A's struggled in kelly green jerseys in 2024

Jason Burke | Oct 12, 2024

Aug 24, 2024; Oakland, California, USA; Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Joe Boyle (35) throws a pitch against the Milwaukee Brewers during the first inning at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Robert Edwards-Imagn Images / Robert Edwards-Imagn Images

The Oakland A's kelly green jerseys are some of the most well-liked uniforms in all of baseball. Heading into the final homestand of the team's tenure in Oakland, the players decided to wear the kelly greens, which read 'Oakland' across the chest, to show the fans how much they've appreciated their support over the years.

In talking with JJ Bleday ahead of the first game of that homestand, he said that the plan was to wear the kellys, then joked that the pitchers don't like wearing them "because they don't get too many wins in them."

Sharing this information during the final homestand didn't seem appropriate, given that the A's would be leaving Oakland in a few day's time. While this tidbit of information is by no means a slight on the fans and is solely performance and superstition based, the timing just didn't feel right.

So here is the rest of that story.

We talked to catcher Shea Langeliers, who confirmed that the pitchers had some thoughts on wearing the jerseys, but said that is wasn't anything nefarious, more superstitious.

JP Sears, who never chose to wear the kelly greens in 2024 until the final homestand provided his own thoughts, and even led us to some data to back up the points he made.

"I guess my idea is usually when I pitch here at home, I wear the white homes all the time. Just because I like how I look in the white. I feel more comfortable in the white. I don't know, I just like the look of one color."

There was more to his reasoning that just the fashion, however. He also encouraged us to do a little research on how the team has performed in the kelly greens.

"Our pitcher's ERA is a lot higher in the kelly, that's just a stat in itself. You can look it up."

So we did. According to Uniform Lineup, the A's wore the kelly greens 14 times before the final homestand, with six of those 14 games coming on the road. The A's went 5-9 in the kellys, but the record was mostly dictated by how the team was performing overall. From the beginning of April to the end of June, they wore the jerseys seven times and went 1-6.

They took the entire month of July off from the kellys, then came back with them on August 7 against the White Sox and got a win. The A's went 4-3 in their next seven games in the kelly greens, which is more in line with how they performed in the second half of the season.

As for the stats, Sears was right. The starter's ERA (the starters choose the jerseys for the team) in those 14 games was 6.27. A's starters finished with a 4.76 ERA on the season, so their ERA was about a run and a half higher in the kellys. If you take out those kelly green games, the A's starters would have had an ERA of 4.64 on the season, which is still about a half-run higher than league average.

The only A's pitcher to choose them in all of April was Alex Wood, who was also the only pitcher to collect a win in them during the first half of the campaign. That win came on April 30 against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The player that arguably liked pitching in them the most was Joe Boyle, who was responsible for the A's wearing those jerseys three times before the final homestand, even though he started just ten games on the season. Joey Estes also chose to wear the kellys three times in 2024, but he made 24 starts over the course of the year.

This all leads to a story that Barry Zito once told me years ago when the A's were celebrating the original black jerseys (early 2000s edition). I asked if he had any memories from wearing those jerseys when he was a player, and he said that a bunch of guys hated to wear them because they felt that the team didn't play as well in them. He mentioned Kevin Appier in particular not enjoying them.

Then, he goes out in Toronto, pitches a gem while wearing the black jersey, walks into the clubhouse and declares, "Well I guess it's not the jerseys, huh guys?"

With the kelly green option serving as an alternate jersey option for the A's, it's unclear what they'll do for an alternate next season, given that they won't have a home city designation to put across their chest. The obvious answer would be to have 'Athletics' in kelly green, but they could end up scrapping the kellys altogether, too. There has been no communication on the jersey plans for 2025 and beyond.