1963 Kansas City Athletics season explained

Kansas City Athletics
Season:	1963
League:	American League
Ballpark:	Municipal Stadium
City:	Kansas City, Missouri
Owners:	Charles O. Finley
General Managers:	Pat Friday
Managers:	Ed Lopat
Television:	KCMO
Radio:	KCMO (AM) (Monte Moore, George Bryson)

The 1963 Kansas City Athletics season was the ninth for the franchise in Kansas City and the 63rd overall. It involved the A's finishing eighth in the American League with a record of 73 wins and 89 losses, games behind the AL Champion New York Yankees. The 1963 season was also the first season in which the Athletics debuted their current color scheme of green and gold.

Regular season

Owner Charlie Finley changed the team's colors to Kelly green, Fort Knox Gold and Wedding Gown White, and replaced Connie Mack's elephant mascot with a Missouri mule — not just a cartoon logo, but a real mule, which he named after himself: "Charlie O, the Mule." In reading the Chicago Tribune, Charlie Finley read about the Missouri Mule, a mule which helped troops in World War I carry ammunition. Finley decided that a mule would become the club's new mascot.^[1]
He also began phasing out the team name "Athletics" in favor of simply, "A's." In June 1963, Bill Bryson wrote of the uniforms,

Kelly green is the Athletics' accent color. It was more a nauseous green the players wore on their wholesome, clean-cut faces the first few times they had to appear in public looking like refugees from a softball league.^[2]

Owner Charlie Finley was upset about his stadium deal with Kansas City. He had visited Dallas, Texas and Oakland, California as prospective places for relocation.^[3] Finley also talked to Atlanta Journal sportswriter Furman Bisher about relocating the A's to Atlanta. Later in the season, Finley made threats of moving the club to Louisville, Kentucky and renaming the franchise the Kentucky Colonels.^[4] As a sign of protest, Finley relocated the A's offices from the stadium to the garage of team scout J Bowman.^[5]

Notable transactions

May 25, 1963: Joe Azcue and Dick Howser were traded by the Athletics to the Cleveland Indians for Doc Edwards and $100,000.^[6]
May 26, 1963: Sammy Esposito was signed as a free agent by the Athletics.^[7]

Roster

1963 Kansas City Athletics
Roster
Pitchers		CatchersInfielders		Outfielders		ManagerCoaches

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

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

Pos	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	71	240	60	.250	6	35
1B	152	556	151	.272	16	83
2B	157	595	161	.271	5	59
SS	139	554	155	.280	8	44
3B	158	603	161	.267	15	79
LF	101	231	52	.225	5	27
CF	121	306	65	.212	8	29
RF	145	529	139	.263	4	48

Other batters

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

G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
79	242	58	.240	1	19
79	226	52	.230	6	23
87	221	59	.267	9	37
62	187	55	.294	3	26
60	157	44	.280	0	15
40	113	24	.212	0	8
24	65	11	.169	3	7
19	59	11	.186	0	2
34	44	11	.250	0	1
15	41	8	.195	0	1
13	37	10	.270	1	4
10	34	6	.176	1	4
18	25	5	.200	0	2
8	19	1	.053	0	0
6	14	4	.286	1	3
2	4	0	.000	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

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

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
38	237.2	12	15	4.09	118
35	217.0	12	20	3.69	128
26	174.1	7	13	3.05	109
34	174.1	9	10	3.92	104
2	6.1	0	1	11.37	6
1	6.0	0	1	1.50	1

Other pitchers

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

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
38	167.0	9	6	3.77	116
41	111.1	5	7	4.45	67
17	53.0	1	2	3.74	26
9	25.1	0	1	4.62	9
3	9.1	1	0	1.93	9
3	7.2	0	0	11.74	4

Relief pitchers

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

G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
63	6	4	21	3.13	81
45	9	6	3	3.57	34
25	0	2	1	5.04	47
20	1	1	0	7.84	16
4	1	0	0	9.00	6
4	0	0	0	2.57	3
1	0	0	0	0.00	3

Awards and honors

All-Star Game

Norm Siebern, reserve^[8]

Farm system

External links

Notes and References

Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.88, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010,
News: Bill. Bryson. Whose Hues? A's colored uniforms recall varied suits of the past. June 1963. Baseball Digest. 33, 34 . June 3, 2009 .
Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.70, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010,
Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.71, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010,
Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.72, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010,
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/azcuejo01.shtml Joe Azcue page at Baseball-Reference
https://www.baseball-reference.com/e/espossa01.shtml Sammy Esposito page at Baseball-Reference
Web site: 1963 All-Star Game.