Book Categories
|
The Kansas City A's and the Wrong Half of the Yankees: How the Yankees Controlled Two of the Eight American League... |
Buy The Kansas City A's and the Wrong Half of the Yankees: How the Yankees Controlled Two of the Eight American League... here, one of 750 Kansas History books offered for sale at discount prices here in the history books section at R bookshop. There are currently 84417 history books in our history books section, and over 1,000,000 books listed in our book store. We greatly appreciate your patronage at R bookshop and look forward to offering you a large selection of great books at discount prices now and in the future. Thank you for shopping at R Bookshop!
|
You Are Here: Home > History Books > Kansas History > Item 74
|
The Kansas City A's and the Wrong Half of the Yankees: How the Yankees Controlled Two of the Eight American League...
|
by Jeff Katz
Sales Rank: 259554
|
List Price: $24.95
$16.47
At Amazon
on 8-4-2008.
|
|
|
|
Features
Cover Type: Hard Cover with 250 pages
Published by: Pub. by Maple Street Press, Dist. by Potomac Books March 1, 2007
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0977743659
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0977743650
Book Dimensions:
9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
Weighs: 1 pounds
Product Description
During the second half of the 1950s, folks derisively referred to the Kansas City As as a farm team of the New York Yankees. Trades between the twooften lopsidedwere commonplace, and it seemed every time the Yankees needed that one final piece for yet another pennant run, the As filled the gap.
While most knew that As owner Arnold Johnson was somewhat affiliated with Yankee owners Dan Topping and Del Webb through his joint ownership of Yankee Stadium, The Kansas City As and the Wrong Half of the Yankees digs into the deeper business entanglements among the three. In addition to the questionable trades and his earlier purchase of The House that Ruth Built, Johnsons purchase of the thenPhiladelphia As shows signs of Yankees clout.
Through periodicals, letters, conversations with contemporary players and executives, and an analysis of player records, author Jeff Katz has compiled a chronological account of how, through the hands of a friend and business partner, the Yankees controlled two of the eight American League teams during the second half of the 1950s.
A publication of Maple Street Press, distributed by Potomac Books, Inc.
About The Author
Jeff Katz is a baseball writer and member of the Society for American Baseball Research. He has written baseball articles for such websites as The Baseball Page and contributed a short story to the baseball compilation Play It Again: Baseball Experts on What Might Have Been, edited by Jim Bresnahan. He lives in Cooperstown, New York.
Reader Reviews
"The Wrong Half of the Yankees" is about the bizarre relationship between the New York Yankees and Kansas City Athletics in the years 1955-1960. The principal characters are A's owner Arnold Johnson and Yankees co-owners Del Webb and Dan Topping. The 3 had deep interests in the Automatic Canteen Company and Topping/Webb sold Yankee Stadium to Johnson. The Yanks main farm team was in KC. Del and Dan just happened to include in the Stadium deal the sale of the Kansas City ballpark to Johnson as well! Moreover, Del and Dan then strong-armed the American League to rubber stamp Johnson's purchase of the moribund Philadelphia A's and to approve the franchise shift from Philly to KC. This, despite the fact that higher offers were on the table, with at least one from interests that might have kept the A's in Philly. Once Johnson was safely ensconced in KC, the teams engaged in some twenty trades, nearly all favoring the Yankees. The fodder for a fine baseball story is all here but author Katz takes far too pages to tell it. Included in the text are a history of the Philly franchise and infighting twixt various members of the Mack family, who had controlled the A's for decades. The result is an almost deadening load of information which might have been fascinating had it only been served in smaller portions. WHY is one of those works which cry out for that proverbial stern editor with a sharp blue pencil to trim down the text. Not until Chapter 11 does Katz cover the good stuff: those trades. These encompass the period when this reviewer was just a kid- and a Yankee fan. Even a boy could smell a rat at some of these transactions. Most may cavil at the lopsided deal for Roger Maris but this observer recalls the round trip trades for pitcher Ralph Terry. A young RT plainly needed seasoning and wasn't going to get it in the Bronx bull pen, so he was farmed to the A's in 1957 (the Billy Martin trade). In 1959, the by then seasoned Terry was back in pinstripes! Even a 12 year old Yankees fan smelled something fishy. A nice inclusion is the images of 78 trading cards for many players. Included are 4 of Harry "Suitcase" Simpson and the '57 card of pitcher Art Ditmar listed as a Yankee -but plainly in an A's uniform! The back of that card actually acknowledged the misprint The bottom line: Insufficient space is given to the trades, far too much to kvetching about franchise shifts, stadium deals and Mack family squabbling. One suspects that some of the text qualifies as mere filler. A scaled down WHY would be excellent as a feature article in a magazine. As a full length, 200 page book it falls short.
Comment | |
(Report this)
Back To Top
|
The Kansas City A's and the Wrong Half of the Yankees: How the Yankees Controlled Two of the Eight American League...
Available from Amazon
Price: $16.47
Updated on 8-4-2008.
|
NOTICE: All prices, availability, and specifications
are subject to verification by their respective retailers.
| We offer The Kansas City A's and the Wrong Half of the Yankees: How the Yankees Controlled Two of the Eight American League... and other related Kansas History Books here at Rbookshop.com. To view more books about Kansas History please use the previous and next buttons near the top of this page.
|
|
|
Search for books at
