Davis recalls days of long-gone K.C. Athletics
From SABR member Gary Herron at the Rio Rancho Observer on September 29, 2012, with mention of SABR member Marty Davis:
Boys will be boys and Kansas City Athletics will be New York Yankees.
At least, that’s how it seemed back when Marty Davis was growing up in Springfield, Mo.
Now living in Placitas, Davis was — and still is — a fan of that short-lived team. The A’s moved to K.C. from Philadelphia in 1955 and departed for Oakland after the 1967 season. The Oakland A’s then won the World Series in 1972-74.
Often, maybe too often for a young fan of the A’s, popular K.C. players were dealt to the Yankees for lesser players. (Think Roger Maris, for example.)
According to the Baseball Almanac, “The Yankees, in fact, rarely traded players with any other team in this six-year period. From 1955 to 1960, the Yankees gained many outstanding players from Kansas City, and managed to give only marginal value in return. It must have worked, since the Yankees won four more pennants in a row beginning in 1955, while the new Kansas City team struggled to stay out of last place.”
Read the full article here: http://www.rrobserver.com/sports/article_63f0f29a-09b8-11e2-93e5-0019bb2963f4.html
Originally published: September 30, 2012. Last Updated: September 30, 2012.