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1963 Kansas City Athletics season

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1963 Kansas City Athletics
LeagueAmerican League
BallparkMunicipal Stadium
CityKansas City, Missouri
OwnersCharles O. Finley
General managersPat Friday
ManagersEd Lopat
TelevisionKCMO
RadioKCMO (AM)
(Monte Moore, George Bryson)
← 1962
1964 →

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, 31½ 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]

Season standings

American League
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
New York Yankees 104 57 .646 — 58‍–‍22 46‍–‍35
Chicago White Sox 94 68 .580 10½ 49‍–‍33 45‍–‍35
Minnesota Twins 91 70 .565 13 48‍–‍33 43‍–‍37
Baltimore Orioles 86 76 .531 18½ 48‍–‍33 38‍–‍43
Cleveland Indians 79 83 .488 25½ 41‍–‍40 38‍–‍43
Detroit Tigers 79 83 .488 25½ 47‍–‍34 32‍–‍49
Boston Red Sox 76 85 .472 28 44‍–‍36 32‍–‍49
Kansas City Athletics 73 89 .451 31½ 36‍–‍45 37‍–‍44
Los Angeles Angels 70 91 .435 34 39‍–‍42 31‍–‍49
Washington Senators 56 106 .346 48½ 31‍–‍49 25‍–‍57

Record vs. opponents

1963 American League record

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
Team BAL BOS CWS CLE DET KCA LAA MIN NYY WSH
Baltimore — 7–11 7–11 10–8 13–5 9–9 9–9 9–9 7–11 15–3
Boston 11–7 — 8–10 10–8 9–9 7–11 9–8 7–11 6–12 9–9
Chicago 11–7 10–8 — 11–7 11–7 12–6 10–8 8–10 8–10 13–5
Cleveland 8–10 8–10 7–11 — 10–8 11–7 10–8 5–13 7–11 13–5
Detroit 5–13 9–9 7–11 8–10 — 13–5 12–6 8–10 8–10 9–9
Kansas City 9–9 11–7 6–12 7–11 5–13 — 10–8 9–9 6–12 10–8
Los Angeles 9–9 8–9 8–10 8–10 6–12 8–10 — 9–9 5–13 9–9
Minnesota 9–9 11–7 10–8 13–5 10–8 9–9 9–9 — 6–11 14–4
New York 11–7 12–6 10–8 11–7 10–8 12–6 13–5 11–6 — 14–4
Washington 3–15 9–9 5–13 5–13 9–9 8–10 9–9 4–14 4–14 —


Notable transactions

Roster

1963 Kansas City Athletics
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders Manager

Coaches

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 Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Doc Edwards 71 240 60 .250 6 35
1B Norm Siebern 152 556 151 .272 16 83
2B Jerry Lumpe 157 595 161 .271 5 59
SS Wayne Causey 139 554 155 .280 8 44
3B Ed Charles 158 603 161 .267 15 79
LF Chuck Essegian 101 231 52 .225 5 27
CF Bobby Del Greco 121 306 65 .212 8 29
RF Gino Cimoli 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

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
José Tartabull 79 242 58 .240 1 19
Ken Harrelson 79 226 52 .230 6 23
George Alusik 87 221 59 .267 9 37
Charley Lau 62 187 55 .294 3 26
Manny Jiménez 60 157 44 .280 0 15
Haywood Sullivan 40 113 24 .212 0 8
Billy Bryan 24 65 11 .169 3 7
John Wojcik 19 59 11 .186 0 2
Tony La Russa 34 44 11 .250 0 1
Dick Howser 15 41 8 .195 0 1
Dick Green 13 37 10 .270 1 4
Jay Hankins 10 34 6 .176 1 4
Sammy Esposito 18 25 5 .200 0 2
Tommie Reynolds 8 19 1 .053 0 0
Héctor Martínez 6 14 4 .286 1 3
Joe Azcue 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

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Dave Wickersham 38 237.2 12 15 4.09 118
Orlando Peña 35 217.0 12 20 3.69 128
Moe Drabowsky 26 174.1 7 13 3.05 109
Ed Rakow 34 174.1 9 10 3.92 104
Fred Norman 2 6.1 0 1 11.37 6
John O'Donoghue 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

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Diego Seguí 38 167.0 9 6 3.77 116
Ted Bowsfield 41 111.1 5 7 4.45 67
Tom Sturdivant 17 53.0 1 2 3.74 26
Dave Thies 9 25.1 0 1 4.62 9
Dan Pfister 3 9.1 1 0 1.93 9
Norm Bass 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

Player G W L SV ERA SO
John Wyatt 63 6 4 21 3.13 81
Bill Fischer 45 9 6 3 3.57 34
Dale Willis 25 0 2 1 5.04 47
Pete Lovrich 20 1 1 0 7.84 16
José Santiago 4 1 0 0 9.00 6
Aurelio Monteagudo 4 0 0 0 2.57 3
Bill Landis 1 0 0 0 0.00 3

Awards and honors

All-Star Game

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Portland Beavers Pacific Coast League Les Peden and Dan Carnevale
AA Binghamton Triplets Eastern League John McNamara
A Daytona Beach Islanders Florida State League Bobby Hofman
A Burlington Bees Midwest League Grady Wilson
A Lewiston Broncos Northwest League Bill Robertson

References

  1. ^ 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, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  2. ^ Bryson, Bill (June 1963). "Whose Hues? A's colored uniforms recall varied suits of the past". Baseball Digest. pp. 33, 34. Retrieved June 3, 2009.
  3. ^ 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, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  4. ^ 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, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  5. ^ 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, ISBN 978-0-8027-1745-0
  6. ^ Joe Azcue page at Baseball-Reference
  7. ^ Sammy Esposito page at Baseball-Reference
  8. ^ "1963 All-Star Game".
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