Word: finley
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...baseball's most colorful and innovative franchises. Finley was one of the first proponents of the designated hitter. He tried out orange balls. He brought a mule into the ballpark as a mascot, installed a mechanical rabbit to bring baseballs to the umpire. He gave the game the garish doubleknit uniforms that became commonplace. He harassed his managers by telephoning strategy to the dugout, yet installed a 16-year-old fan as vice president. For all his buffoonery, Finley was as shrewd a judge of talent as any in the sport since Branch Rickey. Roll the names over...
...Finley tried to sell the team for years...
...were all but moved to Denver in 1979 when a threatened lawsuit over Finley's lease with the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum halted the sale. During that time, he ran the franchise down to the material left in his hardscrabble farm system and went through every manager out of captivity, some of them twice. Then, five months before he was to find a hometown buyer for his team, he brought in Billy Martin, a 51-year-old Bay Area boy, to manage his sinking ball club...
...George Steinbrenner, whose differences with Martin constituted a four-year national soap opera until the two parted for good in 1979: "I'm happy he's in a situation now where he has complete latitude. That was never going to be the case with me." Counters Charlie Finley: "He's the best manager in baseball...
...hats, no cattle," sighed Charlie Finley last year when Dhe put the Oakland A's on the auction block after 20 years of stormy ownership. Finley was referring to the ensuing stampede of publicity-seeking, would-be buyers who did not have the scratch. But last November, Walter...