Note: this column ran in the Times-Union on April 21
If you ask a longtime Kansas City Royals fan who the biggest rival was in the early days of the franchise, many if not most will come up with the Yankees. Not a bad choice; those suckers beat the Royals three years in a row in the American League Championship Series, the first two times in the ninth inning of the fifth a deciding game.
But there is a better choice.
The Athletics were a Kansas City franchise for 12 seasons, and in that time had two owners who never intended to keep the team in town. Arnold Johnson had ties to the Yankees, and used them to effectively make Kansas City a de facto minor league team for the mighty dynasty. The collusion between Johnson and the Yankees could never be proven, but baseball fans in Kansas City knew better.
The A’s had a clause in the stadium lease that allowed the team to move if attendance was less than a million, then it was amended to 850,000. Then Johnson got rid of all the better ballplayers.
In December, 1960 Johnson sold the team to Charles O. Finley. A history of baseball’s owners, when individuals could still own a team, is complete without Finley. He made a big deal out of burning the lease, added the words “Kansas City” to the uniforms, and a number of other publicity stunts to convince fans he was in it for the long haul.
The lease burned was a fill-in-the-blank standard variety available at any stationary store, and behind the scenes Finley was shopping his team to business leaders from Georgia to Washington. Meanwhile, he was stockpiling talent in the minor leagues, and selling Kansas Citians on the promise of a brighter future.
By the beginning of the 1968 season, Finley had moved his team to Oakland, and his name became synonymous with any swear word you can imagine in the midwest.
So with the birth of the Royals in 1969, the team had an instant rival in the A’s, and man, did Royals fans love to see Oakland get beat, especially in Kansas City.
The minor league stockpile did yield dividends, with the Athletics winning the World Series in 1972, ‘73 and ‘74, and division titles on either end of the Series streak.
In 1976, the Royals were a game back of the A’s late in the year when Oakland was coming to town for a three-game set. Finley got the fans on edge when he called Kansas City “ a horse(bleep) town.”
Charley O. could always sell tickets in Kansas City...
The Royals routed the A’s in all three games, going from one game back to two up, and effectively marked the changing of the guard in the American League West. The A’s would never again be very good under Finley, and between the his selling the team and the heartbreaking losses to the Yankees, the A’s rivalry went away. Even when the Bash Brothers teams were at their highest points in Oakland, the games with the Royals had lost some luster.
Until this weekend.
Now I admit, I was a kid back then, and what my dad told me about sports teams was gospel. The Oakland-Kansas City rivalry was probably spurred on by the bad blood between the Raiders and Chiefs, but I’d have to find some real old-timers to verify that.
With the Royals playing the role of heartbreaker in last year’s wild card game, and the incidents with Brett Lawrie over the weekend, maybe the Royals have a “new” old rival again.
In case you missed it, Friday night Lawrie slid into the leg of Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar, causing him to miss the rest of the series. Escobar is a vital part of the kansas City defense, and had a streak of 172 consecutive games played snapped vecause of the slide. I felt the slide, while late and very poorly executed, wasn’t inherently dirty. Lawrie should have been hit on his next at-bat (he was), and that would have been that. Instead, Royals pitchers threw at him on Sunday as well.
Let’s be honest; it’s hard to call any team a rival when they lose 90-105 games a year, as the Royals did in the 90s and early 2000s.
And the key to any rival is some bad blood between the two teams. It’s better when the story isn’t just a bragging right thing, or “that one game the refs gave to them.” I guess rivalries have sparked over a lot less than what transpired in Kansas City this weekend.
The only drawback to reviving such a rivalry is the A’s and Royals only have three games left against each other.
Unless they met again in October. Then things might get really interesting.
If you ask a longtime Kansas City Royals fan who the biggest rival was in the early days of the franchise, many if not most will come up with the Yankees. Not a bad choice; those suckers beat the Royals three years in a row in the American League Championship Series, the first two times in the ninth inning of the fifth a deciding game.
But there is a better choice.
The Athletics were a Kansas City franchise for 12 seasons, and in that time had two owners who never intended to keep the team in town. Arnold Johnson had ties to the Yankees, and used them to effectively make Kansas City a de facto minor league team for the mighty dynasty. The collusion between Johnson and the Yankees could never be proven, but baseball fans in Kansas City knew better.
The A’s had a clause in the stadium lease that allowed the team to move if attendance was less than a million, then it was amended to 850,000. Then Johnson got rid of all the better ballplayers.
In December, 1960 Johnson sold the team to Charles O. Finley. A history of baseball’s owners, when individuals could still own a team, is complete without Finley. He made a big deal out of burning the lease, added the words “Kansas City” to the uniforms, and a number of other publicity stunts to convince fans he was in it for the long haul.
The lease burned was a fill-in-the-blank standard variety available at any stationary store, and behind the scenes Finley was shopping his team to business leaders from Georgia to Washington. Meanwhile, he was stockpiling talent in the minor leagues, and selling Kansas Citians on the promise of a brighter future.
By the beginning of the 1968 season, Finley had moved his team to Oakland, and his name became synonymous with any swear word you can imagine in the midwest.
So with the birth of the Royals in 1969, the team had an instant rival in the A’s, and man, did Royals fans love to see Oakland get beat, especially in Kansas City.
The minor league stockpile did yield dividends, with the Athletics winning the World Series in 1972, ‘73 and ‘74, and division titles on either end of the Series streak.
In 1976, the Royals were a game back of the A’s late in the year when Oakland was coming to town for a three-game set. Finley got the fans on edge when he called Kansas City “ a horse(bleep) town.”
Charley O. could always sell tickets in Kansas City...
The Royals routed the A’s in all three games, going from one game back to two up, and effectively marked the changing of the guard in the American League West. The A’s would never again be very good under Finley, and between the his selling the team and the heartbreaking losses to the Yankees, the A’s rivalry went away. Even when the Bash Brothers teams were at their highest points in Oakland, the games with the Royals had lost some luster.
Until this weekend.
Now I admit, I was a kid back then, and what my dad told me about sports teams was gospel. The Oakland-Kansas City rivalry was probably spurred on by the bad blood between the Raiders and Chiefs, but I’d have to find some real old-timers to verify that.
With the Royals playing the role of heartbreaker in last year’s wild card game, and the incidents with Brett Lawrie over the weekend, maybe the Royals have a “new” old rival again.
In case you missed it, Friday night Lawrie slid into the leg of Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar, causing him to miss the rest of the series. Escobar is a vital part of the kansas City defense, and had a streak of 172 consecutive games played snapped vecause of the slide. I felt the slide, while late and very poorly executed, wasn’t inherently dirty. Lawrie should have been hit on his next at-bat (he was), and that would have been that. Instead, Royals pitchers threw at him on Sunday as well.
Let’s be honest; it’s hard to call any team a rival when they lose 90-105 games a year, as the Royals did in the 90s and early 2000s.
And the key to any rival is some bad blood between the two teams. It’s better when the story isn’t just a bragging right thing, or “that one game the refs gave to them.” I guess rivalries have sparked over a lot less than what transpired in Kansas City this weekend.
The only drawback to reviving such a rivalry is the A’s and Royals only have three games left against each other.
Unless they met again in October. Then things might get really interesting.