Shibe Vintage Sports is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a beer and a baseball history lesson
The Oakland A’s are back in the town they used to call home for what used to be known as the City Series.
Local vintage sports apparel shop Shibe Vintage Sports is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, and cofounder Johnny Nottingham could think of no better team to hold their anniversary celebration against than the Oakland A’s, who started their time in MLB in Philadelphia in the first half of the 20th century and will be back in town this weekend to take on the Phillies.
The two-day celebration will start on Friday, with an event at their flagship Center City store featuring Philly baseball historian Matt Albertson and their new beer release, Shibe Vintage Ale, in collaboration with local brewery Second District. On the second day, Shibe is taking a trip to the Citizens Bank Park parking lots for a tailgate, featuring free beer samples, food, music, and Athletics memorabilia.
“One thing that I’m really proud of is that we brought some excitement back to the city about the fact that the A’s used to play here,” Nottingham, also known as Johnny Goodtimes, told The Inquirer. “They have such a distinctive logo with the white elephant, and that’s always, before the Phillies got good, our Philadelphia A’s stuff used to sell just as well as the Phillies stuff.
“Who would have been crazy enough to sell T-shirts from a team that left 70 years ago? The answer is us, and people responded to it. People like to learn that history, and they like to think about the fact that maybe their granddad saw the A’s play back in the ‘40s or ‘50s.”
» READ MORE: Five fun facts about the Philadelphia A's — and one that's kind of depressing
The A’s are now preparing to leave their home again, playing their final season in Oakland before they move to Sacramento for the 2026-27 seasons ahead of a permanent move to Las Vegas, which Nottingham said was “a real shame.”
“Oakland is sort of similar to Philly, but on the West Coast,” Nottingham said. “They’ve got that plucky underdog spirit, and I think the owner is treating the fans horribly. One thing I’ll say is that last year we had a party when the A’s came to town, and a lot of Oakland fans came to the store and checked us out and said hi and hung out with us. We hung out at the tailgate from that one too, and, and I think there’s a bit of a brotherhood there of, they left our city, in Philly, if you talk to old-timers, they’re still not happy about that.”
If you’re unable to head to the Bank for this weekend’s City Series, as it used to be known, or can’t make it to the event to learn about Philadelphia A’s history, check out our five fun facts you might not know about the city’s other baseball team, with some help from Nottingham.
» READ MORE: Ruben Amaro Jr. called WIP and pretended to be a Phillies fan — while he was still GM of the team