1967 Kansas City Athletics season

The 1967 Kansas City Athletics season involved the team's finishing tenth in the American League with a record of 62 wins and 99 losses, 29+12 games behind the American League Champion Boston Red Sox. This was the franchise's 13th and final season in Kansas City. After the season, the team relocated from Kansas City to Oakland. This precipitated a series of events culminating in the enfranchisement of the Kansas City Royals in the 1969 Major League Baseball expansion.

1967 Kansas City Athletics
LeagueAmerican League
BallparkMunicipal Stadium
CityKansas City, Missouri
OwnersCharles O. Finley
General managersEd Lopat
ManagersAlvin Dark, Luke Appling
TelevisionKCMO-TV
RadioKCMO (AM)
(Monte Moore, Lynn Faris)
← 1966
1968 →

The paid attendance for the season was 726,639 fans.[1]

Offseason

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Round 1: Ken Hottman (did not sign)
Secondary Phase[4]
Round 5: Jim Panther .[5]
  • In the offseason, local millionaire Ewing Kauffman was approached by a group led by sportswriter Ernie Mehl to buy the club and ensure that it remained in Kansas City.[6]

Regular season

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  • Despite an 18–18 start, the Athletics had a record of 35 wins compared to 49 losses by the All-Star Break.[7]
  • On June 9, Reggie Jackson debuted in the major leagues with the A's at home in a doubleheader shutout sweep of the Cleveland Indians. He started in right field and went hitless in three at-bats in the opener, then entered the nightcap in the fifth inning and promptly hit a lead-off triple off of long reliever Orlando Peña, but did not score.[8][9]

Season standings

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American League
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
Boston Red Sox 92 70 .568 49‍–‍32 43‍–‍38
Detroit Tigers 91 71 .562 1 52‍–‍29 39‍–‍42
Minnesota Twins 91 71 .562 1 52‍–‍29 39‍–‍42
Chicago White Sox 89 73 .549 3 49‍–‍33 40‍–‍40
California Angels 84 77 .522 53‍–‍30 31‍–‍47
Washington Senators 76 85 .472 15½ 40‍–‍40 36‍–‍45
Baltimore Orioles 76 85 .472 15½ 35‍–‍42 41‍–‍43
Cleveland Indians 75 87 .463 17 36‍–‍45 39‍–‍42
New York Yankees 72 90 .444 20 43‍–‍38 29‍–‍52
Kansas City Athletics 62 99 .385 29½ 37‍–‍44 25‍–‍55

Record vs. opponents

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Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
Team BAL BOS CAL CWS CLE DET KCA MIN NYY WSH
Baltimore 10–8 6–11 7–11 9–9 3–15 10–8 8–10 13–5 10–8
Boston 8–10 10–8 8–10 13–5 11–7 12–6 7–11 12–6 11–7
California 11–6 8–10 7–11 14–4 8–10 14–4 7–11 9–9 6–12
Chicago 11–7 10–8 11–7 12–6 8–10 8–10 9–9 12–6 8–10
Cleveland 9–9 5–13 4–14 6–12 8–10 11–7 10–8 9–9 13–5
Detroit 15–3 7–11 10–8 10–8 10–8 12–6 8–10–1 10–8 9–9
Kansas City 8–10 6–12 4–14 10–8 7–11 6–12 8–10 7–11 6–11
Minnesota 10–8 11–7 11–7 9–9 8–10 10–8–1 10–8 12–6–1 10–8
New York 5–13 6–12 9–9 6–12 9–9 8–10 11–7 6–12–1 12–6
Washington 8–10 7–11 12–6 10–8 5–13 9–9 11–6 8–10 6–12


Notable transactions

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Round 2: Vida Blue[11]
Round 11: Eric Soderholm (did not sign)[12]
Secondary Phase:[13]
Round 4: Warren Bogle
Round 5: Ray Peters (did not sign)
Round 7: Darrell Evans[14]

Roster

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1967 Kansas City Athletics
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

Player stats

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Batting

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Starters by position

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Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Phil Roof 114 327 67 .205 6 24
1B Ray Webster 122 360 92 .258 11 51
2B John Donaldson 105 377 104 .276 0 28
SS Bert Campaneris 147 601 149 .248 3 32
3B Danny Cater 142 529 143 .270 4 46
LF Jim Gosger 134 356 86 .242 5 36
CF Rick Monday 124 406 102 .251 14 58
RF Mike Hershberger 142 480 122 .254 1 49

Other batters

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Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Dick Green 122 349 69 .198 5 37
Ken Harrelson 61 174 53 .305 6 30
Joe Nossek 87 166 34 .205 0 10
Sal Bando 47 130 25 .192 0 6
Reggie Jackson 35 118 21 .178 1 6
Ted Kubiak 53 102 16 .157 0 5
Dave Duncan 34 101 19 .188 5 11
Roger Repoz 40 87 21 .241 2 8
Ken Suarez 39 63 15 .238 2 9
Ed Charles 19 61 15 .246 0 5
Tim Talton 46 59 15 .254 0 5
Ossie Chavarría 38 59 6 .102 0 4
Joe Rudi 19 43 8 .186 0 1
Allan Lewis 34 6 1 .167 0 0
Weldon Bowlin 2 5 1 .200 0 0

Pitching

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Starting pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Catfish Hunter 35 259.2 13 17 2.81 196
Jim Nash 37 222.1 12 17 3.76 186
Chuck Dobson 32 197.2 10 10 3.69 110

Other pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Lew Krausse Jr. 48 160.0 7 17 4.28 96
Paul Lindblad 46 115.2 5 8 3.58 83
Blue Moon Odom 29 103.2 3 8 5.04 67
Roberto Rodríguez 15 40.1 1 1 3.57 29
George Lauzerique 3 16.0 0 2 2.25 10

Relief pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Jack Aker 57 3 8 12 4.30 65
Tony Pierce 49 3 4 7 3.04 61
Diego Seguí 36 3 4 1 3.09 52
Bill Stafford 14 0 1 0 1.69 10
Jack Sanford 10 1 2 0 6.55 13
Bob Duliba 7 0 0 0 6.52 6
Bill Edgerton 7 1 0 0 2.16 6
Wes Stock 1 0 0 0 18.00 0

Farm system

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Level Team League Manager
AAA Vancouver Mounties Pacific Coast League Mickey Vernon
AA Birmingham A's Southern League John McNamara
A Peninsula Grays Carolina League Gus Niarhos
A Leesburg Athletics Florida State League Jimmy Williams
A Burlington Bees Midwest League Al Ronning
Rookie GCL A's Gulf Coast League Connie Ryan

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Birmingham, GCL A's

Awards and honors

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  • Bert Campaneris led the American League in stolen bases for the third consecutive season.

Relocation

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  • May 7, 1967: The New York Times and New York Daily News reported that the Athletics were prepared to relocate to Oakland, California.[15]
  • July 1967: The Sporting News reported that the Athletics had reached an agreement to relocate to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Athletics had obtained pledges for television and radio broadcasting rights with the sponsorship of Schlitz Brewery. The proposed move would require the support of seven of the ten American League owners. The league only had five votes in favour of the proposed relocation.[16]
  • August 1, 1967: The Governor of Washington State Dan Evans, and mayor of Seattle, J.D. Braman spoke to Finley on the phone to discuss the relocation of the team to Seattle.[17] Finley had met with city officials on August 7 to discuss a possible relocation.[18]
  • In September 1967, Finley had sent a telegram to city manager Carleton Sharpe, advising that the Athletics would leave Kansas City for Oakland.[19]
  • October 18, 1967: City officials from Kansas City, Oakland and Seattle were invited by Joe Cronin to discuss the A's relocation plans. United States Senator Stuart Symington attended the meeting and discussed the possibility of revoking baseball's antitrust exemption if the A's were allowed to leave Kansas City. The owners began deliberation and after the first ballot, only six owners were in favour of relocation. The owner of Baltimore voted against, while the ownership for Cleveland, New York and Washington had abstained.[20] In the second ballot, the New York Yankees voted in favour of the Athletics' relocation to Oakland. To appease all interested parties, the Athletics announced that MLB would expand to Kansas City and Seattle no later than the 1971 MLB season.[21]

References

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  1. ^ Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.109, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  2. ^ Manny Jiménez page at Baseball-Reference
  3. ^ 1967 Kansas City Athletics Picks in the MLB January Amateur Draft
  4. ^ 1967 Kansas City Athletics Picks in the MLB January Draft-Secondary Phase
  5. ^ Jim Panther page at Baseball-Reference
  6. ^ Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, pp.98–99, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  7. ^ Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.99, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  8. ^ "A's smear Tribe with whitewash". Toledo Blade. Ohio. Associated Press. June 10, 1967. p. 17.
  9. ^ "Kansas City Athletics 6, Cleveland Indians 0". Bases Produced. June 9, 1967. Retrieved December 2, 2015.
  10. ^ 1967 Kansas City Athletics Picks in the MLB June Amateur Draft
  11. ^ Vida Blue page at Baseball-Reference
  12. ^ Eric Soderholm page at Baseball-Reference
  13. ^ 1967 Kansas City Athletics Picks in the MLB June Draft-Secondary Phase
  14. ^ Darrell Evans page at Baseball-Reference
  15. ^ Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.100, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  16. ^ Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.102, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  17. ^ Seattle wants A's
  18. ^ Finley checks Seattle, Says he's pleased
  19. ^ Finley takes first step to move
  20. ^ Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.113, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  21. ^ Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.114, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
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