What Baseball Was Like in KC: 1956
 

Found this old "newsreel" on You Tube about the 1956 Kansas City Athletics. Cool to see the old stadium and shots of old KC.

Screw Charlie Finley....

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The best is everyone walking across the field to leave the stadium afterwards ROFL

Was the hats black or navy? You really can't tell in that video.

Like the Dallas Texans, we got a franchise who was the ugly stepsister of their original home city to give us a shot. Should've gone after the STL Browns who moved to Baltimore 3 years before the A's did. And who provided a much more stable ownership situation that likely would've never left.

Navy, I think?

Browns moved to Baltimore in 1954, when Baltimore businessmen bought the team from Mike Veeck. The A's moved to Kansas City in 1955.

Navy hats. And they had the elephant on the sleeve of the jersey. I never saw them. Just looked em up. I have the Navy lid. It's gorgeous.

KC tried to get several teams before they finally landed the A's. Of course, the A's turned out to be the AAAA affiliate of the Yankees before Charlie Finley bought them and moved to Oakland years later.

We should have saved that 1956 sweep of the tigers for now. Hope it doesn't come back to bite us in the ass.

So many what ifs..

I think back to when they left and 4 years later were in the process of winning a trifecta of World Series. All those great players were beginning to show up on the farm and on the roster.

All these guys were on the 67 roster. F'ing Finley. We were so close.

Campy
Catfish
Rudi
Reggie - came up in June
Cap'n Sal.
Blue Moon Odom.

Great slide into 2nd starting at 11:45

That dynasty would have been KC's... Although, I have a sneaky suspicion that the KC Monarchs used up most all of KC's championship karma.

I know, Veeck had to sell them. We got a flake who was unstable and undercapitalized. I didn't know the A's moved in '55 though.

Not really true. Arnold Johnson who moved the team here had money. Trouble was he was in bed with the Yankees owners. He owned Yankee Stadium and Blues Stadium (which was Municipal). Then he ran the A's like a Yankees farm club, since the Yankees ownership group was buddies with him. He died and his widow sold the team to Finley.

Interesting. Did not know that. I just always associated the A's with Charlie O. And how much my dad hated him.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/corner/c042001b.shtml

Here is more information about all the Yankees-KC A's trades back in the 50s. A's trading Roger Maris for basically nothing is the worst.

Nice find George. Was about 1 month old in most of those series :)

I do remember people calling us their farm team, but I always thought it was Charlie doing the deals. I remember something about him puttig the petting zoo in the OF or something like that. Can't remember. Didn't he want to call us the Mules?

Charlie O was the name of the mule mascot. Finley had sheep grazing out beyond the outfield wall. And there was an electric mechanical rabbit named "Harvey" that popped up out of the ground behind home plate to give the ump more baseballs when he ran out.

I kinda like the Harvey idea.
Maybe we should add a mechanical Sluggrrrr behind home in Kauffman?

Mayor Bartle cannot throw a baseball.

From the video, this would be facing downtown Kansas City from past Stockyards/Airport area correct?

Was the hats

"the happy clatter of cleats on home plate!" 14 runs after two outs is pretty darn impressive.

My childhood memory of watching the KC "A"s live was nothing like that!:ZZZ:

that made me wonder how many statistical records have the KC A's topping the Royals.

The Royals must have nearly all of the KC MLB records, but I doubt they ever came close to 14 runs in an inning.

I think that picture was taken from the West Bottoms (stockyards) by where Kemper Arena is now. You would be facing East.

The old KC airport (which is still there) is just north of the downtown loop on the Missouri side, right where the Kaw River and Missouri river meet, and where the Missouri River bends to head north towards St. Joseph.

That was all A. Johnson.

Most of the trades didn't amount to much save for dealing Roger Maris. Lots of nobodys went back and forth.

I remember one Royals game when they came back from being down 11 I think, but my memory is getting pretty weak.

I was listening to it on the radio while working on something, or would have probably quit listening to that game since they were so far down.

I believe it was against the Indians, and I think they had something like 12 straight hits after two outs. Had to be in the early to mid 80s, possibly late 70s.

Hopefully someone remembers or knows how to find the facts, to see how close my memory is.

That TWA Connie is a cool plane. They have one of those on display at the old airport museum. The plastic cow on the column is still there. Notice how crappy the field looks. That was before Toma. 48 stars on the US Flag. H Roe Bartle looks like Billy Butler! You can see a lot of old KC A's uniforms and stuff at Chappel's Restaurant in North KC.

I noticed the "Super Connie" as well George, with fond memories. Have you ever flown in one of those? They had 4, 3350 engines and would nail you to the seat on take off.

back when the Power and Light buliding was the tallest...my mom worked for IBM for 35 years across the street @ 14th and Baltimore

First plane I ever flew on was on TWA, but it was a 707 jet, not a prop plane.

Pretty cool video- seems ancient.

My first commercial flight was a turbo prop, but we had a "Super Connie" on Guam.

The Constellation is one of the most elegant, beautiful airplanes ever. Much of the design work was done by Kelly Johnson (later famous for some of his "Skunk Work" designs) and Howard Hughes.

That big 4 engine airliner, designed in the late 30's, had a top speed of 375 MPH - faster than a Japanese Zero!

That's the truth. Off of this team they sent Enos Slaughter to NY and he batted .350 in the series. Clete Boyer went to the Yanks in 1959. Art Ditmer was traded in 1957.

Here's a great article. Seems odd that the league would let a business associate of another owner buy a team. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/corner/c042001b.shtml

i still get nostalgic driving by the ol downtown airport....

from what I heard, lots of woman who worked in factories during ww2 helped build those stadiums.

It's interesting how the crowd used to applaud when their team scored or got on base. Now we all yell and cheer instead. I guess golf is the only sport I can think of where they still applaud.

I'll always be bitter about the A's moving. My brother lives in St. Louis and he goes on and on about what a great baseball town St. Louis is and what a great tradition the Cardinals have. I always tell him that if the A's had stayed in Kansas City, Kansas City would have a tradition exactly like St. Louis's. We'd have a history of Catfish and Rudi and Reggie and Canseco and McGwire and all the rest.

And we'd be in ****ing first place right now.

However, I'll be happy to root for Hosmer, Moose, Gordon, Perez, Holland and Shields for the next several years.

Well, hopefully they'll all be here for several years.

Yep ! :thumb:

My father was sixteen yrs old playing centerfield for Folger's Coffee in the old 3 & 2 league and he also was on the tarp/ground crew for the A's at the time all the way through high school. Loved every minute of it but did say that Mickey Mantle was a total prick.