The fans of the Kansas City Athletics had - what’s the right word? Endured? - a 13-year love/hate affair with their baseball team. To clarify, I think they loved the players, they just felt continually burned by the ownership. In the early years, fans poured into Municipal Stadium to witness Major League Baseball. As one year rolled to the next, it became obvious that the original Athletics owner, Arnold Johnson, had no intention of trying to build a winning team. The constant trading of the team’s best young players to the New York Yankees left the locals disillusioned.
In March of 1960, Johnson was felled by a cerebral hemorrhage during spring training.