The Peculiar Story of the Kansas City Athletics

in the 20th century there was no sport more popular in America than Major League Baseball yet every team was located in the Northeast and Upper Midwest and not a single one had relocated since 1903 but after World War II as the population shifted more west and south the ' 50s became a Mad Dash to different cities one team looking for a new home was the Philadelphia Athletics the A's were one of baseball's early [Music] dynasties but by the 40s they struggled to stay out of last place then by the 50s the Phillies with their recent trip to the World Series overtook the A's as the city's favorite then after Connie Mack their longtime manager and owner stepped down the A's were in need of a new owner and a new home Kansas City is a brawling Lusty City that stands defiantly on the shores of the Missouri River Kansas City sports editor Ernie Mel had tried for years to bring a team to Kansas City and after failing with both the Braves and the Browns the A's became his new Target but he needed a wealthy partner so he went after Chicago real estate investor Arnold Johnson Johnson already had ties to Major League Baseball owning both Yankee Stadium and Kansas City's Municipal stadium in 1953 and as soon soon as he came on the scene Mel finally saw his chance in 1954 Johnson was convinced and purchased the A's bringing them to a stadium in Kansas City Kansas City puts on a big league welcome for its brand new Big League team the Athletics one Sterling star Harry SJ Simpson for the Athletics who were transplanted from Philadelphia to grow strong and sturdy in the rich fertile soil of the mighty Midwest [Music] throughout its entire history Kansas City only ever had three professional sports teams two of them folded within 2 years the other were the monarchs one of the Negro League's original teams they were a Powerhouse with players like Jackie Robinson satchel pige and buck O'Neal but by 1948 Major League Baseball had desegregated and the monarchs became a strictly minor league team so when the A's arrived they were met with a hungry fan base Kansas City proves its baseball Pride by queuing up for tickets whenever the A's are in town in the first two years of its membership in the American League the club each year Drew more than 1 million fans in the spacious Municipal [Music] Stadium even though they weren't that great on the field the city was just happy to have a baseball team and no one expected them to to be great right away but after some questionable trades Johnson's close ties with the Yankees started becoming more [Music] apparent over in New York the Yankees were owned by two people Dan topping and Dell web topping was involved in team operations while web was involved in League affairs and Del Web was the most powerful owner in baseball at this time a businessman that earned his wealth in construction building a number of Las Vegas casinos the MLB commissioner at the time happy Chandler wasn't too thrilled his most notable owner was a gambling Tycoon so he tried numerous times to curve his growing power and influence this war eventually led to the outing of Chandler by the other owners and Webb handpicked the next commissioner in 1953 he sold the two Yankee real estate properties to his vending machine business associate Arnold Johnson and when Johnson moved the A's to Kansas City it was web's company that expanded the seating capacity of Municipal Stadium Arnold Johnson soon became one of Webb's most reliable partners and that partnership leaked onto the field between 1955 and 1960 Johnson and web's clubs were responsible for 16 trades with each other no one was even close to them the most egregious of these was when the A's traded their best hitter to the Yankees Roger Martin all he would do in New York is win two MVPs and break Babe Ruth's iconic home run record these trades sabotage the A's keeping them baseball seller while keeping the Yankees perennial Championship contenders the 1961 New York Yankees are considered by many to be one of the best teams in baseball history 10 players from that team were former Kansas City A's but then everything changed in 1960 when Arnold Johnson suddenly passed away his family put the team up for sale and it was purchased by Charlie [Music] Finley and one of Finley's first mov moves he installed fluorescent lights in the dugouts so fans could have a better view of players during a game against New York a Yankee player found the hidden switch and turned off the lights Finley noticing they were off sent an electrician down to fix the problem as soon as he flipped the lights back on and left the Yankees switched them off again so the electrician returned to flip them back on and as soon as he left the Yankees turned them off Finley finally relented but after the game he removed the switch and told the Yankees if you want them off hit him with a bat he was an owner the complete opposite of Arnold Johnson he was outspoken a massive baseball fan and he despised the Yankees and the seemingly preferable treatment they got from the American League in his first two years Finley would change the team colors to gold gold and Kelly Green change the uniforms he changed the mascot from an elephant to a mule named Charlie o he'd install a mechanical rabbit at home plate to deliver baseballs to the Umpire and he even had his own pregame show he'd fire his first manager halfway through his first season as the two were at each other's throats over Finley's excessive micromanaging but even with all these changes the team's performance stayed the same and by 1962 attendance was cratering professional football that most fascinating most exciting of all spectator sport rep s came to Mid America in 1963 when the Dallas Texans became the Kansas City [Music] Chiefs to lure the Chiefs Kansas City gave owner Lamar Hunt a $1 year lease to play a municipal Stadium outraged by the offer Finley demanded he get the same deal and after initially agreeing a brand new city council refused so he threatened to relocate the A's to Oakland California but because he only had one more year on his current lease the AL denied any move then in 1963 the ace finally improved and so did attendance but negotiations on a new lease stalled Kanas city was ready to give him a $1 year lease but they disagreed over the length Finley Wanted only 2 years and the city wanted four with no lease Finley once again tried to relocate this time to Louisville Kentucky but the AL voted him down unable to get a fair lease and unable to relocate Finley threatened to move his major league baseball team to the rural town of Peculiar [Music] Missouri [Music] these Antics were annoying the American League and they gave him an ultimatum either sign a new lease or sell the team Finley decided to sue to reinstate the lease that the previous city council tossed out in 1963 because importantly it had a clause that stated if attendance fell below 850,000 Finley could move the team the city did not want that Clause as attendant had yet to even reach that Mark in Finley's 3 years as owner after a few Court battles Finley finally relented and signed the city's 4-year lease now stuck in Municipal Stadium Finley decided to make some more changes specifically as retaliation to the American League he created the pinet porch Outfield seats designed to bring in municiple Stadium's foul line to 296 ft why Major League Baseball had a rule that no foul line could be less than 325 ft Yankee Stadium was grandfathered into this rule which allowed them to have the shortest foul line in baseball so Finley created the pinet porch to directly mirror Yankee Stadium's Outfield but right at the foul line it angled back to meet the minimum requirement the a however would return to the seller in 1964 and attendance would fall once again but stuck in Kansas City for 4 years he did anything he could to drum up attendance in 1964 The Beatles were in the middle of their first ever North American tour but they did not have a stop and Kansas City Finley paid the highest advance for musical act at the time to have them play a municipal Stadium he signed a near 60-year-old Satchel Page to pitch a game as old SAT C A fastman in [Applause] there and even though though he hadn't pitched in the majors in 12 years he still managed to shut out the Red Sox in his three Innings yeah with all these gimmicks the A's still found themselves in last place and fans began getting frustrated although they were pretty average on offense they were awful on the mound and Finley's lack of patience with managers certainly didn't help after hiring multiple managers with little to no experience his next hire would be for a proven winner in 1966 Finley hired Alvin dark dark took the Giants to the World Series in 1962 and had a winning season every year but after making racist comments towards his own players he was fired and unable to be a manager elsewhere but Finley saw a proven winner and dark took the only job he could a job no one else wanted and in 1966 behind vastly improved pitching the A's finished with their best record in 8 years which skyrocketed attendance so heading into to the 1967 season the hype around the A's were the highest it's been since the team first arrived in Kansas City built in 1923 Municipal stadium was beginning to show its age and with Finley's lease almost up plus the new NFL requirement of each Stadium having at least 50,000 seats the city began proposals on a new sports complex their first proposal was a single dome stadium downtown but since Finley refused to share another stadium with the Chiefs a second proposal was made with two stadiums about 20 minutes east of the city owners Charlie Finley and Lamar Hunt signed off and the proposal would be sent to voters in June of 1967 if the A's could just maintain their performance from a year ago Finley would have his new baseball [Music] stadium [Music] [Music] [Music] the A's would finish 1967 with their third last place finish in four years Finley fired out dark in August over refusing to discipline his players then he hired his seventh manager in his seventh season as owner in those seven years only expansion teams had a worse record than the A's attendance fell just slightly but that was all Finley needed his lease was now up in October of 1967 4 months after the city approved his new stadium Finley officially sought relocation to Oakland California and after years of denying his requests the AL was finally going to allow his move because they wanted another team in California and with the angels in La Oakland was the perfect spot for the next one which angered someone in Washington Missouri's US senator steuart Simington was one of the most powerful members of Congress and he was Furious the AL allowed Finley to move after he just signed off on the construction of a new stadium threatening to remove Major League Baseball's Anti-Trust exemption but after pressure from both owners and the national league the Al relented and granted Kansas City an expansion franchise the Royals and expanding in pairs the Seattle Pilots also debuted and with the NL trying to keep Pace with the Al They also expanded with the San Diego Padres and the Montreal Expos Finley's relocation essentially created four new baseball [Music] teams in their 13 years the Kansas City A's never had a record above 500 the Oakland A's however had one in their very first [Music] season then when the Truman Sports Complex finally opened in 1972 [Music] the Oakland A won the World Series then they won it again and again Oakland was gifted a dynasty all Kansas City got was a Yankee farm team and an owner that couldn't get out of his own way after the move Simington would say that the loss of the A's was made up for finally getting rid of Finley however Kansas City would lose two more teams over similar disagreements but the Royals would stay for the the Royals 2015 world champions and that's all Ernie Mel really wanted when the A's first arrived in 1955 he said the important thing is that we've gone big league and to go big league you've got to take the best you can [Music] get [Music]

Channel: Adam Velasquez

Views: 103,751

Keywords: kansas city, athletics, kansas city athletics, kansas city a's, baseball, mlb

Id: SCw--1-6a4w

Length: 20min 55sec (1255 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 27 2023