The Kansas City Athletics : a baseball history, 1954-1967 / John E. Peterson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Peterson, John E., 1949-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Kansas City Athletics (Baseball team)--History.

Kansas City Athletics (Baseball team).

History.

Physical Description:

vi, 346 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., [2003]

Summary:

The Athletics spent thirteen seasons in Kansas City before moving to Oakland. Despite the team's terrible record, many of the players who were part of the world championship teams in Oakland began their careers in Kansas City. This work presents the relatively short history of the franchise from 1954, when Arnold Johnson purchased the Philadelphia Athletics and moved the team to Kansas City, to 1967, when Charles Finley moved it to Oakland (after unsuccessful attempts to move it to Dallas, Atlanta, Louisville, Milwaukee and Seattle). The author examines the team's 1950s reputation as "a Yankee farm team," born of the numerous trades with the Yankees that favored the latter. Re-evaluating these trades, he concludes that they were not so one-sided after all. He also carefully considers Charles Finley's intentions to keep the team in Kansas City and his reasons for the move to Oakland.

Contents:

1. Big League Dreams 3

2. A Clever Businessman 8

3. Quest for the A's 12

4. Last-Minute Maneuvering 19

5. Going to K.C. 23

6. How to Buy a Ballclub for Peanuts 29

7. Arnold Johnson's Ultimate Plan 35

8. The 90-Day Wonder 42

9. 1955: Big League Baseball Comes to K.C. 48

10. 1956: Listless and Bad 63

11. 1957: Big Trades Bring New Faces 71

12. 1958: Cerv's Amazing Season 81

13. 1959: Great Expectations 90

14. 1960: A Very Difficult Year 100

15. Who Will Buy the Team? 109

16. Charles O. Finley

The "O" Stands for Owner 118

17. Trying to Outdo Veeck 123

18. 1961: Gordon, Lane and Charlie O. 133

19. Courting Dallas 148

20. 1962: Let Bygones Be Bygones 156

21. 1963: Everything's Green and Gold 168

22. Happiness Is Being Somewhere Else 176

23. 1964: Rocky, Jim and a Pennant Porch 193

24. 1965: Charlie O.

The Man or the Mule? 208

25. 1966: The Dark Ages 224

26. 1967: "A Menace to Baseball" 235

27. "Luckiest City Since Hiroshima" 250

28. A Bad Marriage 263

29. Just a Yankees Farm Team 277

30. No More Trades with the Yankees 289

31. Crop Failure 298

32. Growing a Championship Team 305.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 333-335) and index.

ISBN:

0786416106

OCLC:

52766084