Life in the Good Old A’s, or Growing Up Finley

Nancy Finley grew up in the Oakland Coliseum, occupying a seat in her father’s office every day after school while the Swingin’ A’s went about their work of dominating baseball. A teenager and Oakland High School student during Oakland’s legendary run, Nancy was the daughter of Carl Finley, who ran the A’s front office. Carl, the cousin of A’s owner and general manager Charlie Finley, served in numerous capacities, but he was Charlie’s man on the ground in Oakland while the owner spent most of the year two time zones away. Charlie, who wanted to maintain his business and home base in Illinois and Indiana, had persuaded favorite cousin Carl to leave his job with the Dallas school system to be his eyes and ears in Kansas City. Then Carl moved to Oakland along with the franchise in 1968. He was not alone.

Carl’s daughter, Nancy, lived with him in an apartment not far from the Oakland Coliseum. Nancy had lived in Dallas with her mother following an acrimonious divorce, but her father gained custody and she moved to Oakland at 14. As the A’s grew up, so did Nancy. She ran errands, stuffed envelopes, sat in on meetings, peeked in at Pink Floyd doing a sound check at the adjoining Oakland Coliseum Arena, processed postseason ticket requests, visited Charlie O. the mule at his stable, and watched some of the best baseball played during the 1970s. It was a childhood many would envy, but it was just the way things were for a shy high-school student whose family name was constantly in the press – and not always favorably.

It was the time of her life, which she has been working into book form. Her story includes never-before-seen documentation and perspective from her family’s side of a story that has often been told only one way in the press of the day and in the books and documentaries that have followed. Still a resident of the East Bay, and raising her own family, Nancy Finley fondly recalls the A’s glory days.

---

1) How old were you when you started working in the A’s offices?

Nancy Finley: Working? At a very young age, someone in one front office would ask me to take a note to someone in another front office. They thought it was cute.  I would have to say that I was paid for my work starting with our championships, because of how serious it was. I never worked full time during those years, though – I was only 14 in 1972.

2) There have been a lot of stories about how few people worked for the A’s front office compared to other teams. Can you paint a picture of what it was like behind the scenes with the A’s?

Finley: I still have a December 24, 1974, Oakland Tribune article, where a well known entertainment columnist, Perry Phillips, wished all of his friends happy holidays. I remember this columnist well.  He was a friend of Dad’s.

This columnist mentions the Raiders staff (including front office), many Bay Area restaurants (I recognize most names), and our A’s staff. He names Al Dark, Dad, Charlie, and Charlie’s secretary. That is it. With the Raiders, the list is much longer. [Editor’s Note: The list has 32 Raiders names, to be exact.

We were the smallest front office in baseball, but we were also the best.

3) Did you have any input with the yearbooks?

Finley: No. If I had, my name would have appeared. Dad never wanted my name here. here were too many kidnapping threats (à la Patty Hearst) in the 1970s. Dad had 99 percent of the input in the yearbook. Dad often beefed up our front office by adding names twice, or, inserting other relatives.

4) There’s an interesting story about you handling the A’s postseason tickets. Can you describe what the task was like in the age before computers and credit cards?

Finley: I remember we had to start taking orders for postseason tickets soon after Labor Day. It may have even been slightly earlier. Whoever was in first and second place a certain amount of time before the end of the season had to have championship tickets preprinted. Seeing printed World Series tickets in mid- to late September added stress.

During our radio and TV broadcasts, our announcer would tell fans that if they wanted to purchase tickets for playoffs or World Series, they needed to send a check to a PO box in Oakland. Only Dad had this POB key.  

Fans could call our ticket office for pricing. Everything was paid via check, money order, or cashier’s check, via “snail mail” to that address. I spent all day, from about 7 or 8 a.m. until it was dark, opening envelopes. Sometimes, cash fell out instead. Sometimes, gift certificates fell out. Sometimes, jewelry fell out – nothing bulky, usually a thin gold chain. Bribery did not work in getting better seats, though I never knew what happened to the excess people sent in.

5) Did you ever work the ticket booth?

Finley: On occasion, I helped inside our ticket front office. I did not work behind the ticket booth at the Coliseum. Again, it was for security purposes.

6) Did you help with any promotions?

Finley: Yes. I remember being around the family during brainstorming sessions at a very young age. I’ll always have fond memories of this. It electrified the room. As a pre-teen, just about every business dinner I attended with Dad and Charlie turned out to be a brainstorming session. No one’s idea was ever laughed at in a bad way. This taught me to be open-minded.  

As a teenager, I was brought into this group. It just happened. I could offer what my generation thought. It was during one of these brainstorming sessions that Charlie said he really liked the way I thought. Charlie told dad that I was now an A’s VP.  Unofficially, my father made sure.

7) Can you explain how you were related to Charlie Finley?

Finley: My grandfather and Charlie’s father were brothers. They were the eldest of the Finley siblings. After World War I (most Finley males were drafted), Charlie’s father married and lived close to his parents and siblings in Birmingham, Alabama. My grandfather did not want any part of working in the local steel mill. He moved to Dallas, Texas, for a better employment opportunity. My grandfather became a salesman of anything, as I call it. Mostly he sold used cars. Dad never had the typical Depression-era stories, since they always had food on the table.

Granddad used to call Charlie his “favorite nephew,” and “like a son.” I have heard how Charlie was more like my grandfather than Dad was. Dad was more like Charlie’s father, Uncle Oscar. Uncle Oscar was mellow. Charlie certainly was not.

In the late 1930s the Birmingham steel mills were closing. Uncle Oscar had worked in these steel mills. At this time, steel-mill jobs were opening in Gary, Indiana. Charlie did not want to move. He asked to live with Granddad while his parents settled in Gary.

After Uncle Oscar was settled in Gary, my other uncles – I call them “the brothers” – and Granddad visited Gary often. They were very close.

Dad and Charlie each had one younger brother. These were not close relationships. Charlie and Dad, and through all of the other “brothers,” stayed in touch. I don’t know if this is just a Southern thing, although I notice my older cousins refer to themselves as my “aunt” or “uncle.” This is what my children now call them. I remember in Kansas City, being in a large crowded room, with Charlie squatting down, his arms held out, and saying, “Come to Uncle Charlie!”

8) Did you enjoy baseball or other sports before your father, Carl, became associated with the A’s?

Finley: I was too young to know about other sports. I used to think our Kansas City players changed into Chiefs uniforms in the winter, and played football.

9) Since there are so many stories about Charlie Finley, can you provide a better picture of what he was like behind the scenes with his team and his family?

Finley: If you can believe it, he was very private with his family. He was also down to earth. He did not like pretentious people. He appreciated being asked for advice. Sometimes he was in a mood to say something, to see if a reporter would pick up on it. This backfired at times. It was written as fact, when he was actually bluffing. He absolutely loved animals.  

10) Did you spend much time with the fabled mule, Charlie O.?

Finley: I spent a lot of time visiting Charlie O. in Kansas City, at Benjamin Stables, where he was boarded. Howard Benjamin gave me my own pony, slightly larger than a standard pony. Everyday after school, I was at Benjamin Stables to ride, and visited Charlie O., with carrots or sugar cubes. 

In Oakland, the only boarding stable was Skyline Ranch in Oakland Hills, about five miles from the Coliseum. It appeared Skyline Ranch wasn’t familiar with mules, though this was just my intuition. I visited Charlie O. as much as possible.  I really yearned for Benjamin Stables.

11) What was it like living in the Bay Area and going to Oakland High School during such a turbulent time in the city’s history?

Finley: When I moved to Oakland, I didn’t realize this area was in the middle of so many movements. I moved from Dallas, where girls were not allowed to wear pants in public schools. Suddenly I was enrolled in an Oakland public school without many dress restrictions. Dad and Charlie were strong believers in the public-school system.  

I never realized how my school was fully aware of who I was, and my father’s position. I did see clues. It was difficult to make friends. I was very shy, and it seemed like most of my schoolmates knew each other from elementary school. I do remember some mornings when “Finley” would appear as the main headline on the front page. This was the actual front page, not the sports section. I was worried about classmates saying something. A few did come up to me, and demand to know why we did such and such. This was a scary feeling. Dad said he might look into a private school. I said no, since it felt like I had changed schools so often. I was determined to learn to deal with these comments.

I stayed to myself. After school each day, Dad or someone in our front office would pick me up and drive me to our front office. This is where I felt the most comfortable. I often did my homework sitting near the top of our upper deck and watching the sun set over the Bay, toward San Francisco. The view from our box seats had the backdrop of the Oakland Hills to the east. This was before the Coliseum renovations in 1996, which took away the view of the east hills.

12) What do you think was the secret to Charlie and the A’s success? Was it really Sweat plus Sacrifice?

Finley: One secret, I recently discovered, is synesthesia. Massachusetts Institute of Technology defines synesthesia as “an involuntary joining in which the real information of one sense is accompanied by a perception in another sense.” To put it another way, people with synesthesia can taste shapes or smell colors. This has been proven to be genetic. Charlie meets all of the criteria. And how many times have I read the word “color” or “colorful” in the same sentence with Charlie’s name.

Charlie, and, I believe Dad – they discussed everything – had an instinct for finding talent. I remember when Charlie would call Dad, and be very excited about a new prospect. He had that immediate feeling. He would ask Dad, “What do you think?”

Dad said Charlie’s description of this new talent was always amazing.  

I believe our key to success was instinct, with a little common sense thrown in.  

I refer to this instinct as the fourth “S” in the formula: Synesthesia.  

13) Who was your favorite A’s player? Do I recall correctly that some of the players’ families babysat you as a child in Kansas City?

Finley: My favorite players have changed year to year. I have never had just one favorite player.

In Kansas City, Dick Green’s wife babysat me. I think he demanded too much money afterward. Ha!

14) What was the adjustment like for you and your family going from Kansas City to Oakland?

Finley: Interesting. I was living in Dallas when the team made the move from K.C. to Oakland. This may have been a good thing at the time. When my parents divorced in late 1966, I moved back to Dallas with Mom. Dad stayed in K.C. My parents’ divorce was adversarial.  

Before the divorce, I remember hearing about the team moving to Dallas/Fort Worth, if it had to move. This was the desired place to move. It also made sense for the family, since several family members had moved to Texas.

I remember hearing about other city locations, if a move had to happen. Oakland and Atlanta were the other places. I had heard of Atlanta, although I didn’t know where Oakland was.

While living in Dallas, about mid-1968, I finally heard about the team moving to Oakland. I remember wondering how everyone was doing, what it was like in Oakland. I missed Dad so much.  I missed everyone. I wanted to be with Dad.

In early 1970, when I was 11, Dad gained sole custody of me. I was so happy. The first thing I wanted to do was see the Oakland Coliseum, and visit the front-office staff.

15) After working for the A’s during their three straight world championships and five straight division titles, what did you do for an encore?

Finley: After our 1975 AL West Division title, I began to spend more hours inside our front office. I remember trying to recruit former classmates who seemed trustworthy. Dad and Charlie preferred hiring people we knew and could trust, which is probably one of the reasons we had fewer employees than other teams.

By the mid-1970s our office at the Coliseum still wasn’t finished. This was promised when the team moved to Oakland in 1968. According to Dad and Charlie, Oakland was the only city they looked at that had a “ready to move into” stadium. So Oakland was chosen. Charlie would not spend his money on the Coliseum office, since he spent about $400,000 to remodel the old Kansas City stadium, and felt burned. The unfinished Coliseum front office became contentious.

In 1976 Charlie and Dad decided to rebuild another dynasty. They sounded very confident that they could do it. They kept this to themselves. I remember how curious the press seemed about what was happening with us in the late 1970s. Behind the scenes, we were making it happen again.

Then, about March 1979, I remember when we were served with a complaint by the city, county, and Coliseum board. I remember reading the “Causes of Action.”  Even I could see these were silly, and meaningless. It was as if it was meant to harass.

This complaint was filed in federal court, with higher costs than municipal courts. What a waste of taxpayer money. Within four months, the federal-court judge dismissed this suit, in our favor. I remember Charlie saying he couldn’t understand why this would be filed against us, after so many championships. Someone on the Coliseum board replied, “It isn’t all about winning.” We were all perplexed by this statement.

Dad said this suit made him have a lengthy talk with Charlie. They both agreed it was probably time to sell the team. This suit impacted morale.

We hired Billy Martin for our 1980 season. That was a wonderful year. The new ownership did not happen until the end of 1980, so 1981 was the first season under the new ownership. The new owners took over the players we’d scouted, brought through the farm system, and broken in for the major leagues.

Dad was asked to remain with the new ownership in a VP/Mentor position. What happened in 1981?  We won the 1981 AL West Division title! This was our rebuilding!

If only Charlie and Dad could have been together with the A’s for this series; 1981 was like our first 1971 division title. It made me wonder if we could have had a repeat, with ’82, ’83 and ’84, if only Charlie hadn’t sold the team.