1968?
Catfish Hunter
Catfish Hunter, then 22, retired all 27 Twins in that game and drove in three of the A's four runs himself; it was the American League's first regular-season perfect game since Charlie Robertson's in 1922.
Q 10Which manager won the 1972 and 1973 World Series with the A's, then quit over Finley's meddling?
Dick Williams
Dick Williams quit straight after the 1973 World Series, tired of the owner's interference; Finley then blocked him from taking the Yankees job, and the A's completed their three-peat in 1974 under Alvin Dark.
Q 11Which A's catcher hit four homers in the 1972 World Series after five all season?
Gene Tenace
Gene Tenace spent 1972 as Dave Duncan's backup and won the catching job only for the postseason; he homered in his first two Series at-bats, and police arrested an armed man who had threatened to shoot him if he hit another.
Q 12In 1972 Charlie Finley offered his A's players a cash bonus to grow what?
A mustache
A mustache: when one star turned up to spring training unshaven, Finley chose to reward the look instead of banning it, the whole roster joined in, and the press named the 1972 champions the Mustache Gang.
Q 13Which A's pitcher won both the 1971 AL Cy Young Award and MVP at age 22?
Vida Blue
Q 21Whose single-season and career stolen-base records did Rickey Henderson break as an Athletic?
Lou Brock
Lou Brock's 118 steals in a season fell to Henderson's 130 in 1982; in 1991 Brock came to Oakland to watch his career mark go too, and heard Henderson tell the crowd he was now the greatest of all time.
Q 22Besides stolen bases, Rickey Henderson holds baseball's career record in which category?
Runs scored
Runs scored: Henderson crossed the plate 2,295 times, and when a home run took him past Ty Cobb's total in 2001 he finished the trot by sliding into home plate.
Q 23Which family, of Levi Strauss & Co. fame, bought the A's from Charlie Finley in 1980?
Haas
Vida Blue went 24-8 with a 1.82 ERA in 1971, sweeping the AL Cy Young Award and MVP at 22; his 1972 holdout was so bitter that Commissioner Bowie Kuhn stepped in to settle it.
Q 14Which reserve second baseman did Finley force to sign a false injury affidavit in the 1973 World Series?
Mike Andrews
Mike Andrews made two errors in the 12th inning of Game 2, and Finley had him sign a false injury affidavit to drop him; Commissioner Kuhn reinstated him, and Mets fans gave him a standing ovation in Game 4.
Q 15Which A's slugger was named AL MVP in 1973 and MVP of that year's World Series against the Mets?
Reggie Jackson
Reggie Jackson had torn a hamstring stealing home in the 1972 playoffs and watched that World Series on crutches; a year later he was the unanimous AL MVP and hit .310 in the Series.
Q 16The A's beat which team in the 1974 World Series to complete their three-peat?
Los Angeles Dodgers
Los Angeles Dodgers: the A's won the 1974 Series in five games, four of them by 3-2 scores, under manager Alvin Dark, with Joe Rudi's seventh-inning homer in Game 5 breaking the final tie.
Q 17Which future rap star did Charlie Finley give a clubhouse job and the title of executive vice-president as a boy?
MC Hammer
MC Hammer: Finley spotted young Stanley Burrell dancing in the Coliseum parking lot and gave him a clubhouse job, and the players called him 'Hammer' because he looked like Hank Aaron.
Q 18What was the mechanical rabbit that delivered balls to the umpire at Finley's ballparks named?
Harvey
Harvey, named like the invisible rabbit of the 1950 film comedy, rose from the ground behind home plate with fresh baseballs; Finley also pushed orange baseballs, which he was allowed to try in spring training but which never caught on.
Q 19One of Finley's ball girls later founded which famous cookie company?
Mrs. Fields
Mrs. Fields founder Debbi Fields was one of the first ball girls Finley's A's hired, as a young teen, and spent her pay on baking ingredients; she opened her first cookie shop in Palo Alto in 1977.
Q 20Which manager's aggressive style was marketed as 'Billyball' when the A's revived under him in 1980?
Billy Martin
Billy Martin, a Berkeley native, inherited a team that had lost 108 games in 1979; it won 83 the next year and reached the 1981 ALCS playing the aggressive style sold as Billyball.
Haas: Walter A. Haas Jr., the Levi Strauss chairman, bought the club in 1980 to stop it leaving the Bay Area; under his family the A's won three straight pennants and set attendance records.
Q 24José Canseco and Mark McGwire were known collectively by what nickname?
The Bash Brothers
The Bash Brothers: Canseco and McGwire celebrated homers by bashing forearms, and the pair hit 42 and 32 home runs in 1988 as Canseco became the first 40-40 player.
Q 25Which manager led the A's to three straight pennants from 1988 to 1990?
Tony La Russa
Tony La Russa took over in mid-1986 and, with pitching coach Dave Duncan, turned starter Dennis Eckersley into the game's dominant closer after Jay Howell's injury in 1987, the core of three straight pennants.
Q 26Whose pinch-hit walk-off homer off Dennis Eckersley stunned the A's in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series?
Kirk Gibson
Kirk Gibson, with both legs injured, came off the bench with two out in the ninth; a scout had told him Eckersley threw left-handers a backdoor slider on a full count, and he hit that pitch into the right-field seats.
Q 27The A's 1989 World Series sweep of the Giants was interrupted by what?
The Loma Prieta earthquake
The Loma Prieta earthquake hit at 5:04 pm on October 17, 1989, minutes before Game 3 at Candlestick Park was due to start; the Series resumed ten days later and the A's completed the sweep.
Q 28The heavily favoured 1990 A's were swept in the World Series by which team?
Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds: Billy Hatcher hit .750 in the sweep, and José Rijo, a pitcher the A's had traded to Cincinnati for Dave Parker after 1987, beat them twice and was named Series MVP.
Q 29Which A's catcher was named MVP of the 1988 All-Star Game?
Terry Steinbach
Terry Steinbach was voted in by fans while batting .219, and some doubted he belonged; he then homered off Dwight Gooden and added a sacrifice fly to drive in both runs of the American League's 2-1 win.
Q 30The A's 'Big Three' rotation of 2000 to 2004 was Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and whom?
Barry Zito
Barry Zito won 23 games and the Cy Young Award in 2002 and outlasted the other two in Oakland; after 2006 he crossed the bay to the Giants on a seven-year, $126 million contract.