THE OWNERS: CHARLES FINELY

Charles Oscar Finley (February 22, 1918–February 19, 1996), nicknamed Charlie O or Charley O, was the owner of the Oakland Athletics in the American League. Finley purchased the franchise while it was located in Kansas City, and moved it to Oakland in 1968.

Finley first attempted to buy the Philadelphia Athletics in 1954, but Arnold Jackson won the bid and then moved the team to Kansas City in 1955. Toward the end of the 1950’s Finley tried to buy the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers. Turning to the expansion process he looked at the new LA franchise but once again was beaten out by Gene Autry, the famous cowboy star who named the team the Los Angeles Angels.

In December of 1960, Finley purchased controlling interest of the Kansas City Athletics from Johnson's estate then bought out the minority owners a year later. Finley quickly turned the franchise around, refusing to make deals with the New York because of a long history of Yankee/Athletic deals that always favored the New Yorkers and searched for unknown talents. He also invested heavily into the farm system for the first time in the franchise's history.

He purchased the minority shares of the team and then started the process of looking for other horizons that would house the team. Cities like Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta, Louisville, Milwaukee, San Diego and Seattle were all considered before settling on Oakland.

After it was suggested that the Yankees' success was attributable to the dimensions of Yankee Stadium he built the "K.C. Pennant Porch" in right field, bringing the right field fence in Kansas City Municipal Stadium to match Yankee Stadium's dimensions of 296 feet from home plate. A rule passed in 1958 stated that no (new or renovated) major-league fence could be closer than 325 feet, to home plate, so league officials forced Finley to move the fences back before the season got underway. Finley then ordered a white line painted on the field at the original "Pennant Porch" distance, and told the public address announcer to announce "That would have been a home run in Yankee Stadium" whenever a fly ball was hit past that line but short of the fence. That was quickly ended when the announcer was calling more "would-be" home runs for the other team than the A's.

Finley also changed the team's uniforms in 1963, to "Kelly Green, Fort Knox Gold and Wedding Gown White." In  1967 the team's traditional black cleats were changed to white ones. Finley made one more change, going from the Athletics’ to the ‘A’s’ as the team’s nickname.

1964 saw Finley sign a commitment to move the team from Kansas City to Louisville (where he would rename the team the Kentucky Colonels, thus keeping the "KC" logo), but the other American League owners voted down the idea. With attendance declining in Kansas City, Finley was given permission to move the team to California where the Oakland A’s were born in the 1968 season.

The new talent collected over the years in the minors was starting to come together as a team. The once bad team was now a power-house with Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Joe Rudi, Bert Campaneris, Jim ‘Catfish’ Hunter, Vida Blue and Rollie Fingers. The A's won from 1972 to 1974, three straight World Series and five straight divisional titles from 1971 to 1975!

During the 1973 World Series against the New York Mets, Finley forced Mike Andrews an infielder to sign a false affidavit stating that he was injured after making 2 consecutive errors in the 12^th inning that cost the A’s the game. The backlash was tremendous from the manager Dick Williams to Andrews’ teammates and the fans, that Bowie Kuhn, Commissioner of baseball made Finley re-instate Andrews. In game, Andrews grounded out to a standing ovation from Mets fans, who were taking a pop shot at Finely. In his rage he ordered Andrews benched for the rest of the series, and never played another inning of baseball again. When the A’s won the World Series, Dick Williams, fed up with Finley immediately resigned. Finley had run-ins with Reggie Jackson and Vida Blue after contract disputes and he threatened to send them to the minors, where once again the commissioner had to intervene on the player’s behalf.

After losing Hunter to free agency in 1976, Finley started dismantling his club, attempting to sell Rudi and Fingers to the Red Sox and Blue to the Yankees. Kuhn decided to invoke the "best interests of baseball" clause in order to stop Finley's sales. Finley filed a ten million dollar restraint-of-trade lawsuit against Kuhn and Major League Baseball. Finley lost the case, the court ruling that the commissioner has the authority to determine what is in the best interest of baseball.

In 1977 many of the A's stars left the team for free agency. In 1978, only two years after winning the  division title and three years after winning a World Series—Oakland finished with the worst record in all of baseball. After the season, Finley tried to trade Blue to the Reds. Kuhn vetoed the trade stating that it amounted to a fire-sale.

In both 1978 and again in 1979, Finley tried to move the A's to New Orleans. The city of Oakland and Alameda County refused to let Finley out of his lease with the Coliseum. In 1980 his wife filed for divorce midway through the season. She would not accept a part of the team as settlement. With his money tied up in the A's or his insurance interests, Finley was forced to sell the team.

Throughout his ownership of the Oakland A’s, Finley was fond of gimmicks, outfitting his team in green and gold uniforms and paying his players $300 bonuses to grow moustaches. Rollie Fingers the handlebar moustache he grew for Finley became his trademark. Signing Jim Hunter, he nicknamed him "Catfish," fabricating a boyhood story about Hunter to give him publicity. He introduced ball girls and was a big supporter of night games for the World Series to increase fan interest. Finley also became a strong advocate of the designated hitter rule, until adopted by the American League. His suggestions included innovations that were tried and rejected for various reasons, such as:

• Orange baseballs -
• A three-ball walk and two-strike strikeout.
• A mechanical rabbit that would pop up behind home plate and deliver new balls to the umpire –
• A designated runner –

He was without a doubt, one of the most irritating, controversial, sinister owners of all the owners that ever took over a sports franchise.