Word: finley
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...Enough. Finley's proposal was a shocker, but no bigger one than O'Connell's acceptance of it: Boston would pay Finley $1 million for Outfielder Joe Rudi, 29, and $1 million for Relief Pitcher Rollie Fingers, 29. O'Connell was not, however, willing to spend a third million on the flashy lefthander, Vida Blue...
...assumed that a deal was set to sell Blue to the weak Detroit Tigers or, that failing, perhaps to the Minnesota Twins. When word leaked of Boston's purchase, in stepped an even higher roller than Yawkey, Yankee Owner George Steinbrenner. Finley jacked Blue's price to $1.5 million, which did not faze the Yankees. At 8 p.m. they bought Blue, and then in the waning minutes before midnight made a nine-player trade with the dispirited Baltimore Orioles to get yet another unsigned ex-Oakland pitching star, troublesome Ken Holtzman...
...Finley said he had been forced to sell because of "astronomical and unjustified" player salary demands. Angry fellow owners called it "a terrible thing," "a dark day." White Sox Owner Bill Veeck's telling summary: "It destroys the illusion ... that this is a game for the fans." The fans knew it, too, even in Boston and New York. Of the first 20 calls to a Boston sports talk show, not one defended the Sox deal. New York Times Columnist Dave Anderson wrote: "A sense of embarrassment dominates what the Yankees...
...protest rose, baseball suddenly got support from an unanticipated source, the game's own commissioner. Heretofore known primarily for his timidity, Bowie Kuhn ordered the principals in the sales to New York for a meeting and listened to their explanations. Finley, decked out in gala canary yellow, left laughing, and Steinbrenner gave a thumbs-up sign...
...Test of Power. For 24 hours Kuhn brooded. Then came his answer, one of the strongest actions taken since the founding of the commissioner's office 55 years ago. Saying the sales "gravely undermined" public confidence in the integrity of the game, Kuhn ordered that Finley's three players remain with Oakland. He said he could not view the "spectacle" of the sales as "anything but devastating to baseball's reputation," and that if he did not have the power to prevent "a development so harmful to baseball as this," then the game's system...