Mr. K Brings Baseball Back to Kansas City

 

Charles O. Finley never seemed to connect with the people of Kansas City after acquiring ownership of the Athletics in 1961.1 In the six years that he owned the club in Kansas City, Finley failed to field a winning club, he often looked to relocate the club to a different city, constantly sparred with other baseball owners and officials over radio and television rights, and failed repeatedly to try and build a new ballpark. American League owners became fed up with Finley’s antics in Kansas City and his constant requests to move the franchise. They finally granted him his wish and approved the Athletics’ move to Oakland in 1967. As part of the arrangement that granted Finley’s departure, the people of Kansas City received a new franchise called the Royals. The owner of the expansion club, Ewing M. Kauffman, committed himself to the people of Kansas City. His commitment to produce a successful franchise quickly set him apart from other expansion clubs as a model of franchise excellence on and off the field.

On October 18, 1967, American League owners gave Finley the go-ahead to move his Athletics to Oakland. At the same meeting, major-league owners voted to expand each league by two teams no later than 1971.2 A delegation from Kansas City, including Mayor Ilus Davis and Missouri Senator Stuart Symington, protested the American League’s decision to wait until 1971 to expand. Symington threatened to hold congressional hearings that promised to strip away baseball’s antitrust status if the league failed to replace a team in Kansas City before 1971. Mayor Davis threatened legal action to stall the Athletics from moving.3

American League President Joe Cronin called another meeting with the owners to discuss an adjusted plan for expansion in the wake of threats by the Kansas City delegation. The owners agreed to move expansion up two years, to 1969. As added appeasement, the owners agreed that Kansas City would receive a new franchise, not one moved from another city. Frank Cashen of the Orioles recalled, “One thing I’ll never understand is the events of that day. Voting in the morning to allow Finley to leave Kansas City. Then voting in the afternoon to expand into Kansas City because we considered it one of the hotbeds of baseball. As an American Leaguer, I have to say I think that was a disgraceful proposition to have occurred in one day. Expansion was forced, and I’m not sure at all that it was good for baseball – as far as comparing the caliber of the game before that expansion before that expansion and now.”4

Expansion in 1969 included two new teams for the American and National Leagues. In the National League, the San Diego Padres would be joined by the major leagues’ first team in Canada, the Montreal Expos. In the American League, the Seattle Pilots would join the new club in Kansas City. These four clubs were part of baseball’s “second wave of expansion,” as described by historian Fran Zimniuch in Baseball’s New Frontier: A History of Expansion, 1961-1998. This wave of expansion changed the game forever.5

Baseball’s second wave of expansion called for a complete restructuring of the divisional format in baseball. The one-division leagues became circuits with two divisions, East and West. The division leaders would hold best-of-five playoffs, or Championship Series, to determine the pennant winners. They would then face each other in the World Series.6 The expansion San Diego Padres joined the National League West Division along with the Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, Houston Astros, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Francisco Giants. The new Montreal Expos were in the National League East along with the Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, and St. Louis Cardinals. The American League East featured the Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, and Washington Senators. The expansion Seattle Pilots and Kansas City Royals joined the American League West along with the California Angels, Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins, and Oakland Athletics.7

At a Chamber of Commerce luncheon in Kansas City in 1967, Gabe Paul, president and general manager of the Cleveland Indians, spoke of the need for someone or some group to put forth the financial effort to make sure Kansas City received the expansion club promised to it by the American League. In attendance was a local business leader who loved sports and felt a sense of civic pride in helping bring a new baseball franchise to his beloved Kansas City.

Ewing Kauffman, 51, was a native Missourian who made his fortune in pharmaceuticals. Kauffman had started Marion Laboratories in 1950 using $5,000 of his own money as a stake. He was a salesman during the day and order filler at night in the basement of his Kansas City home.8 Marion Laboratories became the largest drug-marketing organization in Missouri and ranked 41st among the nation’s 900 pharmaceutical companies by 1968.

Kauffman’s passion for sports focused not on baseball but on breeding race horses. His hobby, which included horses purchased from the actor Desi Arnaz, had earned him a profit of over $375,000.9 In fact, Kauffman did not really like baseball but was willing to help bring major-league ball back to Kansas City. “I raised my hand and said I would be willing to put in a million dollars,” Kauffman said, “not really doing it from anything but a civic standpoint.”10

The cost set by the American League for owning a new major-league franchise in Kansas City reduced the number of potential owners. The franchise fee totaled $5,300,000 plus an additional $600,000 for the major-league pension fund. Only four other groups made serious bids to become the new owners: Alex Barket, president of the Civic Plaza National Bank; Richard Stern, president of Stern Brothers; Crosby Kemper Sr., retired chairman of the City National Bank; and John Latshaw, vice president of Hutton & Co. who represented a group of civic leaders. The four groups plus Kauffman met with the American League screening committee as potential owners.11

Baseball supporters, businessmen, and civic leaders convinced Ewing Kauffman that he alone should be the new owner of the club. Sportswriter Ernie Mehl told Kauffman in late 1967 that “we need to show the American League there is somebody in Kansas City that is somewhat interested in baseball and financially can afford it.”12

Kauffman agreed and persuaded Commerce Trust to grant him a $4 million letter of credit to help him purchase the team. He received another letter of credit for $6 million for operating reserves for the club if he became the sole owner of the team.13

Kauffman’s meeting with American League officials placed him as the favorite to land the franchise. A number of national newspapers called his selection as the new owner “a foregone conclusion” because the American League owners preferred sole owners over syndicates.14 He assured the major-league owners in November 1967 of his commitment to the people of Kansas City and his plans to run the team. “If I get the ball team,” he said, “I’ll do what I did with the stable (referring to his horse-breeding experience) – hire professionals and turn the operation over to them. I’ll lay down the financial policy. The baseball end, I’ll leave to the baseball men.” All of the owners – including Charles O. Finley himself, voted to approve Kauffman as the owner of the Kansas City franchise.15 Announcing the selection of Kauffman, American League President Joe Cronin said on January 11, 1968, “Mr. Kauffman was chosen because of his fine business background, his connections in the public relations field, and his unending desire to own a major league franchise.”16

Kauffman promised his fellow townsmen that he would build a franchise that the people of Kansas City could be proud of. “Kansas City has been good to me and I want to show I can return the favor,” he said.17 He vowed that the club would remain in Kansas City during his lifetime, and that after his death his estate would be “legally bound to sell the club to Kansas City interests.”18

Kauffman was praised for his commitment to the city. His message to the mayor and to the potential fans of the new club removed the “onus of absentee ownership which plagued the A’s and their fans for 13 years,” said The Sporting News.19 Dick Young of the New York Daily News wrote after Kauffman received the franchise that readers should be prepared “for all sorts of jokes like changing the name from the Kaycee A’s to the Kaycee LSD’s.”20

 

 

To run the ballclub, Kauffman in January 1968 chose Cedric Tallis from the California Angels as his new general manager and executive vice president, then, as he had promised, stepped back and allowed Tallis to set up the baseball operation. Tallis hired front-office staff, established a minor-league system for the club with its first teams in Dubuque, Iowa, and Corning, New York. The Royals hired baseball veterans including Charlie Metro from the Chicago Cubs as director of personnel, Lou Gorman from the Baltimore Orioles as director of player development, and former Kansas City Athletics manager Joe Gordon to run the club on the field.21 Kauffman and Tallis assembled a baseball management staff loaded with experience to help him field a solid expansion club. Kauffman’s next moves to solidify Kansas City’s new major-league franchise utilized his marketing skills. He started the process of getting the Kansas City community and its baseball fans excited about their new club.

Kauffman turned to the people for suggestions on a team name and colors. The team received over 17,000 name suggestions, including Plowboys, Pythons, Canaries, Bovines, Bengals, Badgers, Salukis, and Batmen. Some names paid homage to Kansas Native American nations, among them the Pawnees, Osages, and the Kansa. A few names like the Kauffs, Kauffies, and Kawsmonats referred to Kauffman himself, but as historian Roger Launius wrote in his history of baseball in Missouri, “[E]veryone agreed that those names were just plain silly.”22

The board of directors agreed on the name Royals, a name submitted by Sanford Porte, a bridge engineer from Overland Park, Kansas. Porte suggested the Royals name because of “Missouri’s billion-dollar livestock income, Kansas City’s position as the nation’s leading stocker and feeder market and the nationally known American Royal parade and pageant.” Porte later added that “royalty stands for the best.”23 Porte also played a role in the colors of the team and suggested a logo and a mascot. He said the team mascot should be a “champion American Royal stallion like the west’s golden Palomino,” and the colors royal blue and white with an emblem of a royal blue crown on a white diamond. For his winning entry, Porte received an expense-paid trip to the All-Star Game in Houston that summer.

Kauffman, his wife, Muriel, and Tallis turned to the Kansas City-based greeting card giant Hallmark for help creating a logo. Hallmark held a contest among its designers. The logo had to contain blue, gold, and a crown. Designer Shannon Manning, submitted a logo representing a modern version of home plate, topped by a gold crown. As for the “KC” and the “R” in the logo lettering he explained, “And at the time, in the later ‘60s and early ‘70s, one of the more popular type styles was what they called ‘swash,’ these are modifications of the swash letters. They add a little flair to the image.” Muriel Kauffman had wanted a horse’s head in the loop of the “R” in the logo, but the final logo did not go with that. “I guess Mrs. Kauffman was a horse lover because she wanted a horse head inside the loop of the R, they didn’t do that,” Manning said.24

Kauffman’s marketing experience helped him build a loyal fan base in the relatively small major-league baseball market of Kansas City. One of his first deals involved the radio and TV broadcast rights. Just a month after the franchise was awarded to him, Kauffman signed a three-year sponsorship contract with the Schlitz brewery. When the Athletics moved to Kansas City in 1955, the brewery was the original sponsor for the club. The broadcasting contract with the Royals, worth over a million dollars a season, provided radio coverage for the team in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, and Arkansas.25 The company also agreed to sponsor television broadcasts for 30 road games but no home games. Broadcasting no home games and only a few road games was the norm at the time. The cross-state St. Louis Cardinals aired the same number of road games, while other teams aired nine or fewer games. On the other hand, the expansion Seattle Pilots never even secured a broadcast deal, which probably helped fuel their demise after only one season in the Pacific Northwest.26 The Sporting News called the broadcasting contract between the Royals and Schlitz the best ever for a Kansas City team because Charles Finley never received more than $156,000 per year in radio and television rights while in Kansas City.27

Kauffman created a team of boosters known as the Royal Lancers to help promote the team and push ticket sales. Membership in the exclusive sales force was limited to those who sold at least 75 season tickets for the inaugural 1969 season. It included some of Kauffman’s sales force from Marion Laboratories. Members of the club received team privileges including a Royals Lancers blazer, a Lancers club at Municipal Stadium, and a three-day trip for two to the team’s new spring-training facility at Fort Myers, Florida. The Sporting News reported that season-ticket sales by October 1968 had reached 6,334 for 1969, more than the top season-ticket sales for the Kansas City Athletics. A month later, the Royals set an American League record for season-ticket sales when their number reached 7,022. Kauffman did not plan on stopping there. “We’ll reach 10,000,” he said.28

Kauffman trusted Cedric Tallis to help make the team a success. Tallis and his staff agreed that the best way to build a sustaining winner was to focus on obtaining young players and teaching them the fundamentals of the game instead of trading for more experienced veteran players. “We won’t take players just because they have names,” Tallis said. “We have to build with young players; we’re going for prospects.”29 The Royals aggressively pursued and signed young players at a rate far outpacing the new expansion clubs and most other clubs. They had signed 29 of their 56 picks by July 1968, including their first pick of the expansion draft, Kenneth O’Donnell, a shortstop from Neptune, New Jersey. Jack McKeon, a scout for the Royals, liked what he saw of O’Donnell, saying, “He’s the best-looking infielder I’ve seen in three years.”30

The Royals and the Seattle Pilots participated in the expansion draft held in Boston on October 15, 1968. The 30 players obtained in the draft cost the Royals $175,000 each. Roger Nelson, a 24-year-old hard-throwing right-handed pitcher from the Baltimore Orioles, was the club’s first pick. The Royals then selected Joe Foy, a third baseman from the Boston Red Sox, and left-handed pitcher Jim Rooker from the New York Yankees. They expected Nelson and Rooker to lead their rotation for the inaugural 1969 season and for Foy to start at third.31 The Royals’ 49th pick was 46-year-old knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm. “I consider it an honor that Kansas City would draft me,” Wilhelm said. “I also was a little bit surprised that anybody would take a chance on me.”32 On July 24, 1968, while pitching for the White Sox, Wilhelm had broken Cy Young’s record for most games pitched. His time with the Royals, however, did not last long. Less than two months after drafting him, the Royals, in their first major-league-level trade, sent him to the California Angels for utility infielder Ed Kirkpatrick and rookie catcher Dennis Paepke. Tallis said the move emphasized the Royals’ “youthful approach.”33 Ike Brookens, a right-handed pitcher from the Washington Senators, became the Royals’ final selection on draft day. “By the start of spring training in Fort Myers,” Cedric Tallis said, “we should have at least 120 players.”34 The team and its signed players then headed out on a bus tour around Kansas and other states to help promote the new team. The caravan greeted fans and the media in Leavenworth, Atchison, Lawrence, Topeka, Manhattan, Junction City, Salina, Emporia, and Wichita in Kansas, as well as cities in Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.35

Municipal Stadium had been the former home of the Athletics and on June 4, 1968, the Royals signed a four-year lease with the city to play their games there. Originally named Muehlebach Field, after local brewer George E. Muehlebach, the ballpark, near the heart of the city, was built in 1923 for $400,000. The Muehlebach Brewing Company was founded by Swiss immigrant George Muehlebach Sr. When he died in 1905, his son took over the brewery and went on to leave his mark on Kansas City’s baseball history. George E. Muehlebach, a former player on his father’s local team, the Pilsners, purchased the minor-league Kansas City Blues of the American Association in 1917. Eventually, the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues became a tenant of Muehlebach Field.36 The New York Yankees purchased the field for their minor-league team in 1937 and renamed it Ruppert Stadium in honor of the Yankees owner, Col. Jacob Ruppert. When the Athletics left Philadelphia for Kansas City in 1955, the facility was renamed Municipal Stadium and an upper deck was added. The ballpark also became the home of the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League and the Kansas City Spurs of the North American Soccer League in 1968-1969.37

Kauffman had plans for a much bigger stadium project. Ground was broken for the Jackson County Sports Complex on July 11, 1968. The new sports complex consisted of a 45,000-seat ballpark for the Royals and a 75,000-seat football stadium for the Chiefs. The project cost the taxpayers of Jackson County $43 million and was scheduled to open in 1970.38 Delays in construction caused by two major strikes and inflation increased the total cost of the project to $70 million by the time Royals Stadium opened in April 1973.39

A crowd of 17,688 made their way into Municipal Stadium on April 8, 1969, to watch the Royals play the Minnesota Twins in the major leagues’ quick return to Kansas City. Senator Symington threw out the first pitch. The Royals team that took the field had little to no major-league experience but that did not stop them from giving the fans of Kansas City something good to cheer for. Lou Piniella, a 26-year-old rookie acquired from the Seattle Pilots, provided four hits for his new team that day. But pinch-hitter Joe Keough proved to be the Opening Day hero. His single in the bottom of the 12th inning off Twins reliever Dick Woodson gave the Royals a 4-3 walk-off win.

Opening Day provided the fans of Kansas City with a win but the team experienced expansion club growing pains. That first season the team surprised no one by finishing with a record of 69-93. In 1970, they finished 65-97.40 They made a run at contention in 1971, but finished a distant second, 16 games behind the Oakland Athletics, who were beginning their run as the most powerful team in the 1970s. Kansas City’s former Athletics won three straight World Series (1972-74) and locked up the division for five years beginning in 1971.

Kauffman understood that the other owners in baseball were not going to help him build a winner in Kansas City. “The only thing I could do,” he said, “was to go outside the normal baseball avenues open to us and try to find better players. So I came up with the idea that you didn’t have to play baseball all your life to be a good baseball player. That’s what the old-timers in baseball thought. I thought that if you had the physical attributes necessary to be a baseball star, you could be taught baseball.”41

 

 

Kauffman challenged his baseball people to devise innovative ways to build a contender for a division title and possible World Series victory within 10 years. The club brainstormed and although no one can receive full credit, those involved with the Royals at the time said later that the answer came from Syd Thrift in the scouting department.42 Syd’s idea challenged the traditional norms of baseball establishment by searching for athletic players who were often passed up on their baseball abilities. Kauffman funded his innovative new training program, the first of its kind in the major leagues, called the Royals Baseball Academy.

Situated in Sarasota, Florida, the academy opened in 1970. Kauffman hired scientists, including a young researcher from NASA and the Naval Research Laboratory named Dr. Raymond Reilly, and physicians who focused on four physical abilities necessary to succeed in baseball: speed of foot, excellent eyesight, quick reflexes and overall agility, and outstanding body balance. Athletes who showed that they had these skills, in the eyes of the instructors at the academy, could learn how to become successful in baseball. Several players who attended the academy made it to the major leagues, including future manager Ron Washington, and the Royals’ double-play combination from 1977 to 1984 of shortstop U.L. Washington and second baseman Frank White. The academy, although an innovative baseball experiment, proved too costly for the club to maintain. In 1974 the experiment ended when the academy closed its doors.43 The Royals Baseball Academy demonstrated Kauffman’s willingness to challenge traditional methods in building a successful major-league club, and his dedication to building a winning tradition for the Royals.

Jack McKeon, Royals manager in 1973, believed his team could win the American League pennant after the team thumped the Texas Rangers on April 10. “This team believes it can win a pennant,” McKeon said. “I believe we can win it. There’s no question about it. The atmosphere in this stadium and on this club is contagious … exciting.”44 In an era of cookie-cutter sporting venues, Ewing Kauffman built a unique ballpark. Designed by Kivett & Myers, a sports stadium architectural firm in Kansas City, Royals Stadium featured new-age technologies like a $2 million, 10-story-high electronic scoreboard shaped like the Royals crest. The ballpark’s 322-foot water fountain was the world’s largest privately funded water fountain. The fountain spectacular lit up the Kansas City sky with a combination of lights and dancing water jets that illuminated when a Royals player hit a home run. The water spectacular was a dream come true for the proud owner.45 “The scoreboard and water display will be so spectacular,” Kauffman said, “they will border on making the stadium a dream world.”46 Kauffman used his own money to fund the extras; for Opening Night he arranged to have the game televised in color at his own cost.47

Kauffman Stadium was the first American League park to be fully carpeted with an artificial surface. The team used that surface to build a winner based on speed and pitching.48 On August 2, 1973, a 20-year-old third baseman drafted by the club in 1971 from El Segundo High School in California made his debut against the Chicago White Sox. George Brett became the most popular Royals player and the foundation for what became one of the most successful teams of the expansion era. In his 20-year career, he was the centerpiece for a Royals franchise that won six AL West crowns, American League pennants in 1980 and 1985, and the 1985 World Series championship.

Notes

1 John Helyar, Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball (New York: Villard Books, 1994), 77.

2 Fran Zimniuch and Branch Rickey, Baseball’s New Frontier: A History of Expansion, 1961-1998 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2013), 76.

3 Roger D. Launius, Seasons in the Sun: The Story of Big League Baseball in Missouri (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2002), 89; Zimniuch and Rickey, 77-80; Mark Rieper, “Fifty Years Ago Today, Ewing Kauffman Became the First Owner in Royals History,” royalsreview.com/2018/1/11/16878996/fifty-years-ago-today-ewing-kauffman-became-the-first-owner-in-royals-history, January 11, 2018. Accessed April 7, 2018.

4 Launius, 89.

5 Zimniuch and Rickey, 77-80.

6 Charles C. Alexander, Our Game: An American Baseball History (New York: Henry Holt, 1992), 271.

7 Ibid.; Zimniuch and Rickey, 79.

8 “Celebrate the Legacy,” Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Website, kauffman.org/emk/marion#epitomeofentrepreneurship. Accessed March 2, 2018.

9 “Sunrise in Kansas City,” The Sporting News, January 27, 1968; “Celebrate the Legacy.”

10 Launius, 93.

11 “Kansas City Owner to be Named by A.L. Today,” Chicago Tribune, January 11, 1968; Alexander, 270; Zimniuch and Rickey, 79.

12 Launius, 93.

13 Ibid.

14 “American League Gives Franchise,” Baltimore Sun, January 12, 1968; Launius, 95.

15 Launius, 93.

16 United Press International, “Kauffman Heads Kansas City Club,” New York Times, January 12, 1968: 77.

17 “Ewing Kauffman and the Story of the Royals,” Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Website, kauffman.org/who-we-are/our-founder-ewing-kauffman/ewing-kauffman-and-the-story-of-the-kansas-city-royals. Accessed March 1, 2018.

18 “American League Gives Franchise.”

19 “Sunrise in Kansas City.”

20 Dick Young, “Young Ideas,” The Sporting News, February 3, 1968: 14.

21 Joe McGuff, “Old Home Week for Pilot Joe Gordon in Kaycee,” The Sporting News, September 21, 1968; “Royals Sign Gordon to One-Year Pact,” Baltimore Sun, September 10, 1968; Launius, 95.

22 Launius, 95.

23 “Kansas City Royals Need Some Players,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, March 22, 1968; “Kansas City Directors Name New Baseball Club the Royals,” Hartford Courant, March 22, 1968; Launius, 95.

24 Cynthia Billhartz Gregorian, “The Man Who Designed Iconic Kansas City Royals Logo in ’60s Recalls How He Did It,” Kansas City Star, March 28, 2018. https://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansas-city-royals/article207123729.html Accessed April 6, 2018.

25 “Royals Sign Three-Year Contract,” Independence (Missouri) Examiner, May 8, 1968.

26 Ibid.; Launius, 95; Max Rieper, “A History of Royals Broadcasters,” SB Nation: Royals Review, royalsreview.com/2016/11/28/13651720/a-history-of-royals-broadcasters. Accessed March 30, 2018.

27 Joe McGuff, “$3 Million Air Pact to Bolster Royals in Their ’69 A.L. Debut,” The Sporting News, June 1, 1968: 17.

28 “Royals Top K.C. Mark,” The Sporting News, October 12, 1968: 16; Sid Bordman, “Royals Set A.L. Season-Ducat Mark,” The Sporting News, November 2, 1968: 45; Launius, 95.

29 Launius, 96.

30 Joe McGuff, “Royals Post High Mark in Scouting Players,” The Sporting News, July 6, 1968: 16.

31 Zimniuch and Rickey, 77-80; Bordman, 41.

32 Paul Cox, “45-Year Old Wilhelm ‘Honored’ to Join the Royals as a Draftee,” The Sporting News, November 9, 1968: 44.

33 “Angels Deal 2 Players to Kansas City for Wilhelm,” Chicago Tribune, December 13, 1968.

34 Zimniuch and Rickey, 77-80.

35 Matthew Pozel, “5 Ways Ewing Kauffman Changed Baseball,” Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Website, March 28, 2018. Accessed April 1, 2018.

36 Jason Roe, “A Beer Baron Is Born,” Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library. kchistory.org/week-kansas-city-history/beer-baron-born. Accessed March 1, 2018; David B. Stinson, “Kansas City Municipal Stadium – Muehlebach, Ruppert, and Blues,” Deadball Baseball. deadballbaseball.com/?tag=muehlebach-field. Accessed June 18, 2018.

37 Ibid.

38 Joe McGuff, “Kaycee Starts on Stadiums,” The Sporting News, July 27, 1968: 9.

39 Bill Richardson, “Royals’ Brand New Stadium – Fit for a King,” The Sporting News, April 14, 1973: 9.

40 Neil Amdur, “Royal Welcome for Kansas City,” New York Times, April 8, 1969; “Royals Edge Twins, 4-3 in 12 Innings,” Boston Globe, April 9, 1969.

41 Launius, 96.

42 Sam Mellinger, “Forty Years Later, Royals Academy Lives On in Memories,” Kansas City Star, August 2, 2014. kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/sam-mellinger/article940797.html. Accessed April 6, 2018.

43 Matthew Pozel, “5 Ways Ewing Kauffman Changed Baseball”; Launius, 96.

44 “Kansas City All Agog Over Streaking Royals,” Los Angeles Times, April 19, 1973.

45 ‘Huge Scoreboard Big Hit in New K.C. Park,” Baltimore Sun, March 16, 1973.

46 Bill Richardson, “Royals’ Brand New Stadium – Fit for a King,” The Sporting News, April 14, 1973: 9.

47 “Royals Stage Spectacular,” Washington Post, April 10, 1973.

48 William Leggett, “Now Comes the Big Blue Machine,” Sports Illustrated, April 23, 1973.