Arnold Johnson (industrialist)
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Arnold M. Johnson (Jan. 11, 1906 in
A native of Chicago and graduate of the University of Chicago, Johnson enjoyed a highly successful business career. He was a stockbroker and banker, served on the board of directors of a number of corporations, and invested in the Chicago Black Hawks of the National Hockey League.
Buying, and moving, the Philadelphia Athletics
In December 1953, Johnson entered baseball through a real estate transaction by purchasing the top two playing venues of the perennial champion
The Athletics of Connie Mack had once been one of the pillars of the American League, with nine pennants and five World Series wins to their credit; however, the team's chronic failures on the field since the early 1930s and its lack of resources undermined it. Most seriously, Mack either could not or would not spend money on building a farm system. In the 1940s, two fatal blows were struck.
First, in
Second, the franchise was enveloped in a power struggle between two branches of the Mack family—essentially,
Tenure in Kansas City
Johnson formally made an offer to buy the A's in August 1954, with the strong support of the Yankees. Connie Sr. and Earle were receptive, but Roy, now operating head of the team (Connie Sr. had largely withdrawn from day-to-day operations, while Earle was largely indifferent) wanted to buy out his father and brother and become sole owner of the franchise. League president Will Harridge and the other owners saw no path forward for the A's in Philadelphia, but were willing to give Roy a chance to buy the team himself at a September 28 owners meeting. However, at another owners meeting on October 12, Roy revealed his efforts to raise the money needed to buy the team had failed. Under pressure from Harridge and the other owners, Roy agreed to sell the team to Johnson no later than October 18. A day before the deadline, however, Roy agreed to an eleventh-hour "save the A's" deal from a group of Philadelphia businessmen. That deal, however, imploded due to rumors (reportedly planted by the Yankees) that it was underfinanced. At the same time, Johnson persuaded Roy Mack that his deal was better in the long run, leading Roy to vote against the very deal he had negotiated. Finally, Johnson persuaded the Macks to sell him the A's for $3.5 million – $1.5 million for the Macks' stock and $2 million in debt. The deal nominally included Shibe Park–or Connie Mack Stadium, as it had been renamed in 1953–but Johnson had no interest in keeping it. Phillies owner Carpenter didn't want the park either, but reluctantly bought the park from Johnson for $1.6 million when it became clear there was no other facility in the Delaware Valley fit for even temporary use.[2]
The deal was approved by American League owners on November 28. Johnson's first act was to request permission to move to Kansas City. While selling the team only required support from five of the eight league owners, relocation required a supermajority of six votes.
Johnson then signed a lease with the city which contained a three-year escape clause allowing the A's to break the terms of the lease if attendance dropped below one million. Rumors swirled Johnson intended to keep the team in Kansas City for only a few years before moving it to Los Angeles. However, those were mooted when the Brooklyn Dodgers moved there.
The team drew 1,393,054 fans in 1955, its first year in Kansas City—the third-highest figure in baseball (behind only the Yankees and
Rumors abounded almost as soon as the ink dried on the purchase where there had been massive collusion between Johnson and the Yankees, especially when the Yankees opted not to force Johnson to pay them an indemnity for moving the Athletics. Under major-league rules of the time, by virtue of owning the Blues, the Yankees also owned the major league rights to Kansas City.[2] Those claims grew louder with a series of trades between the Yankees and A's. With few exceptions, these trades were heavily slanted in favor of the Yankees, with the A's getting very little in return. For example, ten players from the 1961 Yankees, reckoned as one of the best teams of all time, came from the A's.[4] The trades led fans and other teams to accuse the A's of being little more than a Yankee farm team at the major league level. Bill Veeck, for instance, recalled that under Johnson, the A's were "nothing more than a loosely controlled Yankee farm club."[5]
On March 3, 1960, Johnson was returning from watching the Athletics in
References
- Baseball Reference: 1946 MLB Attendance and Team Age
- ^ a b c d Warrington, Robert D. Departure Without Dignity: The Athletics Leave Philadelphia. Society for American Baseball Research, 2010.
- ^ "1955 American League Season Summary".
- ^ David L. Fleitz (April 2001). "The Yankees and the A's". Baseball Almanac.
- ^ Melissa Lockard (February 25, 2007). "Athletics History: KC A's-Yankees Pipeline". 247Sports.
- ^ "Arnold Johnson Dead, Owner of Athletics". The Telegraph-Herald. 1960-03-09.