DBWI: The A's move to Kansas City

After the 1954 season, A's owner Roy Mack was in serious financial trouble and sold the team to a group of local business leaders. However, the team was nearly sold to Arnold Johnson, owner of Yankee Stadium. Yankees owner Dan Topping tried to convince the other owners that the Philadelphia syndicate was underfinanced. Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey became suspicious of the apparent coziness between Mack and Topping and cast the deciding vote in favor of the Philadelphia syndicate.

What if Arnold Johnson had bought the team and moved it to Kansas City? Would the Phillies have stayed in town, or would they still have become the San Francisco Seals and been replaced by an expansion team? How would the A's have fared over the next few years (and after Johnson's death in 1960)? It sounds ASB, but a popular conspiracy theory says the Yankees were going to use the A's as a de facto farm club. That might have butterflied away the Cleveland Indians dynasty of the late 1950s/early 1960s.
 
Well, the Carpenters would have surely kept the Phillies in PHiladelphia, but for a few dumb trades sinking interest in the team. When the local investors poured so much into the West Coast talent decided to sell some of their worse players, and the Curt Simmons trade was made with the crosstown Phillies after his injury-plagued 1955. I know, lots of thigns go into that move, but that started the ball rolling toward fans saying "Same old PHillies, getting rid of all their stars like the old days" and flocking to the Athletics, especially after Don Larsen tossed the first perfect game in decades in the majors early in the season after Simmons started out so well. Then, Larsen one-hit the Indians with Mickey Mantle getting the only hit as Mantle was on his way to a Triple Crown - otherwise he might have repeated Johnny Vander Meer's 2 stgraight no-hitters. Sure, he was a nondescript pitcher otherwise, but Vander Meer wasn't a superstar, either.

But, the real kicker was when the Yankees, unable to pull the strings on the trades they wanted, sent Mickey Mantle to the Indians for Rocky Colavito, Al Smith, Hank Agguire, and some others after the 1955 season, and he wound up winning the Triple Crown for the Indians! (OOC: This was considered later because of the Mick's drinking; I don't know how seriously. It may have been combined with the threat to trade him for Rocky Colavito and Herb Score after his Triple Crown season, but here.) He sobered up pretty well in Cleveland away from Whiey and Billy - I guess he'd had a drunk driving accident after the '55 season that caused them to do this; maybe he isn't out with whatever teammate he was but instead is hanging with someone he gets from those "Kansas City" Athletics. But, man, those righthanded bats died in Yankee Stadium, and Smith was traded again after a few years. Colavito, meanwhile, hit 30 regularly but could have hit 40 regularly had he stayed in Cleveland.Plus they got Minnie Minoso back in '58 after losing the '57 Series to the Braves.

Oh, and Smith was black... not sure about the others in that trade. But, like the Cardinals when ugie Busch bought the team, the new owners relly went hard for black players - and Latin ones. The Phillies wouldn't integrate for a few more years, and that hurt the Phillies, too. (OOC: They were the last NL team to integrate, in 1958.) And, of course, the Phillies finished in 7th - but only a few games out of 4th - in 1956 becasue of the Simmons deal for a guy who wound up pitching poorly, Robin Roberts had a bad year at 19-18 and an ERA over 4.00, so they ship him off and start to rebuild, but that just killed the fan interest.

Ironically, Roberts had a pretty bad year again in '57 before his rebound, but people don't recall that.

Yes, some would say the Yankees trading Mickey mantle was the real problem, not the lack of any Kansas City Athletics, but I can see how the two could be combined, too. It's one of those really cool hot stove debates.
 
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