Word: finleyism
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...DOOLEY REMEMBERS-THE INFORMAL MEMOIRS OF FINLEY PETER DUNNE, edited by Philip Dunne. An affectionate portrait of Martin Dooley, the imaginary Irish bartender in Chicago, and his creator, Newspaperman Finley Dunne, who put in Dooley's mouth some of America's best political humor...
When a man can write seven-figure checks, he can buy a lot of dreams-wallpaper by Rembrandt, perhaps, or an island in the sun, or a whole line of chorus girls. Charles O. Finley, 45, bought a baseball team. A cigar-chewing Chicago insurance man who made $10 million at his trade, "Call Me Charlie" had dreamed of owning a big-league ball club ever since he was twelve and a batboy for the Birmingham Barons. He tried to buy the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago White Sox, failed each time, finally got his chance when the Kansas City...
Little Blowhard. Nobody argued. When Finley took over, the Athletics were so deep in the American League cellar that he needed a flashlight to find them. Over 27 seasons in Philadelphia and Kansas City, the A's struggled into the first division only twice, finished dead last 13 times. "The worst team in the history of baseball," somebody once called them, and Former Owner Arnold Johnson made matters worse by turning the team into a kind of farm club for the New York Yankees-trading away such stars as Roger Maris, Cletis Boyer, Ralph Terry, Hector Lopez...
...outsmarted, but I'll never be outhustled," Finley promised. "What this team needs is color." He spent $411,000 renovating Kansas City's Municipal Stadium, painting it yellow, turquoise and orange, then boasting: "I may not have the best team, but I sure have the sexiest ballpark." He installed all kinds of odd gimmicks-a "Fan-O-Gram" that spelled out messages on the Scoreboard (sample: "Welcome to Paul Richards and his flock of chirping Baltimore Orioles"), a "Little Blowhard" that dusted home plate with compressed air, a mechanical rabbit named Harvey that rose out of the ground...
...when Harvey burst from his hole with a shriek. The A's still finished in the ruck (ninth in 1961 and 1962, eighth in 1963), and fans stayed home in droves. Over three seasons, the Athletics averaged 694,000 fans-third-worst attendance in the league-and Owner Finley glumly totted up losses of $1,028,000-bringing his total investment to more than...