For hoops I wish we had re-instated the old nickname "Muskies" instead of "Timberwolves." "Muskies" was one of our old ABA teams in the days of that heady but unstable league, before media expansion made sports profits explode. Rather quaint, eh?
All this brings me to the subject of the old "Athletics" of baseball. So strong was the pull to be snappy, we now know that team as the "A's." What does "A's" mean, exactly? I would guess that the precise answer is that it is a shortened version of "Athletics."
At age 64 I can well remember when the Athletics were real. And I can well remember when that major league team was in Kansas City and not Oakland. Reflecting on the Kansas City Athletics, one remembers the gaudy appearance of the uniforms by the standards of that era. Jim Bouton in "Ball Four" touched on this, noting that his old Yankees uniform was beautiful by comparison, beautiful by its simplicity.
I rather liked the Athletics uniforms, seemed flashy and interesting. Bouton wrote that his old teammate Johnny Blanchard was embarrassed coming out of the dugout when he became an Athletics player. Bouton shook his head over "all the technicolor gingerbread" on the uniforms, but I thought this was a quite inflated criticism.
Competitively challenged
Naturally, it would have helped if the Athletics won more often. Isn't that always the key? The uniforms of any winning team become "cool." You wouldn't want to associate yourself with a losing team's uniform. And unfortunately for the old Kansas City franchise, they were dogged by a lack of competitiveness.
The Athletics were in the American League with our new Minnesota Twins in the 1960s. Baseball was incredibly fresh and exciting for us Minnesotans. We often saw a series with Kansas City as an opportunity to pick up wins. In my mind they had a doormat reputation. But I never disapproved of their uniforms.
Let's add about Blanchard that he goes down in baseball annals as the guy who'd be called on, in his Yankee days, to be Mickey Mantle's replacement when the great Mick was unable to play. We see Bruce McGill in the movie "61*" playing Yankee manager Ralph Houk and saying to Mantle "I can put Blanchard in."
The Yankees and Athletics had a close relationship for a long time, with K.C. almost looking like the top farm team to the storied pinstripe crew. We see this alluded to in "61*" as well. The Bob Cerv character says "if I don't start hitting the ball a long way, I'll be in Kansas City." We can easily forget that Roger Maris was a popular player in Kansas City before going to New York. One of the Maris children in "61*" is heard regretting that Dad wasn't still playing for Kansas City.
Big leagues come to K.C.
A page was turned in 1954. That's one year before yours truly was born. Arnold Johnson, a real estate mover and shaker from Chicago, came on the scene in Kansas City. He acquired the Philadelphia Athletics and moved them. Kansas City was giddy for a time, then realized that Johnson was motivated primarily by profit. No revelation there.
Johnson had connections with the suits involved with the Yankees. Wink, wink.
Johnson established his shiny new franchise in Blues Stadium which had been home to the Yankees' real top farm team, the Kansas City Blues. The Yankees moved their AAA team to Denver. Johnson sold Blues Stadium to Kansas City which then leased it back to him. The stadium got more than a facelift and so it got a new name, Municipal Stadium. Johnson's association with the Yankee fellows became like a cloud or a distraction.
Would the Athletics be like a continuation of the Blues, a source of talent for the pinstripe crew? A "pipeline" in fact developed. The most infamous example was Maris going from K.C. to New York, a young man destined to break Babe Ruth's home run record. The chase of the record was the whole plot for "61*" although I'd argue it was fundamentally a story about family and values. We see Mickey Mantle as a good guy but with some moral shortcomings.
Maris had been an all-star with Kansas City in 1959. Other important players went from Kansas City to New York. The fabled 1961 Yankees in fact had ten former Athletics on the roster. Fans got discouraged seeing so much young talent leave the K.C. roster and get funneled in the pipeline to NYC.
Rumors were rife that Johnson might take the team to the West Coast. Alas, Johnson passed away from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1960, only 53 years old.
Outsized personality comes on the scene
The next chapter of team history can be labeled with a single man: Charles O.Finley. Enough said? The man's reputation precedes him, even all these years later, I suspect. He was a notorious personality. He had been an insurance executive.
"Larger than life" might describe. Also: "maddening and brilliant." Tickets to the Beatles concert in K.C. had Finley's name on them.
We didn't get the "A's" name abbreviation until 1963. I recall that for a long time the names were interchangeable. Ultimately the human inclination toward simplicity tipped the scale toward "A's." Did we even hear the name "Athletics" in the movie "Moneyball" with Brad Pitt, based on the modern day with the A's playing in Oakland? I don't think so. In my mind they will always be the Athletics as well as the A's. What's an "A?"
Finley could be outrageous with some of his comments, sort of a predecessor perhaps to Donald Trump. His pledges of devotion to Kansas City were contradicted by efforts at shopping the team around. Ah, businessmen. He threatened to move the team to a cow pasture outside of Peculiar MO.
Finley incorporated some oddball innovations to how big league ball could be packaged, e.g. a mechanical rabbit running on a track to bring balls to the home plate umpire.
Jack Kralick of my Minnesota Twins threw a no-hitter against the Athletics in 1962. The Twins' best player in '62 was arguably Vic Power, not Harmon Killebrew, and Power had the Athletics in his background.
The Athletics languished with their performance on the field, sadly. History should emphasize that the Athletics were blessed by having the great Rocky Colavito play for them in '64. He delivered fine for them. In '65 we could see that a promising nucleus of young players was forming in K.C. Land. "Catfish" Hunter came on the scene.
Endearing personality: Satchel Paige
God bless Finley for planning a most special and sentimental "Satchel Paige Day." Paige who was age 59 even started the game on the mound. Finley asked Paige if he could pitch three innings. Paige responded "that depends. How many times a day?" Author Bouton recalled with amusement how Paige described some of his pitches. Like, "bat dodger."
Kansas City improved its caliber of play in 1966 and '67. But alas, '67 would prove to be the last season for the Kansas City Athletics or A's. Their lifespan was from 1955 to '67.
The memory of Finley today is a mixed bag. It's like Minnesotans remembering Jesse Ventura or maybe Garrison Keillor. Surely these guys were "in the arena." Finley hired the first female broadcaster. He introduced ball girls to sit along the outfield foul lines.
Today the Kansas City baseball scene is all about the Royals, most understandably. In my mind the Athletics will always have their presence in connection to the great Midwestern city.
Satchel Paige on getting older: "Age is a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it don't matter."
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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