page_title: History of the Oakland Athletics
section_title: Finley era
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Oakland Athletics / Kansas City (1955–1967) / Finley era
caption_attribution_description: English: Collection Name: Commerce and Industrial Development Collection Photographer/Studio: Unknown Description: View of the left field line and the crowd at Municipal Stadium, Kansas City. Coverage: United States - Missouri - Jackson - Kansas City Date: Not determined Rights: Copyright is in the public domain. Credit: Courtesy of Missouri State Archives Image Number: CID_024_118 Institution: Missouri State Archives
context_page_description: The history of the Athletics Major League Baseball franchise spans the period from 1901 to the present day, having begun as a charter member franchise in the new American League in Philadelphia before moving to Kansas City in 1955 for 13 seasons and then to its current home on the San Francisco Bay in Oakland, California, in 1968.
context_section_description: On December 19, 1960, insurance magnate Charles "Charlie" O. Finley (1918-1996) purchased a controlling interest in the team from Johnson's estate after losing out to Johnson six years earlier in Philadelphia. He bought out the minority owners a year later. Finley promised the fans a new day. In a highly publicized move, he purchased a bus, pointed it in the direction of New York, and burned it to symbolize the end of the "special relationship" with the Yankees. He called another press conference to burn the existing lease at Municipal Stadium which included the despised "escape clause." He spent over $400,000 of his own money in stadium improvements (though in 1962 the city reimbursed $300,000 of this). He introduced new uniforms which had "Kansas City" on the road uniforms for the first time ever and an interlocking "KC" on the cap. This was the first time the franchise had acknowledged its home city on its uniforms. He announced, "My intentions are to keep the A's permanently in Kansas City and build a winning ball club. I have no intention of ever moving the franchise." The fans, in turn, regarded Finley as the savior of Major League Baseball in Kansas City.
  Finley immediately hired Frank Lane, a veteran baseball man with a reputation as a prolific trader, as general manager. Lane began engineering trades with several other teams, including the Yankees, the bus-burning stunt notwithstanding. Lane lasted less than one year, being fired during the 1961 season. He was temporarily replaced by Pat Friday, whose sole qualification for the job was that he managed one of Finley's insurance offices. On paper, Friday remained general manager until 1965, when he was replaced by Hank Peters. After only a year, Peters was fired and replaced by Eddie Lopat, who also lasted only one season.  After Lopat's ouster in 1966, the team had no formal general manager until 1981. In fact, Friday, Peters and Lopat were mere figureheads. With the firing of Lane in 1961, Finley effectively became a one-man band as owner, president and de facto general manager, and would remain so for the duration of his ownership.
  Finley made further changes to the team's uniforms. The Philadelphia Athletics wore blue and white or black and gray outfits through most of their history; in the last years in Philadelphia and the first in Kansas City, the team used a red, white and navy blue scheme. In 1963, Finley changed the team's colors to "Kelly Green, Fort Knox Gold and Wedding Gown White". In June 1963, Bill Bryson wrote of the uniforms,
  Kelly green is the Athletics' accent color. It was more a nauseous green the players wore on their wholesome, clean-cut faces the first few times they had to appear in public looking like refugees from a softball league.
  Finley replaced Mack's elephant with a Missouri mule—not just a cartoon logo, but a real mule, which he named after himself: "Charlie O, the Mule." He also began phasing out the team name "Athletics" in favor of simply "A's." Some of his other changes—for instance, his repeated attempts to mimic Yankee Stadium's famous right-field "home run porch"—were less successful. AL President Joe Cronin ordered Finley to remove the fence which duplicated the 296-foot right-field foul line in Yankee Stadium. Smarting from this edict from the league office, Finley ordered Municipal Stadium PA announcer Jack Layton to announce, "That would have been a home run in Yankee Stadium", whenever a fly ball passed the limit in Municipal Stadium's outfield. That practice ended quickly, however, when it was apparent that other teams were hitting more "would-be" home runs than the A's.
  While the A's were still dreadful in the first eight years of Finley's ownership, he began to lay the groundwork for a future contender. Finley poured significant resources into the minor league system for the first time in the history of the franchise. By 1966, the A's were reckoned as having the strongest farm system in the majors. He was assisted by the creation of the Major League Baseball draft in 1965, which forced young prospects to sign with t
caption: Athletics at Municipal Stadium circa 1962
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