Books and articles about Charles O. Finley

One of the most flamboyant, innovative, and controversial baseball club owners ever, Finley began as a semi-pro first baseman-manager in Indiana. Near-fatal tuberculosis in 1946 ended his playing career but inspired him to found a life insurance empire. Outbid for the Kansas City A's in 1960 by Arnold Johnson, Finley acquired the team a few months later when Johnson died. The A's had been sending such stars as Roger Maris, Clete Boyer, and Ralph Terry to the Yankees in exchange for washed-up journeymen; Finley immediately suspended dealings with New York and, as his own general manager, soon established a knack for acquiring unheralded talent like Ed Charles and Jose Tartabull.

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Finley's first of many feuds with players and managers commenced at the 1962 All-Star break when he ordered Manny Jimenez, who was leading the AL with a .350 average, to start hitting home runs. Manager Hank Bauer took Jimenez's side and was fired after the season. Jimenez slumped and was sent down in 1963. In mid-1967, Finley fined and suspended young pitcher Lew Krausse for "rowdyism," and publicly berated his players over an insignificant airplane incident. A near-mutiny by the players followed. Finley fired manager Alvin Dark, then released Ken Harrelson, the team's best hitter, who had been quoted as saying that Finley was "a menace to baseball." Signed by the Red Sox, Harrelson helped them to the pennant, and won the AL RBI title the following year.

Finley had already established a reputation as a cantankerous buffoon by trading for sluggers Jim Gentile and Rocky Colavito, then building a bizarre "pennant porch" designed to increase their home run production. He later paraded a mule named Charley O about the field, into cocktail parties, and even through hotel lobbies. He relocated the A's Double-A franchise to Birmingham because he was born there. He introduced orange baseballs, ball girls, and a mechanical rabbit that gave baseballs to the umpires. He advocated night World Series games in an effort to boost fan interest.

Meanwhile, Finley signed Jim Hunter and dubbed him Catfish to give him press appeal, concocting a story set in Hunter's childhood to justify the nickname. Finley also signed Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Vida Blue, Bert Campaneris, and a host of others who became the nucleus of his Oakland dynasty. He shifted the club from Kansas City to Oakland after the 1967 season in a move he later acknowledged as his one big mistake. In a half-empty stadium, the A's were contenders during 1969 and 1970, then won five straight division titles in 1971-75 and World Championships in 1972-74.

Finley was named TSN Man of the Year for 1972, but continued having disputes with players. After Reggie Jackson hit 47 HR in 1969, Finley, during a prolonged contract dispute, threatened to send him back to the minors. Similar bitterness followed when Vida Blue won the Cy Young Award in his first full season, 1971. Both times, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn intervened to help bring about a resolution. In the 1973 World Series, Finley fired Mike Andrews after the reserve infielder committed two consecutive errors in the 12th inning of Oakland 's Game Two loss to the Mets. Other A's and manager Dick Williams rallied to Andrews's defense. Kuhn forced Finley to reinstate the player. Williams resigned after winning the Series, and Finley replaced him with Alvin Dark.

Under Dark, the A's won another World Championship in 1974. But after the season, Catfish Hunter was declared a free agent by arbitrator Peter Seitz because Finley had failed to make contractually stipulated payments for Hunter into an insurance annuity fund. Even without Hunter, the A's easily won their division in 1975. In the spring of 1976, Finley traded Jackson to the Orioles. During the season, he tried to sell Joe Rudi and Rollie Fingers to the Red Sox and Vida Blue to the Yankees, and did sell Paul Lindblad to the Rangers. In desperate financial trouble because of low attendance, Finley claimed he needed the money to sign free agents and rebuild. Kuhn disagreed, voiding the sales of Rudi, Fingers, and Blue as not being "in the best interests of baseball." Kuhn later voided another sale of Blue, to the Reds. Meanwhile, major league players won the right to play out their options, and seven A's did so in 1976. Despite the uncompensated losses, Finley rebuilt, and the A's were en route to yet another division title in 1981 when he sold the club to the Levi-Strauss company. (MC)

FROM THE BASEBALL CHRONOLOGY » February 7, 1959: White Sox President Mrs. Dorothy Rigney agrees to sell the team to Bill Veeck for a reported $2.7 million. Chicago insurance broker Charles O. Finley allows that he can match the price. Charles Comiskey will try and stop Veeck from buying the Sox but will be unsuccessful. » November 18, 1960: Charlie Finley, 42-year-old insurance tycoon from Gary, IN, makes a formal bid for the new Los Angeles club. » December 20, 1960: Charlie Finley buys the 52 percent of the A's in the late Arnold Johnson's estate. » February 16, 1961: Charlie Finley purchases the outstanding 48 percent of the Athletics stock to become their sole owner. » June 19, 1961: Charlie Finley makes his first managerial change, booting the recently-hired Joe Gordon (26–33) in favor of Hank Bauer. » August 22, 1961: Frank Lane's short tenure as GM of the A's ends when Charlie Finley replaces him with Pat Friday. » September 18, 1962: Charlie Finley is denied permission to move the Athletics to Dallas-Ft. Worth. » July 8, 1963: Reports of Charlie Finley's intention to move the Kansas City A's to Oakland surface during the All-Star break at Cleveland. » October 8, 1963: Frank Lane sues Charlie Finley for $144,166 for breach of contract. » February 23, 1964: Charlie Finley gives in to American League pressure and signs a 4-year lease with the municipal government to keep the A's in Kansas City. Finley wanted two years. His exasperated AL colleagues voted 9-1 that KC's offer was reasonable. » June 11, 1964: Charlie Finley fires Ed Lopat (17-35) as manager of the A's, replacing him with Mel McGaha, former manager of the Cleveland Indians. » October 9, 1964: Charlie Finley says he lost $834,356 in Kansas City this year, a prelude to renewed efforts to move the A's somewhere else. » September 9, 1965: The Angels waive Lu Clinton and both the Indians and the Athletics claimed him. Since the rule on waivers is that the team lowest in the standings gets first dibs, Clinton joins the Athletics (as noted by Merritt Clifton). He arrives in mid-game and appears as a pinch-hitter, striking out, as California beats the A's, 7–2. He and the Athletics then learned after the game that Clinton has been awarded to the Indians because the Athletics' claim was filed after the 24-hour claiming period had expired. Charlie Finley knew this before Clinton reported to the Athletics, but manager Haywood Sullivan, fed up with Finley's second-guessing, didn't answer the telephone during the game, and therefore didn't find out. » August 3, 1967: Reports of rowdyism on an Athletics flight reach owner Charlie Finley and will result in the release of outfielder Ken Harrelson and firing of manager Alvin Dark. » August 18, 1967: Lew Krausse of the A's is suspended by owner Charlie Finley for rowdyism and conduct unbecoming a ML player. » August 21, 1967: Charlie Finley releases Ken Harrelson, making him baseball's first free agent. Harrelson is quoted as calling Finley a menace to baseball. » August 22, 1967: Charlie Finley lifts his suspension of Lew Krausse. » September 11, 1967: A's players agree to drop a grievance filed with the National Labor Relations Board against Charlie Finley. Finley agrees, in writing, that he will not coerce or intimidate his players, or discriminate against them for the threatened action. » October 19, 1967: Senator Stuart Symington blasts A's owner Charlie Finley on the floor of the United States Senate, calling him "one of the most disreputable characters ever to enter the American sports scene." » October 20, 1967: Charlie Finley names Bob Kennedy the first manager of the Oakland A's. » October 22, 1967: Joe DiMaggio is hired as executive vice president of the A's by Charlie Finley. » October 2, 1970: Billy Martin is announced as the new Tiger manager, replacing Mayo Smith, who was fired a day earlier. The A's Charlie Finley fires manager John McNamara and replaces him with Dick Williams. » March 6, 1971: At Mesa, AZ, the A's and Brewers test Charlie Finley's idea of 3-ball walks. The A's win 13–9 in a game featuring 19 free passes, essentially ending the experiment. » March 29, 1973: Orange baseballs, the brainchild of Oakland owner Charlie Finley, are used in the A's 11–5 exhibition loss to the Indians. » October 23, 1973: Charlie Finley reveals that he will not release Dick Williams from his contract unless he receives adequate compensation from the team that signs him. Williams had resigned following the World Series victory two days earlier. » December 18, 1973: The Yankees announce the signing of Dick Williams as manager, precipitating a legal showdown with Charlie Finley. Two days later, American League president Joe Cronin rules that the Yankees cannot sign Williams. » January 3, 1974: Unable to pry Dick Williams away from Charlie Finley, the Yankees sign Bill Virdon as manager. » October 10, 1974: Former Oakland 2B Mike Andrews files a $2.5 million lawsuit against Charlie Finley over his treatment during the 1973 World Series. » October 11, 1974: It is revealed that Oakland ace Catfish Hunter has charged owner Charlie Finley with a breach of contract. » November 26, 1974: Catfish Hunter meets with Charlie Finley in the American Arbitration Association office in New York City for a hearing to determine the validity of Hunter's breach-of-contract claim. Hunter contends that Finley failed to pay $50,000, half of Hunter's salary, to a life insurance fund. The case will go to arbitration. » June 18, 1976: Commissioner Kuhn voids the A's sales, totaling $3.5 million, of Joe Rudi and Rollie Fingers to the Red Sox, and Vida Blue to the Yankees, saying they are "not in the best interest of baseball." A's owner Charlie Finley files a $10 million damage suit against Kuhn, and will refuse to use any of the three players until June 27th. » December 16, 1976: Court proceedings in Charlie Finley's $10 million damage suit against Commissioner Kuhn begin in Chicago. At issue is Kuhn's voiding of Finley's attempted player sales in June. The proceedings will take 15 days, and the decision will take three months. » March 17, 1977: Federal Judge Frank McGarr rules in favor of Bowie Kuhn, saying that the commissioner acted within his authority in voiding the 1976 player sales engineered by A's owner Charlie Finley. » March 27, 1978: A's owner Charley Finley cancels the deal that would have sent the A's to Denver, under the sponsorship of oilman Marvin Davis. Objecting to some of the details, Finley decides to call off negotiations. » April 7, 1978: The U.S. Court of Appeals upholds an earlier court decision in support of Commissioner Kuhn's voiding of attempted player sales by A's owner Charlie Finley in June 1976. Finley's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court will be rejected on October 2nd. » February 12, 1980: The American League's offer to buy out the remaining eight years of the Oakland A's lease at the Oakland Coliseum expires, effectively blocking the sale of the club from Charlie Finley to oil man Marvin Davis. Davis had planned to move the club to Denver, but the Oakland Coliseum Board, backed by the city council, refused the league's $4 million offer. » August 23, 1980: A's owner Charlie Finley sells the club for $12.7 million to the Haas family of San Francisco, owners of the Levi Strauss clothing empire, thus keeping the team in Oakland.