Dorri Partain
Northeast News

Major League baseball finally arrived in Kansas City when the Philadelphia Athletics moved to town in 1955. Also known as the A’s, team owner Arnold Johnson had already purchased Blues Stadium (named for the minor league team that played there) in 1953, and the A’s in 1954. Johnson owned another American League team, the New York Yankees.

Charles O. Finley purchased the team after Johnson’s death in 1960. The team’s mascot, which had been a bat-swinging elephant, switched when Finley purchased a mule and named him “Charlie-O”; just one of many gimmicks Finley introduced during home games at Municipal Stadium.

The season schedule shown here was produced by Hamm’s Beer and proclaims, “Hamm’s Beer bring you 20 games on KCMO-TV5”. Hamm’s Breweries was one of the first companies to create a national sports branding campaign and had become the biggest television and radio sports sponsor in the country by 1964. The schedule was distributed by Bill’s Liquors & Sporting Goods in Claycomo, MO.

Ticket prices started at $1.50 for General Admission, Reserved Grandstand seats were $2.50, and Box Seats were $3.00 on either upper or lower levels.

In 1967, the A’s struggled to stay out of the last place standings, ending the season at 62-99. Their final home game, against the Chicago White Sox, pleased fans with a 4-0 score, but the final 4 games against the Yankees clinched their fate. The final game of the season, played on October 1st, ended at 3-4, their fourth loss in a row. The game was not televised, and Finley moved the team to Oakland, CA for the 1968 season.