The Athletics were Kansas City’s team from 1955 to 1967. During that short period, the Athletics and New York Yankees participated in a series of one-sided trades that generally favored the Yankees. For sending the Yankees solid major league players who filled needs, the Athletics received packages largely consisting of has-beens and prospects who turned out to be suspects. The A’s were accused of being nothing more than the Yankees’ farm team, and indeed, they seemed to function as such. During that period, the Yankees won nine pennants and four World Series titles, while the A’s never had a winning season.
The incestuous relationship between the two clubs had its genesis in 1954, when Chicago industrialist Arnold Johnson purchased the Philadelphia Athletics with the intent of moving them to Kansas City. Arnold had a long-standing business relationship with the Yankees’ owners, Larry MacPhail, Dan Topping, and Del Webb. The trio was instrumental in working behind the scenes to garner approval from the other American League owners for the move. The Yankees had a Triple-A team in Kansas City at the time. They moved it to Denver and waived the fee and costs they were entitled to from Johnson as a result of the move. All of this raises the question: Did the Kansas City A’s try to operate as a proper franchise, or were they merely subservient to the Yankees? With apologies to Seth Meyers, it’s time for a closer look.
The First Wave of Deals
We won’t look at every deal between the two clubs during this period. Some were insignificant. Here we’ll hit the highlights.
May 11, 1955: Yankees get P Sonny Dixon and cash. A’s get P Johnny Sain and OF Enos Slaughter. Dixon made just two relief appearances for Kansas City in 1955 and three for the Yankees in 1956, after which his major league career was over. The 37-year-old Sain was a once-great pitcher who would finish out the 1955 season and retire. Slaughter was a 39-year-old future Hall-of-Famer who the Yankees had no room for. This trade barely registered on most baseball followers’ radar. But it was what happened next that foreshadowed how these teams would operate with each other in the future.
August 25, 1956: A’s sell Slaughter to Yankees. With this transaction, it was now clear that Slaughter was biding his time in Kansas City only until the Yankees needed him. With their outfield ravaged by injuries as they were on their way to another AL pennant, the A’s dutifully placed Slaughter on waivers so that the Yankees could claim him. Johnson told Associated Press that in addition to the waiver price, “Kansas City would receive in exchange a player who now is a regular on the Yankees and would be a regular with the Athletics next year.” The Yankees never sent a player to Kansas City to complete the deal.
October 15, 1956: Yankees sell LF Bob Cerv to A’s. This was a rare deal that worked out well for the Athletics. The Yankees had no room for him until they reacquired him in the middle of the 1960 season. Meanwhile, in three-plus years with the A’s, Cerv hit .288/.342/.509 and was worth 8.1 WAR. The deal merits mention here because it debunks a popular story that’s made the rounds in the annals of baseball. Legend has it that Yankees manager Casey Stengel sat down next to Cerv in the Yankees dugout before one game. After the two silently peered at the field for a while, Stengel told him, “Nobody knows this yet, but one of us has been traded to Kansas City.” It’s a great story, but unfortunately, it’s not true. The Yankees’ season was over on October 10, when they won Game 7 of the World Series. There would have been no occasion for Stengel and Cerv to be in the dugout at Yankee Stadium six days later.
Stengel Speaks for the A’s
February 19, 1957: Yankees get 1B Wayne Belardi, INF Clete Boyer, P Art Ditmar, P Jack McMahan, INF Curtis Roberts, and P Bobby Shantz. A’s get P Rip Coleman, 2B Milt Graff, SS Billy Hunter, P Mickey McDermott, P Tom Morgan, OF/1B Irv Noren, and P Jack Urban. Oddly, from the Athletics’ standpoint, it was Stengel who spoke to AP about this deal: “Kansas City got a better club by making this deal. They got a double play combination in Graff and Hunter, and they got three experienced pitchers. That’s what they needed most – a double play combination and pitching.” But it was the Yankees who got the better of this deal by far.
Noren hit .213 in 1957, his only season with the A’s. That was higher than the averages produced by Graff and Hunter for Kansas City. The four pitchers were a combined 27-43 with Kansas City. By the end of the 1958 season, only Coleman remained of the seven players acquired. He was 2-17 as an Athletic and was traded during the 1959 season.
Meanwhile, Boyer, Ditmar, and Shantz were important pieces for the Yankees. Boyer hit just .241/.298/.371, 95 HR, and 393 RBI in eight seasons, but provided solid glove work on the left side of the infield. After two seasons working mostly out of the bullpen, Ditmar joined New York’s rotation in 1959. Across 1959-60, he was 28-18 with a 2.98 ERA and 1.142 WHIP. Stengel thought enough of him to tab him to start Game 1 of the 1960 World Series. In Shantz’s four seasons with the Yankees, spent chiefly in relief, he posted a record of 30-18 with a 2.73 ERA and won four Gold Glove Awards. His 2.45 ERA led all Major League Baseball in 1957.
Shantz is still alive today, by the way, at age 100. He’s the only living player who played for Connie Mack and the Philadelphia Athletics.
The Hottest Spot North of Havana
June 15, 1957: Yankees get P Ryne Duren, Graff, CF Jim Pisoni, and OF/1B Harry Simpson. A’s get INF/OF Woodie Held, 2B Billy Martin, RF Bob Martyn, and P Ralph Terry. This was a trade of convenience for the Yankees. The brass wanted rid of Martin, and they wanted him out fast. The A’s were happy to oblige.
To understand why, we must go back to May 28. It was Martin’s 29th birthday, and the Athletics were in New York for a series against the Yankees. A big celebration was planned. On the guest list were Hank Bauer, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Mickey Mantle, and their wives, as well as Johnny Kucks and former teammates Cerv and Noren. Their evening began with dinner at Danny’s Hideaway, where the drinks flowed freely. Afterward, Cerv and Noren retired for the night, and the rest of the gang headed to the Waldorf-Astoria for singer Johnnie Ray’s 10:30 PM show. The chef there baked a birthday cake for Martin, and after a drink or two or three, the group headed to the celebrated Copacabana to watch Sammy Davis Jr. The Yankees party was given a front-row table for the 2:00 AM show at the mob-owned club.
Adjacent to their table was a bowling team celebrating a championship. The bowlers had their fair share of drinks, too, and hurled racial insults at Davis. The Yankees players asked them to tone it down. What happened next has been the subject of dispute for decades. Mantle never even told his own sons the story. What’s known is that a brawl broke out in the men’s room, and one of the bowlers was on the floor, unconscious and with a broken nose. Bauer, an ex-Marine, was accused of throwing the knockout punch. He and his teammates said it was one of the bouncers. Years later, Martin biographer Peter Golenbock wrote that Bauer had confided to friends that he did indeed throw the punch. Martin got the blame. His attorney, Ed Sapir, told Golenbock that “when everybody got into a big pile, Mickey couldn’t locate Billy, so he started screaming, ‘Billy, Billy, Billy,’ and all the Filipinos in the kitchen heard was ‘Billy, Billy, Billy,’ and when the police came, they asked the Filipinos who did it, and they said, ‘Billy, Billy, Billy.’”
Rather than rat on a teammate, Martin, who had Southern Italian blood in him, observed the code of omerta and took the rap. At last, the Yankees had their excuse for getting rid of him. As a bonus, they got a fireballing reliever in Duren, who, in four seasons with New York, had a 2.75 ERA, struck out 11.2 batters per nine innings, and led the AL with 19 saves in 1958.
“Keep an Eye on Maris”
June 15, 1958: Yankees get P Duke Maas and P Virgil Trucks. A’s get P Bob Grim and Simpson. This final day of the MLB trade deadline got busy late, and 20 players would change teams. As for this deal, the Yankees got the better of it by far. Maas gave New York a fourth starter they sorely needed for the rest of their 1958 pennant drive. He remained with the Yankees through 1961, going 26-12, albeit with a 4.21 ERA. The A’s got a sore-armed pitcher in Grim and reacquired “Suitcase” Simpson. Trucks was pleased, telling AP, “I never heard of anyone traded to the Yankees who squawked or refused to report.”
Of greater interest was another deal Kansas City made that day, obtaining outfielder Roger Maris and two others from Cleveland in exchange for Held and Vic Power. Toledo Blade sports editor Don Wolfe wrote, rather ominously, “[I]t would be a good idea to keep an eye on the future travel of Roger Maris. It is gossiped in baseball’s dens that Casey Stengel covets this young outfielder.”
“The Yanks Have Recalled Terry”
May 26, 1959: Yankees get INF/OF Hector Lopez and Terry. A’s get P Kucks, INF Jerry Lumpe, and P Tom Sturdivant. Terry, who was 21 years old when he was sent to the A’s in the deal that unloaded Martin, returned and became a solid starter for eight seasons with the Yankees, posting a record of 78-59 with a 3.44 ERA. That included a 1961 season when he was 16-3 and a 1962 season when he led the AL in wins at 23-12. He slipped to 17-15 in 1963 but still led the AL with 18 complete games. Terry is best known for surrendering Bill Mazeroski’s ninth-inning home run to win the 1960 World Series for the Pittsburgh Pirates. But Stengel never stopped trusting him. Terry would go on to start five games across the World Series of 1961 and 1962. In the 1962 Series, he took a tough 2-0 loss in Game 2. He bounced back to pitch complete-game victories in Games 5 and 7 by scores of 5-3 and 1-0.
However, the baseball world and the Kansas City fans were beginning to smell a rat. (What took them so long?) Cleveland GM Frank Lane told AP, “It looks like a trade that will make the Yanks tougher to beat and the A’s easier to beat.” A Kansas City fan, described only as a “cynic,” said, “Well, I see where the Yanks have recalled Terry after farming him out for a couple of seasons with their junior varsity.” Chicago White Sox manager Al Lopez took the same view: “Maybe the Yanks are sending out Kucks, Sturdivant, and Lumpe for further seasoning. They had Terry out on option.” A defiant Johnson said he’d continue to deal with the Yankees. No kiddin’, huh?
“Faith in Each Other”
December 11, 1959: Yankees get SS Joe DeMaestri, 1B Kent Hadley, and RF Maris. A’s get RF Bauer, P Don Larsen, LF/1B Norm Siebern, and 1B Marv Throneberry. “Stengel Wants Maris, Will Probably Get Him,” read the headline in a short AP piece the day before the deal was made. There are two essential truths in life: “Cogito, ergo sum” (René Descartes) and “The A’s got ripped off in the Maris trade” (anybody who knows the first thing about baseball).
All Maris did for the Yankees was hit .265/.356/.515, 203 HR, and 547 RBI in seven seasons. He was an All-Star in three of those seasons. He was the AL Most Valuable Player in 1960 when he led the league with 7.5 WAR and 112 RBI, while also garnering a Gold Glove. In 1961, he repeated as the MVP when he broke Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record by belting his 61st on the last day of the season.
Yankees general manager George Weiss told AP, “We have tried to deal unsuccessfully with other clubs in both leagues. The Yanks and Kansas City have faith in each other.” Stengel planned to use Lopez and Maris in the corner outfield spots, flanking Mantle. If the trade didn’t surprise every baseball observer, it surprised Maris, who learned of the deal from a friend while shopping in a supermarket in Raytown, Missouri. “Believe it or not, I’d have rather stayed with the Athletics,” said Maris. In what now reads as a classic understatement, he added, “But I’ll do my best for the Yankees.”
After the deal was consummated, the Pittsburgh newspapers learned that the Pirates had offered the A’s a package of Dick Groat, Ron Kline, Bill Virdon, and either Hank Foiles or Danny Kravitz in exchange for Maris, DeMaestri, and Hal Smith. Pirates GM Joe L. Brown stated that he “almost had Maris” but later thought it over and withdrew the offer. Weiss claimed that it was Johnson who walked away from the deal, telling Lester J. Biederman of The Pittsburgh Press, “A certain National League team offered three regulars for Maris, etc., and Arnold Johnson of Kansas City was ready to accept it. But Johnson was told the official who thought up the trade lacked full authority and asked for a delay. Johnson told me he didn’t like that way of doing business and called me up to accept our offer for Maris.”
Weiss’s explanation strikes me as pure hogwash. Brown would have had the authority to make the proposed deal. Where would Johnson have heard otherwise? From Weiss, maybe? The deal would have changed the course of history. Pittsburgh obtained Smith in a lesser deal and went on to win the 1960 World Series with Virdon, Groat, and Smith playing key roles. Groat was the NL MVP and batting champion, and Smith hit a clutch eighth-inning home run in Game 7 of the Series.
Let’s look at what the A’s got. Siebern gave them four good years, hitting .289/.381/.463 and making two All-Star appearances, but he never played at the level Maris did. Bauer and Larsen were well past their prime. Of the seven players involved in the trade, Throneberry made the best beer commercials.
It’s fair to point out that on July 27, 1959, Maris was leading the AL with a .344 average. Before the 1960 season began, Maris told Arthur Daley of the New York Times, “I still don’t know what happened after that. Nothing seemed to work. My timing was off, and I just had no luck.” Indeed, for the rest of the season, he hit just .167/.298/.259. He described a play where he had a chance to throw a runner out at home plate, but instead froze and held onto the ball. “He’s a very confused young ball player,” said A’s manager Harry Craft. But Maris was only 24, and wasn’t the first, nor the last, young player to struggle in the major leagues before finding his footing. It’s unknown whether Maris’s struggles were the reason behind Johnson’s urgency to give up on him so soon, or whether he was merely doing the Yankees’ bidding once again.
“What? Again?”
May 19, 1960: Yankees reacquire Cerv. A’s get 3B Andy Carey. Johnson passed away on March 3, 1960, but somehow, there were two more one-sided deals. Maybe it had become a way of life for the Athletics. Cerv developed into a power hitter with Kansas City, belting 38 home runs in 1958 and following that up with 20 more in 1959. Carey had lost his starting job to Boyer. According to AP, when he learned of the trade, White Sox owner Bill Veeck cried, “What? Again? The Yankees keep sending players to Kansas City for seasoning.”
June 14, 1961: Yankees get P Bud Daley. A’s get Ditmar and 3B Deron Johnson. Charlie Finley purchased the Athletics from Arnold Johnson’s estate on December 19, 1960. When he surrendered Daley, Kansas City’s best starter who went 32-29 across 1959 and 1960, the outcry from fans got louder. To appease them, Finley then vowed to discontinue trading with the Yankees. With a keen eye for talent, Finley built up the Athletics’ minor league system with players who would be important components of their World Series champions of 1972-74. Unfortunately for Kansas City fans, that was after the franchise moved to Oakland in 1968.
