<P> The history of the Athletics Major League Baseball franchise spans the period from 1901 to the present day, having begun in Philadelphia before moving to Kansas City in 1955 and then to its current home in Oakland, California, in 1968 . The A's made their Bay Area debut on Wednesday, April 17, 1968, with a 4 - 1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles at the Coliseum, in front of an opening - night crowd of 50,164 . </P> <P> The Athletics' name originated in the term "Athletic Club" for local gentlemen's clubs--dates to 1860 when an amateur team, the Athletic (Club) of Philadelphia, was formed . (A famous image from that era, published in Harper's Weekly in 1866, shows the Athletic players dressed in uniforms displaying the familiar blackletter "A" on the front .) The team later turned professional through 1875, becoming a charter member of the National League in 1876, but were expelled from the N.L. after one season . A later version of the Athletics played in the American Association from 1882--1891 . </P> <P> After New York Giants manager John McGraw told reporters that Philadelphia manufacturer Benjamin Shibe, who owned the controlling interest in the new team, had a "white elephant on his hands", team manager Connie Mack defiantly adopted the white elephant as the team mascot, and presented McGraw with a stuffed toy elephant at the start of the 1905 World Series . McGraw and Mack had known each other for years, and McGraw accepted it graciously . By 1909, the A's were wearing an elephant logo on their sweaters, and in 1918 it turned up on the regular uniform jersey for the first time . </P> <P> In 1963, when the A's were located in Kansas City, then owner Charlie Finley changed the team mascot from an elephant to a Missouri mule . This is rumored to have been done by Finley in order to appeal to fans from the region who were predominantly Democrats at the time . (The traditional Republican Party symbol is an elephant, while the Democratic Party's symbol is a donkey .) Since 1988, the Athletics' 21st season in Oakland, an illustration of an elephant has adorned the left sleeve of the A's home and road uniforms . Beginning in the mid 1980s, the on - field costumed incarnation of the A's elephant mascot went by the name Harry Elephante . In 1997, he took his current form, Stomper . </P>

Why is the oakland as mascot an elephant
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