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After the sale of the Oakland A's in 1980,
the new owners did not want to use the rabbit
"Harvey", who popped up at the pitcher's mound
to supply new baseballs to the pitcher. Harvey's
eyes glowed as he turned in a circle, and
descended back into the ground.
Whatever happened to Harvey? Look for the answer
in Nancy Finley's memoir, "Dugout Daughter:
Witness to Baseball History."
During the World Series era in the early to
mid-1970's, the stars of the hit T.V. show
"Charlie's Angles" were in negotiations to visit
the Oakland Coliseum, and sit next to A's owner
Charlie Finley. Unfortunately, this fell
through.
Charlie Finley never sued the City of Oakland
for breaking these promises. He was not a
litigator.
In May 1996, the Oakland Coliseum had a Charlie
Finley day, in which they presented a green and
white street sign that said "CHARLIE O. FINLEY."
A replica of this street sign was given to Carl
A. Finley, Jr., and three of Charlie's children
who attended. The original sign was to be placed
in Mesa, Arizona where Spring training is held.
Mesa, Arizona???
Where did Finley get the team colors, green
& gold? These were the colors for his
favorite football team, Notre
Dame.
AS
IT WAS
WRITTEN!
By
Monte Moore in 1968
A's TV & radio
announcer
"It
all started when the American League
gave Charles O. Finley permission to
move his baseball from Kansas City
to Oakland. That occurred in
mid-October of 1967 and immediately
the work was cut out for the Finley
organization ..."
CLICK
HERE TO READ
MORE
From the record book: The first year
the A's were in Oakland
Catfish
Hunter
pitched a perfect
game.
Pitcher
Vida
Blue
joined the team a year after they
moved to Oakland. He didn't get a
lot of work the first several years,
but in 1971 won 24 games and lost 8,
with an ERA of 1.82!
Rickey
Henderson
- champion base
stealer
Ricky
Henderson, who spent most of his
spectacular baseball career with the
A's, was the most prolific base
stealer in major-league history,
with 1,406 stolen bases. Capable
both of breaking a game open with a
home run and of disrupting
opponents' defenses with his base
running, he was almost unique among
leadoff hitters, perhaps the
greatest in baseball history.
In
1982 Henderson stole 130 bases, a
single-season record, and in 1991 he
stole his 939th base, breaking Lou
Brock's career record. In 2001 he
stroked his 3,000th hit and broke Ty
Cobb's career record for runs scored
and Babe Ruth's for walks,
ultimately scoring 2,295 runs and
receiving 2,190
walks.
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Sports
Century ESPN
televised a special
CHARLIE
O. FINLEY
August
2000
Interviewed
were -
Former
General Manager Carl A
Finley
"Dugout
Daughter"
Nancy H. Finley
M.C. Hammer - Garrett Smalley
Jr.
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ABOVE:
Left, a young M.C. Hammer, aka Stanley
Burrell, with a friend at the Oakland
Coliseum in 1976. Charlie picked the
then-unknown Burrell up in the Coliseum
parking lot, took a liking to him, and
soon had him announcing the game in the
press box. Stanley became a regular around
the stadium.
ABOVE:
Miss Fire-Prevention takes a swing on
"Hotpants Day" during the 1971 season.
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"He
was a tough guy and I learned a
lot about demanding excellence
and that helped mold my career.
All in all, the difficulties we
had improved us and we became
better people. That's what it's
all about."
- Reggie Jackson, on the
death of Charlie O.
Finley.
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Above:
Young Reggie
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2009
REUNION
REUNION OF KANSAS CITY ATHLETICS TEAM OF
1967
At Northern League
game: KC T-Bones v. Gary Railcats
Community American BallPark
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ABOVE:
At KC T-Bones v. Gary IN Railcats game,
at Community American Park, August 9
2009: From right, President of Kansas
City Baseball Historical Society, Jeff
Logan, Taylor Finley- King, Nancy
Finley-King.
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ABOVE:
On the field at 2009 Reunion game: From
left, Nancy Finley-King, Shari Smalley,
wife of the late Garrett Smalley, JR.,,
former publisher and editor of The
Kansas City Daily Record. Smalley was a
huge booster of the KC
Arhletics.
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Above:
on the field at Reunion gamegame with
T-Bones; Sheep in A's team colors.
Charlie Finley often had sheep dyed in
team colors at KC games. Petting a
sheep is Taylor Finley-King, while at
left mother Nancy Finley-King looks
on.
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ABOVE:
Taylor Finley-King, now 16, pitches 1st
pitch at reunion game (she was 10 when
she threw the first pitch at an Oakland
A's game at Oakland Coliseum in
Oakland, CA - see pic at right,
up.
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WORLD
SERIES
TEAM RECORDS
The
Oakland A's and the St. Louis Cardinals share
2nd place for the most world series won over the
last century. Below are the winning teams and
the number of times they have won the
series.
1.
New York Yankees (26);
2.
Oakland A's, Philadelphia, and St. Louis
Cardinals (9)
3.
Boston Red Sox and Brooklyn-Los Angeles Dodgers
(6)
4.
Cincinnati Reds, New York-San Francisco Giants
and Pittsburgh Pirates (5)
5.
Detroit Tigers (4);
6.
Baltimore Orioles, Boston-Milwaukee-Atlanta
Braves and Washington Senators-Minnesota Twins
(3);
7.
Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland
Indians, Florida Marlins, New York Mets and
Toronto Blue Jays (2).

THE OAKLAND
ATHLETICS 1968 STARS FOR THE
FIRST FULL
SEASON OF PLAY IN
OAKLAND
Who managed the A's during their 3-time
consecutive
world series
championships:
1972 Dick
Williams
1973 Dick
Williams
1974 Alvin
Dark
MEMORIES
Charlie
"O" astride Charlie "O"
If you wanted to be Charlie's
friend, you had to kiss his
ass.
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ABOVE - :
1966 Miss America Debbie Bryant throwing out
"the first pitch" at opening night in Kansas
City 1967. Catfish
Hunter looks on behind.

ABOVE: Catfish
Hunter tries his skill on the "Milking
contest"
night 1967.

ABOVE, from
left, Ernie and Pam Fazio, Mrs. and Mr. Jim
Hunter, 1967.

1979, Carl
Finley, the "unseen hand" behind the team's
success,
with his daughter, Nancy Finley, the A's "Dugout
Daughter."
She came of age amid the tumult and glory of
baseball history.
ON THE
OCCASION OF CARL FINLEY'S DEATH, U.S. SUPREME
COURT
JUSTICE JOHN PAUL STEVENS PAID HIM TRIBUTE IN A
LETTER
TO NANCY FINLEY.
CLICK
HERE TO READ JUSTICE STEVEN'S
LETTER

COMES FULL
CIRCLE: A quarter of a century later,
Nancy's
daughter, Taylor Finley-King, age 10, throws out
the first pitch at the Oakland A's game against
the Detroit Tigers, April 23,
2003.

ABOVE: Taylor
Finley-King, age 10, gets a hug from legendary
Reggie Jackson. Taylor is the grand-daughter of
A's Vice-President Carl Finley, who managed the
team's affairs during the big years. It will be
a long time before young Taylor understands how
Jackson and the Team of The Century imprinted a
legacy of sacrifice and excellence that will
affect her life.
THE
A'S UNSEEN HAND: CARL A.
FINLEY
Seldom mentioned when
conversation gets around to the A's great years
is the name of another Finley ... in this case
Charlie's cousin CARL A. FINLEY.
Carl did not seek
attention to himself, but he played a huge role
in the success of the A's, as General Manager
and Vice-President of operations throughout the
70's. And unlike the controversial team owner,
Carl was liked and respected by all who came in
contact with him in the baseball
world.
It is said, "Carl did the
work of six, eight, even 25 individuals." Take a
look at any MLB yearbook at the present time, at
the number of front office employees the team
carries, compared to the A's of the '70's; where
Carl and three or four others handled all of the
front office functions, there are now around 80
people!
In those days they didn't
have an entire organization to handle World
Series tickets; Carl and his teenage-daughter
simply rented a vacant bank building in Oakland,
and stored the tickets in the vault. Then, in
the wee hours of the night they would slip into
the vault and undertake the enormous task of
opening envelopes from thousands of fans seeking
to purchase tickets. Just the two of
them!
During those years Carl
was physically at the Oakland Coliseum on a
daily basis.
Charlie counted on Carl
and used him as a "sounding board" in daily
early-morning phone conferences with him, from
his Kansas farm. During these conferences
Charlie liked to brainstorm ideas, and he
typically trusted only Carl to hear them. These
regular early-morning phone talks continued for
many years after Charlie sold the
tem.
In 1976 Charlie handed his
voting proxy as a team owner to Carl, so Carl
could vote in Charlie's stead at the annual MLB
owner's meetings. Charlie stopped attending
these meetings due to his conflict with
then-commissioner Bowie Kuhn.
From 1976 on Carl took
over even more day-to-day
responsibilities.
At Billy Martin's (A's
manager) behest, when the A's were sold to the
Haas family, it was agreed Carl would remain as
a V.P. Carl assisted the Haas family with the
transition, and preparing for their first full
season in 1981.
Before Carl joined the
organization, he was a school principal in
Dallas, Texas. Charlie begain calling him and
urging him to drop everything and come to Kansas
City to help him with the team. Though Carl
initially resisted, he eventually gave in and
resigned his position with the school district,
packed up his family (wife Helen and daughter
Nancy) and flew to Kansas City to begin a new
life. Charlie quickly grew to depend on Carl to
keep the organization functioning as smoothly as
possible during those turbulent
times.
Carl's daughter, Nancy, is
currently writing her story of coming of age
with baseball history, her father, and the
greatest team of the century.
Nancy may be contacted by
e-mail (see link at top)
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