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1961 Kansas City Athletics season

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1961 Kansas City Athletics
LeagueAmerican League
BallparkMunicipal Stadium
CityKansas City, Missouri
OwnersCharles O. Finley
General managersFrank Lane, Pat Friday
ManagersJoe Gordon, Hank Bauer
TelevisionWDAF-TV
RadioWDAF
(Merle Harmon, Bill Grigsby)
← 1960
1962 →

The 1961 Kansas City Athletics season was a season in American baseball. In their seventh season in Kansas City, the 61st overall for the franchise, the A's finished with a record of 61–100, tying the expansion Washington Senators for ninth place, last in the newly expanded 10-team American League. The A's finished nine games behind the league's other expansion team, the Los Angeles Angels and 47+1⁄2 games behind the World Champion New York Yankees.

Offseason

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On December 19, 1960, Charles "Charlie O." Finley purchased a controlling interest in the team from Arnold Johnson's estate. In a highly publicized move, he purchased a bus, pointed it in the direction of New York, and burned it to symbolize the end of the "special relationship" with the Yankees.[citation needed] He called another press conference to burn the existing lease at Municipal Stadium, where the team played its home games, which included the despised "escape clause."[1]

Finley made numerous renovations to the stadium, including lighting outside, and radio broadcasts in the restrooms.[2] The seats were painted yellow, turquoise and orange, while a picnic area was added behind new bleacher seats in right field, and lights were added to the dugout.[3]

In addition, Finley introduced new uniforms, which had "Kansas City" on the road uniforms for the first time ever and an interlocking "KC" on the cap.

Notable transactions

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Regular season

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Finley hired Frank Lane, a veteran baseball man with a reputation as a prolific trader, as general manager on January 2.[5] However, Lane did not even last through the season, as he was fired on August 22 and replaced by Pat Friday.[6]

  • Part of the tension between Finley and Lane occurred when Finley advised Lane that he wanted to move the club's spring training facilities from West Palm Beach, Florida, to Chandler, Arizona. Lane had negotiated with city officials in Chandler and was prepared to sign a lease. A report on the radio had indicated that Finley reached his own deal with West Palm Beach and signed a five-year lease extension.[7]
  • On June 14, 1961, the feud between Charlie Finley and Frank Lane worsened as Lane traded fan favourite Bud Daley. Lane stated this was done in an attempt to embarrass the owner.[8] Lew Krausse Jr. made his major league debut on June 16, 1961, versus the Los Angeles Angels. Krausse had received a bonus of $125,000 to sign with the club. Finley admitted that he had the highly touted Krausse appear in a game so that fans could forget about the Bud Daley trade.[9]
  • August 17, 1961: Kansas City Star sportswriter Ernie Mehl had published a story indicating that Charlie Finley was ready to relocate the club to Dallas, Texas.[10] Mehl found out about the proposed relocation because Finley went on a trip to Dallas with the supervisor of American League umpires Cal Hubbard. During the trip, the two visited the Cotton Bowl and Burnett Field. Finley was furious and it led to a long rivalry between the two. Three days later, Finley attempted to publicly humiliate Mehl by having an Ernie Mehl Appreciation Day. Ceremonies for Mehl were held in between a doubleheader with the Chicago White Sox. Finley presented Mehl with a Poison Pen Award in absentia.[11]

Gimmicks

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  • Finley had a mechanical rabbit named Harvey installed to the right of home plate. Whenever the umpire required more baseballs, Harvey would emerge from a spot in the grass with a cage of baseballs. As the rabbit would emerge, the organist would play Here Comes Peter Cottontail.[12]
  • Sheep were on a tall rocky hill beyond the right field fence. Finley had employees dressed as sheep herders, and the employees would ring a bell whenever an Athletics player hit a home run.[13]

Season standings

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American League
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
New York Yankees 109 53 .673 — 65‍–‍16 44‍–‍37
Detroit Tigers 101 61 .623 8 50‍–‍31 51‍–‍30
Baltimore Orioles 95 67 .586 14 48‍–‍33 47‍–‍34
Chicago White Sox 86 76 .531 23 53‍–‍28 33‍–‍48
Cleveland Indians 78 83 .484 30½ 40‍–‍41 38‍–‍42
Boston Red Sox 76 86 .469 33 50‍–‍31 26‍–‍55
Minnesota Twins 70 90 .438 38 36‍–‍44 34‍–‍46
Los Angeles Angels 70 91 .435 38½ 46‍–‍36 24‍–‍55
Kansas City Athletics 61 100 .379 47½ 33‍–‍47 28‍–‍53
Washington Senators 61 100 .379 47½ 33‍–‍46 28‍–‍54

Record vs. opponents

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1961 American League record

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
Team BAL BOS CHW CLE DET KCA LAA MIN NYY WSH
Baltimore — 11–7 11–7 9–9 9–9 13–5 8–10 11–7 9–9–1 14–4
Boston 7–11 — 9–9 5–13 8–10 10–8 11–7–1 11–7 5–13 10–8
Chicago 7–11 9–9 — 12–6 6–12 14–4 10–8 9–9–1 6–12 13–5
Cleveland 9–9 13–5 6–12 — 6–12 8–9 10–8 10–8 4–14 12–6
Detroit 9–9 10–8 12–6 12–6 — 12–6–1 14–4 11–7 8–10 13–5
Kansas City 5–13 8–10 4–14 9–8 6–12–1 — 9–9 7–11 4–14 9–9
Los Angeles 10–8 7–11–1 8–10 8–10 4–14 9–9 — 8–9 6–12 10–8
Minnesota 7–11 7–11 9–9–1 8–10 7–11 11–7 9–8 — 4–14 8–9
New York 9–9–1 13–5 12–6 14–4 10–8 14–4 12–6 14–4 — 11–7
Washington 4–14 8–10 5–13 6–12 5–13 9–9 8–10 9–8 7–11 —


Notable transactions

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Roster

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1961 Kansas City Athletics
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

Player stats

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Batting

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Starters by position

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Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Haywood Sullivan 117 331 80 .242 6 40
1B Norm Siebern 153 560 166 .296 18 98
2B Jerry Lumpe 148 569 167 .293 3 54
SS Dick Howser 158 611 171 .280 3 45
3B Wayne Causey 104 312 86 .276 8 49
LF Leo Posada 116 344 87 .253 7 53
CF Bobby Del Greco 74 239 55 .230 5 21
RF Jim Rivera 64 141 34 .241 2 10

Other batters

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Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Deron Johnson 83 283 61 .216 8 42
Joe Pignatano 92 243 59 .243 4 22
Gene Stephens 62 183 38 .208 4 26
Jay Hankins 76 173 32 .185 3 6
Marv Throneberry 40 130 31 .238 6 24
Andy Carey 39 123 30 .244 3 11
Lou Klimchock 57 121 26 .215 1 16
Reno Bertoia 39 120 29 .242 0 13
Hank Bauer 43 106 28 .264 3 18
Bill Tuttle 25 84 22 .262 0 8
Al Pilarcik 35 60 12 .200 0 9
Bob Boyd 26 48 11 .229 0 9
Wes Covington 17 44 7 .159 1 6
Frank Cipriani 13 36 9 .250 0 2
Charlie Shoemaker 7 26 10 .385 0 1
Gordon Mackenzie 11 24 3 .125 0 1
Ozzie Virgil 11 21 3 .143 0 0
Billy Bryan 9 19 3 .158 1 2
Bobby Prescott 10 12 1 .083 0 0
Chuck Essegian 4 6 2 .333 0 1
Stan Johnson 3 3 0 .000 0 0
Clint Courtney 1 1 0 .000 0 0

Pitching

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Starting pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Jim Archer 39 205.1 9 15 3.20 110
Bob Shaw 26 150.1 9 10 4.31 60
Ray Herbert 13 83.2 3 6 5.38 34
Bill Kirk 1 3.0 0 0 12.00 3

Other pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Norm Bass 40 170.2 11 11 4.69 74
Jerry Walker 36 168.0 8 14 4.82 56
Joe Nuxhall 37 128.0 5 8 5.34 81
Ed Rakow 45 124.2 2 8 4.76 81
Bud Daley 16 63.2 4 8 4.95 36
Lew Krausse Jr. 12 55.2 2 5 4.85 32
Art Ditmar 20 54.0 0 5 5.67 19
Don Larsen 8 15.0 1 0 4.20 13
Ken Johnson 6 9.1 0 4 10.61 4

Relief pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Bill Kunkel 58 3 4 4 5.18 46
Gerry Staley 23 1 1 2 3.60 16
Dave Wickersham 17 2 1 2 5.14 10
Bill Fischer 15 1 0 2 3.86 12
Ed Keegan 6 0 0 1 4.50 3
John Wyatt 5 0 0 1 2.45 6
Mickey McDermott 4 0 0 0 14.29 3
Dan Pfister 2 0 0 0 15.43 3
Paul Giel 1 0 0 0 37.80 1

Farm system

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See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Hawaii Islanders Pacific Coast League Tommy Heath and Bill Werle
AA Shreveport Sports Southern Association Les Peden
A Portsmouth-Norfolk Tides Sally League Granny Hamner
B Lewiston Broncos Northwest League John McNamara
C Visalia Athletics California League Bobby Hofman
C Pocatello Bannocks Pioneer League Bert Thiel
D Sarasota Sun Sox Florida State League Bill Robertson
D Albuquerque Dukes Sophomore League Grady Wilson
LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Lewiston Pocatello affiliation shared with San Francisco Giants

References

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  1. ^ Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, pp.43–44, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  2. ^ Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, pp.45, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  3. ^ Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, pp.45–46, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  4. ^ Whitey Herzog page at Baseball Reference
  5. ^ Frank Lane is chosen as new A's general boss
  6. ^ Frank Lane fired from KC position
  7. ^ Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.49, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  8. ^ Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.51, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  9. ^ Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.52, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  10. ^ Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, pp.56, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  11. ^ Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, pp.58, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  12. ^ Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.46, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  13. ^ Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.47, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  14. ^ Bert Campaneris page at Baseball Reference
  15. ^ Bill Tuttle page at Baseball Reference
  16. ^ Marv Throneberry page at Baseball Reference
  17. ^ a b Wes Covington page at Baseball Reference
  18. ^ Tigers land 3rd sacker
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