Arnold Johnson’s Railroad to New York

The 1955 season marked the beginning of a new baseball era in Kansas City, as the big leagues extended westward following the purchase of the Philadelphia Athletics by Arnold Johnson. Even though the A’s had lost 103 games in their final year in the City of Brotherly Love, the dawn of this exciting era was bright on April 12, 1955. A crowd of 32,844 watched with optimism and glee as the local heroes defeated the Detroit Tigers, 6-2.

The seasons that followed featured a string of disappointments for Kansas City’s fans. A large number of transactions involving players were consummated by Johnson’s front office and New York Yankee general manager George Weiss — and most of the trades were more beneficial to the Yankees. Furthermore, a subservient attitude prevailed among Athletics executives, suggesting that their frequent misjudgments were borne from loyalty to Weiss and other Yankee chieftains.

Johnson, a wealthy Chicagoan who invested heavily in a variety of business enterprises, had been involved in numerous business relationships with Yankee co-owners Dan Topping and Del Webb before obtaining the A’s. He had purchased Yankee Stadium and Blues Stadium (the home of Kansas City’s American Association team) from Topping and Webb in 1953 and then leased both parks back to the Yankees.

Johnson later sold both facilities, but Webb’s construction company was awarded a lucrative contract to upgrade and enlarge Blues Stadium (renamed Municipal Stadium in 1955). The paths of Topping and Johnson had also crossed away from the business of baseball, when the two served simultaneously as officers of the American Canteen Company.

Fraternalism was suspected below the ownership level as well. Weiss had employed Parke Carroll, the A’s general manager, when the latter was seeking his first baseball job. Carroll remained under Weiss’ wing for 20 years. He had been hired as the general manager of Kansas City’s major-league club on the basis of his mentor’s recommendation. Having been groomed by Weiss at every turn, Carroll found it difficult to reject proposed deals from his former boss.

Between March 30, 1955 and May 19, 1960, the “friendly rivals” completed 16 deals involving 53 major-league players and a considerable amount of cash.

When these 16 transactions are analyzed individually to identify “winners” and “losers”, seven are found to have turned in the Yankees’ favor, the Athletics can be given the edge in three deals, and six swaps can be considered “draws.”

But the trades were not equal in importance: six of the seven trades which helped the Yankees more than the Athletics were weighted heavily in the Yankees’ favor, while the Athletics could claim a significant advantage in only one of their three “good” deals.

On March 30, 1955, the Athletics obtained pitcher Tom Gorman along with Ewell Blackwell and Dick Kryhoski fo $50,000. Gorman won seven games and had 18 saves in 1955 as a mainstay in Kansas City’s bullpen. — Slight advantage to the Athletics.

On May 11, 1955, the Athletics surrendered pitcher Sonny Dixon and cash for Johnny Sain and Enos Slaughter. Of the three players, only Slaughter performed well in 1955 or thereafter. During the ’55 season, he delivered a league-leading total of 16 pinch hits. — Slight advantage to the Athletics.

On August 25, 1956, the Yankees more than evened the score by obtaining Slaughter for the waiver price. He added punch to the Bronx Bombers’ bench during their 1956 pennant drive, and remained in New York to play in three World Series (1956-58). — Major advantage to the Yankees.

The Athletics purchased Bob Cerv for cash on October 16,1956. Cerv’s exceptional 1958 season — 38 home runs and 104 runs batted in — fully justified the payment to the Yankees, and the slugger remained productive for the A’s until May 1960. — Major advantage to the Athletics.

With a twelve-player deal on February 19,1957, the Yankees staged their first unqualified robbery of the A’s franchise by obtaining Art Ditmar, Bobby Shantz, and Cletis Boyer for four players who were well past their prime. Ditmar fit perfectly into the Yankees’ rotation for the next four years, winning 13 games in 1959 and leading the New York staff with 15 victories. Shantz overcame a sore arm to post a 1957 record of 11-5 (achieved with the American League’s lowest earned run average), and he continued to pay dividends through 1960.

By 1961, Boyer would challenge Brooks Robinson’s status as the best fielding third baseman in baseball. — Major advantage to the Yankees.

Shortly before the annual trading deadline of June 15, 1957, Weiss sent second baseman Billy Martin down the beaten path to Kansas City after an incident at the Copacabana nightclub in Manhattan. Pitcher Ralph Terry accompanied Martin to Kansas City, and the young Terry (who was 4-11 during the remainder of the ’57 season and 11-13 for Kansas City’s anemic 1958 club) actually contributed more the the Athletics than Martin. The A’s also received Woodie Held, who hit 20 home runs in the second half of the ’57 campaign before being traded to Cleveland during the 1958 season. But the achievements of Terry and Held (and to a lesser extent Martin) failed to balance this trade’s scales, for the Yankees had supplemented their mound staff by snatching reliever Ryne Duren from the Athletics’ grab bag. As a mainstay of the New York bullpen, Duren put a stranglehold on late-inning hopes of opponents in both 1958 (20 saves, six wins, an ERA of 2.01) and 1959 (14 saves, three victories, 1.87 ERA). — Slight advantage to the Yankees.

By enticing the Athletics with Harry “Suitcase” Simpson (who had starred in 1955 and 1956 for the A’s before heading to New York with Duren) and Bob Grim (whose arm miseries had diminished his great talent), Weiss and company were able to extract hurlers Dale Maas and Virgil Trucks from Kansas City on June 15, 1958. Trucks’ career was nearly over, but Maas became a significant contributor to New York’s staff, compiling a record of 7-3 during the second half of the 1958 season and a 14-8 mark in 1959. — Major advantage to the Yankees.

On August 22, 1958, Weiss arranged for a trip east by veteran right-handed pitcher Murry Dickson, who had compiled a 9-5 record and an ERA of 3.27 at the age of 42. For this valuable pitching insurance during another championship drive, Weiss parted with Zeke Bella (who served without distinction in Kansas City during the summer of 1959) and cash. — Major advantage to the Yankees.

By sending reserve infielder Jerry Lumpe and declining pitchers Johnny Kucks and Tom Sturdivant to the Athletics on May 26, 1959, the Yanks added Hector Lopez’s bat to their potent lineup. Lopez played left field in New York and delivered some important hits for five pennant-winning teams. This trade also returned an improved Ralph Terry to the Yankee fold; Terry would win 10 games in 1960, 16 in 1961, 23 in 1962, and 17 in 1963. (He also hurled a 1 -0 shutout in the seventh game of the 1962 World Series.) Lumpe developed into a steady second baseman after being dealt to the Athletics and hit at a .301 clip in 1962, but the trend continued. — Major advantage to the Yankees.

The biggest steal of all came on December 11, 1959. The Yanks picked up Roger Maris and two throw-ins for Hank Bauer, Don Larsen, Marv Throneberry, and Norm Siebern. Maris would blast 39 home runs in 1960 and 61 in 1961, as Bauer was nearing retirement and preparing to become the A’s manager. Larsen, with a 1-10 record in 1960, wouldn’t approach perfection. Throneberry would become a big star — in beer commercials after some futile performances with the ’62 Mets. Siebern did have a fine season in 1962 for Kansas City (25 homers, 117 RBI’s, a .308 average), but he was no Roger Maris. — Major advantage to the Yankees.

Hanging over these trades like a black cloud were the close relationships involving Johnson, Topping and Webb on one hand, and between Weiss and Carroll on the other. Although Johnson (who died suddenly in March 1960 from a cerebral hemorrhage) denied improper conduct and insisted that he always sought the best available talent, collusion between the two camps was taken for granted by baseball insiders until Charlie Finley became the principal owner of Kansas City’s franchise on December 20, 1960.

Indeed, personal friendships and obligations set the stage for the long series of exchanges. While a few unwise trades may have resulted from imprudent decisions by the Athletics’ gullible front office, and while the Yankees’ deep talent pool placed the New Yorkers in strong negotiating positions, Johnson cannot be excused for repeatedly exchanging players with men who had committed numerous acts of arson upon his organization by burning it over and over again!

Finley — who had vowed to end the trading and had made a great show of burning a symbolic “shuttle bus to Yankee Stadium” in a parking lot adjacent to Municipal Stadium — was responsible for the Daley trade.

On June 14, 1961, Charlie Finley allowed Kansas City’s masochistic tendencies to continue by dealing Bud Daley (16 wins in 1959 and 1960) for Art Ditmar and Deron Johnson. Daley complemented Bill Stafford and Roland Sheldon the the Yankees’ pitching rotation, and could start or throw in long relief. Ditmar would appear in 32 games for Kansas City in the last three and a half months of the 1961 season, but would go winless. He retired in 1962. Johnson would eventually hit 245 home runs as a major leaguer, but he hit the vast majority after departing from Kansas City. Major advantage to the Yankees.