Finley Carl A. - Finley ball: how two outsiders turned the Oakland As into a dynasty and changed the game forever

Copyright 2016 by Nancy Finley

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First e-book edition 2016: ISBN 978-1-62157-542-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Finley, Nancy, author.

Title: Finley ball: how two baseball outsiders turned the Oakland A's into a dynasty and changed the game forever / Nancy Finley.

Description: Washington, DC: Regnery History, 2016.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015040963

Subjects: LCSH: Oakland Athletics (Baseball team) | Finley, Charles Oscar, 1918- | Finley, Carl A., 1924-2002. | Baseball team owners--United States--Biography. | BISAC: SPORTS & RECREATION / Baseball / History. | BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Sports. | HISTORY / United States / 20th Century. | HISTORY / United States / State & Local / West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY).

Classification: LCC GV875.O24 F56 2016 | DDC 796.357/640979466--dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015040963

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To the memory of my father, Carl Finley, and with special thanks to our Finley Family, especially my husband Morgan D. King, my sons Doug and Morgan, and my daughter Taylor

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

B ooks have been written about the Oakland As baseball team, a team with a history of success second only to the New York Yankees. And books have been written about their charismatic owner Charlie Finley.

When Charlie Finleys niece, Nancy Finley, decided to put her memories of the Finley baseball epoch down on paper, she asked herself, What can I say that hasnt already been said? To her surprise, the more she thought about it, the more she realized the answer was: Quite a lot. She could write the untold story.

A sports dynasty as spectacular as the Oakland As of the early 1970s naturally generates a certain mythology, and at the heart of As mythology is the caricature of an outrageous owner, the great Satan of MLB, a man who was bad for baseball. But forty years after Charlie Finleys team won its third World Series title, its time to get past the myths. In telling the Finley side of the story, Nancy brings to life one of the most fascinating characters in baseball history.

She also writes about another man, who was rarely mentioned in the sports media but was as responsible for the teams achievements as Charlieher dad, Carl Finley, the unseen hand behind Charlie and the success of the franchise. Providing an insiders perspective on how these cousinsan insurance salesman and a high school principalside-by-side took a perennial last-place team and rebuilt it into what Sports Illustrated proclaimed the Team of the Century, she reveals the secrets of their success.

Starting with a fateful midnight meeting in Kansas City, she fills in the gaps in the story of Charlies battles with two men who were determined to destroy himthe sports editor of the Kansas City Star during the As stint in that city, Ernest Mehl, and the commissioner of Major League Baseball through most of Charlies years with the As, Bowie Kuhn.

And she tells the Finley side of the Mike Andrews affair, the most famous brouhaha in the teams history, in which Charlie was the subject of a show trial in the court of public opinion.

She also writes about a fascinating scientific explanation for Charlie Finleys fascination with colorsa rare genetic condition that might also explain his uncanny insight into the game of baseball.

Until now, much of the history of the Oakland As from the mid-1970s to 1981 has been a blank page. But Nancy was there and knows what happened in those fateful years when free agency set the franchise back by several years.

She saw and heard things about Charlie and Carlthose rascalsthat no one has ever told: their flirtations and affairs, their pranks, their arguments, their eccentricities, their failures and achievements.

Its a story of strong-willed men, and some women too, in the glitter and glory of an amazing baseball eraMad Men, James Bond, and the Three Stooges rolled into onea story untold till now.

I t felt strange to be back.

It was 2003, and I was sitting behind the Oakland As dugout on the first deck, inhaling the familiar salty fragrance of the San Francisco Bay. I hadnt been inside the Oakland Coliseum in a long time.

At age nine, my blue-eyed daughter, Taylor, was scheduled to throw the ceremonial first pitch in honor of her grandfathermy dad, Carl A. Finleywho passed away on March 30, 2002.

Art Howe introduced himself to Taylor when she entered the field and walked her out to the pitchers mound. He was speaking softly, and I could tell they were talking about the correct way to hold the ball. He looked a bit surprised when she showed him she knew how.

I could see Taylors confidence rise in Mr. Howes presence. She was shy and looked so tiny out on the mound, her long blonde hair restless in the gentle Bay breeze as she positioned herself to wind up, just like Catfish Hunter. I held my breath. She cocked her left knee, aimed her glove at home plate, and tossed the hardball over her head toward the batters box. Her pitch was true and straight toward the home plate. It fell a foot short, but she looked like a natural. I let out my breath slowly, glad to witness this moment. The next day, Taylors image appeared on the front page of the Contra Costa Times, the Oakland Tribune, and the Tri-Valley Herald. She had her moment in baseball history, the latest in our Finley family line to do so.

Sitting in that ballpark I had a familiar feelingthat anticipation of what will happen next on that storied baseball field, where almost daily I watched As legends like Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, Vida Blue, and too many others to name now. I wondered how many baseball games I had attended there. A thousand? The Coliseum felt haunted by the ghosts of my Uncle Charlie and my dad, Carl A. Finley. If they could speak, they would tell a bitter story, a thrilling story, a story about silly things, and secret things. But since theyre gone, Ill tell it for them.