Relocation and Contraction of Professional

          Sports Franchises

      Twenty-four-year-old right-hander Art Ditmar started and won the Philadelphia Athletics' last game of the 1954 season. The win came against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. Ditmar faced a Yankee lineup that manager Casey Stengel had purposely juggled to send as many big bats to the plate as possible. Stengel put his power-hitting center fielder Mickey Mantle at shortstop, cleanup hitter Yogi Berra at third base, and first baseman Bill "Moose" Skowron at second. Ditmar's effort was not pretty, but it was effective. He yielded four earned runs and seven hits in five and one-third innings and then turned the game over to reliever Marion Fricano, who preserved the victory. It was the first win of Ditmar's career. It was also the last game in the history of the Philadelphia Athletics. The next season, Ditmar and his teammates found themselves playing in Kansas City.

      The Athletics' move to Kansas City came despite assurances from owner Roy Mack, the son of Connie Mack, that the team would not leave Philadelphia. "We'd never leave Philadelphia," Mack had told his fellow owners. Mack's pious words were too much for Bill Veeck, maverick owner of the St. Louis Browns. Veeck retorted that the Athletics would most assuredly be the next franchise to "take wing." "Oh, no," Mack replied. "No. Never." Technically, Mack didn't leave Philadelphia. He and his brother simply sold the team to Chicago real-estate mogul Arnold Johnson, who relocated the A's to Kansas City in time for the start of the 1955 season. Technically, Veeck was wrong: the Athletics were not the next team to "take wing." That distinction fell to Veeck's beloved Browns. Financially distressed and having burned too many bridges with his fellow owners, Veeck sold the team to a Baltimore syndicate after the 1953 season. The new owners promptly relocated the team to Baltimore.