Sunday, June 17, 2012

1958 Topps Roger Maris

Kansas City Athletics CTNW Favorites #3


In many ways Roger Maris symbolizes exactly what was wrong with the first part of the Athletics' tenure in Kansas City. In 1954 the Philadelphia A's were on the verge of bankruptcy. Connie Mack and family sold the team to Arnold Johnson. Johnson was the owner of both Yankee Stadium and Blues Stadium in Kansas City which was the home of the Yankees farm team, The Kansas City Blues.  Johnson was forced to sell Yankee Stadium to avoid a conflict of interest but kept the stadium in K.C. and moved his newly acquired team there. 

From that point on the Kansas City Athletics seemed to operate as if they were still a farm team of the New York Yankees. They frequently traded young prospects like to the Yankees in exchange for aging players and cash. Roger Maris came to the A's in 1958 along with 2 other players who would be out of the majors by 1959. In exchange Cleveland got Woody Held and Vic Power who would play until 1969 and 1965 respectively. In 1959 Maris would have an All Star season for the A's then was traded to the Yankees in December of 1959.

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