About 1,800 miles separate Oakland and Kansas City, and the cultural divide might be even wider. But baseball fans in both regions share one thing in common: They loved, and then lost, the A’s.
The A’s got their start in Philadelphia in 1901 and next season are headed to Sacramento for what is expected to be a pit stop on the road to ultimately resettling in Las Vegas. But no matter where the A’s go, the Oakland-Kansas City connection will always be unique.
Kansas City Athletics owner Charlie Finley sits astride the team’s mascot, “Charlie O,” for a short ride during pre-game ceremonies at the Detroit-Kansas City opening game of the American League baseball season in Kansas City’s Municipal Stadium, April 12, 1965. (AP Photo/William Straeter)
The Royals, the team Kansas City got when the A’s bolted from Missouri in 1968, make their final appearance in Oakland with a three-game series that begins Tuesday night.
The A’s already made their annual visit to Kauffman Stadium, the ballpark that local officials were strong-armed into approving in the mid-1960s in a failed attempt to keep the franchise from moving to Oakland.
If any fan base understands what Oakland A’s diehards are going through, it’s in Kansas City.
“The older ones are dying off, but there are still people here that are bitter that the A’s left Kansas City and wish they were still here,” said Jeff Logan, president of the Kansas City Baseball Historical Society.
The A’s run in Kansas City was just 13 seasons – compared to 57 in Oakland – but that’s where the core of the Oakland teams that won three straight World Series titles in the 1970s got their start, including Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers, Sal Bando, Joe Rudi and Campy Campaneris. Even Charlie-O the mule and Harvey The Rabbit made their major league debuts as Kansas City A’s.
Oakland, CA October 21, 1973: Oakland Athletics third baseman Sal Bando jumps onto the pile of players after the final out in game seven of the 1973 World Series at the Oakland Coliseum. (Russ Reed/Oakland Tribune)
For former Kansas City A’s fans such as Logan, what’s going on in Oakland is a case of history repeating. Only the ownership group has changed.
“It’s almost identical,” Logan said. “And it’s all about greed.”
The A’s played in Kansas City from 1955 through 1967. The relationship likely would have lasted much longer if not for the arrival of a new ownership group that alienated the fan base as it brazenly looked for anywhere else to call home.
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Oakland might never have called the A’s its own if then-owner Arnold Johnson hadn’t suffered a fatal stroke in March of 1960. Eight months later, Charlie O. Finley, after four previous failed attempts to buy a baseball team (including losing out to Johnson on the A’s in 1954) became the majority owner.
Almost immediately, Finley announced that the team had to relocate.
Among his complaints: poor attendance and fan support, and an outdated stadium.
The A’s ranked at the bottom of the league in attendance at the end of their run in Kansas City (similar to the current situation in Oakland), but Finley kept a low payroll and, largely as a result, the team was rarely competitive. In fact, the A’s never had a winning record in 13 seasons in Missouri.
In a twist Oakland A’s fans can relate to, Kansas City fans did show up when the team was worth following. In their debut season in Kansas City, they drew more than one million fans and ranked second in the AL in attendance, trailing only the New York Yankees.
Finley constantly battled city officials and the American League and almost immediately set his sights on moving the team.
He investigated Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, San Diego, Milwaukee, Denver, Atlanta, New Orleans and Seattle. At one point he even floated the idea of building a temporary ballpark in a pasture in rural Missouri. Finley reached a deal to have the A’s play at the Kentucky Fairgrounds in Louisville, but that also was blocked by the league.
Rick Monday looks at the umpire after being called out on strikes, as the umpire reaches a new baseball from Charlie Finley’s mechanical rabbit that comes out of the ground with a basket of new balls (Ron Riesterer/photo).
Finley’s persistence – and the threat of lawsuits – finally convinced the league to grant Finley his wish. The A’s final season in Kansas City was 1967.
The departure left fans and local leaders furious.
Missouri legislator Stuart Symington called Oakland “the luckiest city since Hiroshima” to get Finley as an owner. (Finley had a colorful and contentious relationship with Oakland as well, threatening to move the franchise multiple times – two late-1970s deals to sell the team to Denver oilman Marvin Davis fell through – before he finally sold the team to the Haas family before the 1981 season).
Unlike Oakland, however, Kansas City didn’t have to wait long for another team. After threatening legal action, the Royals debuted in 1969, two years before their expansion team was supposed to arrive.
Time will tell if Oakland gets its reboot from MLB.
“Tell the faithful of the A’s that their glory will come in 5–7 years when it totally implodes and they are looking to move from Las Vegas,” Logan said. “Because that’s what they do.”
Kansas City might be looking for a new MLB team soon, too.
Oakland Athletics pitcher Scott Kazmir (26) throws in the first inning of their game against the Kansas City Royals at O.co Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., Saturday, June, 27, 2015. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)
Royals ownership is threatening to relocate the franchise to Nashville, Tennessee, across the state border to Kansas, or somewhere else if it doesn’t receive tax support for a proposal to replace 51-year-old Kauffman Stadium. Residents recently overwhelmingly opposed a sales tax measure that would have helped to fund a downtown ballpark.
Logan says if the Royals leave the A’s will always have a home in the Midwest.
“We would definitely welcome them back,” Logan said with a laugh. “We’ll even give them a free stadium that’s already built.”