Oakland Athletics: Which players have the best 2019 Players’ Weekend jerseys?
By Justin Fried
The Oakland Athletics, much like the rest of MLB, have arrived at the third annual Players’ Weekend. Here are some of the best jersey nicknames on the team.
The Oakland Athletics will take a bit of a break from their heated American League Wild Card race this weekend to have a bit of fun. Now, they’ll still be playing some pretty crucial games, but there will be a sense of enjoyment in the air.
That’s because the third annual MLB Players’ Weekend is officially upon us.
Players from all across the MLB will be allowed to have some fun and place whatever name they’d like on the back of their jerseys. As long as it’s within reason — ask San Francisco Giants outfielder Alex Dickerson about those guidelines.
There’s a long list of fantastic nicknames that players and coaches alike have given themselves this weekend. And the A’s, of course, are no different.
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But there’s some steep competition to live up to. Some of the best include Sean Doolittle‘s “Obi-Sean,” Ty Buttrey‘s “🍑🌳,” and Joey Votto‘s “Who.” Yes, it looks like more and more players have opted to go with the emoji approach this year and we’re all for it.
Take for example former Athletics utility man Eric Sogard who paid homage to his stylish eyewear with the “Nerd P🤓wer” nickname.
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Jumping into some of the best A’s nicknames, we saw a member of the team take on this emoji approach. Outfielder Nick Martini — who let’s be honest had plenty of material to work with here — opted to go with the simple, yet effective “🍸” emoji.
Yes, that’s a martini glass.
But as clever as Martini’s was, it wasn’t our personal favorite. Another great jersey nickname is Liam Hendriks‘ “Slydah,” presumably the Australian pronunciation of “slider.” It’s cool to see a player pay tribute to his home country in such a fun way.
Then there’s Mike Fiers‘ “Smokey” which is, of course, a play on the phrase “where there’s smoke there’s fire.” In this case, “where there’s ‘Smokey’ there’s Fiers.”
We also must mention the returning “PTBNL” on the back of catcher Josh Phegley‘s jersey. The 31-year-old is the perfect embodiment of a “Player to be Named Later” even if he has never actually been one to date.
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It was a close call, but our personal favorite isn’t Phegley. Nor is it other standouts such as Chris Herrmann‘s “Worm,” Jake Diekman‘s “Gut it Out,” or Mark Canha‘s “Tom Ace” reference.
Instead, our personal favorite is Sean Manaea‘s “The Manaealator.” Manaea will unfortunately not be taking part in Players’ Weekend as he’s still rehabbing his shoulder injury but his nickname still stands atop the list.
We first got a glimpse of this beauty last season and it still remains our favorite in all its glory even though the initial shock of it has worn off.
One final shoutout to go to Matt Chapman who opted against his “Chappy” nickname of years prior to go for a much more sentimental approach. Chapman’s “Hurtado” nickname is meant to honor a college teammate of his who passed away back in 2013 after a battle with bone cancer.
Players’ Weekend is always a fun, exciting time but respect should go out to Chapman for using this platform to pay homage to his fallen teammate. That supersedes baseball and is just awesome to see.
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To see the full list of player/coach nicknames for this year’s MLB Players’ Weekend you could click this link to a tweet from MLB.com’s Martín Gallegos.