@
jackjjackson Pay no attention to the @
RedBaron. He's about to get shot down with the idea that "they were going to relocate in any case."
You see, there WERE local buyers who WOULD have kept the Athletics in Philly after the Mack finally agreed to sell.
Johnson purchased Yankee Stadium and Blues Stadium (the home of Kansas City’s American Association team) from Yankee co-owners Dan Topping and Del Webb in 1953. Yankee Stadium cost him $3.6 million and then he took out a $2.9 million mortgage from the Yankees, who took out a long term lease to play in the stadium. The total cost of the deal, including Blues Stadium, was $6.5 million.
Johnson then sold the land under Yankee Stadium to the Knights of Columbus for $2.5 million, leasing it back from them for 28 years at $182,000 a year in rent. He then sold Blues Stadium to Kansas City.
When Johnson made a bid to buy the Athletics, the Yankees were his biggest supporters.
But a group led by Philadelphia auto dealer John Crisconi had made an officer and the Mack family agreed to it, even signing contracts!
Roy Mack affixes his signature to an agreement selling the Athletics to the Philadelphia syndicate on October 17, 1954—a commitment Roy would betray just a day later in a backroom deal with Arnold Johnson. (Courtesy of Robert D. Warrington)But Arnold Johnson had the backing of the Yankees and, well, you know how it was with the Yankees in their dynastic days. What New York wanted, New York got.
Connie Mack released an “open letter to Philadelphia fans” on October 29, read aloud to the assembled press by his wife Katherine, which left little doubt regarding how the “Grand Old Man of Baseball” felt about what had transpired at the owners’ meeting the day before. He began by criticizing AL owners. “They simply don’t want those men [the Philadelphia syndicate] to have the club,” he said. “It’s a runaround with an awful lot of pressure to take the A’s to Kansas City. The Kansas City set-up wants the club. Everything works to that end. No matter what the Macks say or do, the answer still will be Kansas City, of course.”
Connie Mack saved his biggest salvos, however, for son Roy. “He’s been behind everything since May, telling everybody one thing and doing something else,” the statement read. “Actions speak louder than words, and Roy’s been doing all the talking.” It continued by noting that he, Connie Sr., had thought that at the owner’s meeting “everything was going to be okay” with respect to approval of the sale of the Athletics to the Philadelphia syndicate.
Earle, by contrast, was treated favorably in the open letter, if succinctly. “I don’t think it’s any fault of his,” Connie wrote, referring to Earle. “He’s been wonderful about everything.”
Mrs. Mack added in an ad hoc comment: “New York wants this club to go to Kansas City, and when New York’s in the back and pushing it, well, there’s your answer.” She concluded the statement by saying that her husband “is feeling terrible about the whole thing.”
Of course, once the Athletics were in KC, the player transfers started. The most famous of all the Kansas City Athletics who would end up wearing pinstripes was Roger Maris, who would break Babe Ruth's single season home run record. And when the Yankees needed a player to get some "seasoning", they sent him to KC and would re-acquire him later, such as Ralph Terry who won 23 games for the Yankees in 1962.
After the one-sided deals started, the Yankees won the pennant in 1955, the World Series in 1956, the pennant in 1957, the World Series in 1958, the pennant in 1960, the World Series in 1961 and 1962 and the pennant in 1963 and 1964.
When Johnson bought the Athletics he also bought Shibe Park (renamed Connie Mack Stadium in 1953). The Phillies were a tenant there, paying the Mack family rent. Now that Johnson owned a park he had no need for, he forced Phillies owner Robert Carpenter to buy the park for $1.675 million. Carpenter didn't want the park, but the Phillies needed a place to place and were now financially crippled for 15 years, playing in an outdated ballpark until they and the NFL's Eagle moved into the new Veterans Stadium.
For further reading, see:
https://sabr.org/journal/article/departure-without-dignity-the-athletics-leave-philadelphia/
