Arnold Johnson

Arnold Johnson (actor)

Arnold Johnson was an actor who played the lead role in the film Putney Swope. In the film his voice was dubbed by Robert Downey Sr. because Johnson could never remember his lines. He also had a recurring role as one of Fred Sanford's tenants in Sanford and Son...

 was also the name of an actor.

Arnold M. Johnson (1906 — 1960) was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 industrialist, businessman and sportsman, who purchased the storied but financially unsound Philadelphia Athletics

Oakland Athletics

The Oakland Athletics are a Major League Baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Athletics have played in the O.co Coliseum....

 baseball

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

 club and moved it to Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

, in the autumn of 1954. He had one son named Jeffery and one daughter named Wendy.

A native of Chicago, Illinois, and graduate of the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

, Johnson enjoyed a highly successful business career. He was a stockbroker and banker, served on the board of directors of a number of corporations, and invested in the Chicago Black Hawks

Chicago Blackhawks

The Chicago Blackhawks are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . They have won four Stanley Cup championships since their founding in 1926, most recently coming in 2009-10...

 of the National Hockey League

National Hockey League

The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

.

Buying, and moving, the Philadelphia Athletics

In December 1953, Johnson entered baseball through a real estate transaction by purchasing the top two playing venues of the perennial champion New York Yankees

New York Yankees

The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...

 — Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, and Blues Stadium in Kansas City, home of the Yanks' top farm club, the Kansas City Blues

Kansas City Blues (American Association)

The Kansas City Blues are a former minor league baseball team located in Kansas City, Missouri, in the Midwestern United States. The team was one of the eight founding members of the American Association....

. Concurrently, struggling major league baseball teams—especially "second" teams in two-team cities—were abandoning their old homes for greener pastures elsewhere. Spurred by Kansas City officials, Johnson decided to bring a major league team to town, and found a target in the Philadelphia Athletics.

The Athletics of Connie Mack

Connie Mack (baseball)

Cornelius McGillicuddy, Sr. , better known as Connie Mack, was an American professional baseball player, manager, and team owner. The longest-serving manager in Major League Baseball history, he holds records for wins , losses , and games managed , with his victory total being almost 1,000 more...

 had once been one of the pillars of the American League, with nine pennants and five World Series

World Series

The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy...

 wins to their credit. But the team's chronic failures on the field since the early 1930s and its lack of resources undermined it. In the 1940s, two fatal blows were struck.

First, in , the Phillies

Philadelphia Phillies

The Philadelphia Phillies are a Major League Baseball team. They are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports, dating to 1883. The Phillies are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League...

 of the National League

National League

The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...

 were bought by wealthy lumber baron William B. Cox

William B. Cox

William D. Cox was an American businessman and sports executive.-New York Yankees :A Yale University alumnus and wealthy lumber broker, Cox first entered the sports world when he headed a group that bought the New York Yankees of the third American Football League in 1941...

. The Phillies had long been the definition of baseball futility (they had only one winning season from 1918 to 1948), in part because their owners either didn't or couldn't spend the money it took to build a winner. They had played at Shibe Park as tenants of the A's since . When Cox bought the Phillies, he proceeded to spend lavishly on young players, while the A's had no farm system worth mentioning. Cox was forced out after only one year for betting on his own team, but ultimately sold the team to DuPont

DuPont

E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company , commonly referred to as DuPont, is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. DuPont was the world's third largest chemical company based on market capitalization and ninth based on revenue in 2009...

 heir Bob Carpenter, Jr.

R. R. M. Carpenter, Jr.

Robert Ruliph Morgan Carpenter Jr. was an owner and club president of the Philadelphia Phillies of American Major League Baseball. When he took command of the Phils, in November 1943 after his father purchased the franchise, Carpenter became the youngest club president in baseball history, and he...

, who also spent lavishly on young prospects. Many of these young players helped the once-moribund Phillies win their second-ever National League pennant in . For most of the first half of the 20th century, Philadelphia had been an "A's town," even though the A's had fielded teams as bad or worse than the Phillies for a decade. However, the Phillies soon began outdrawing the A's, and by the end of the 1940s had passed their landlords as Philadelphia's favorite baseball team.

Second, a power struggle between two branches of the Mack family—essentially, Roy

Roy Mack

Roy Mack was the co-owner of the Philadelphia Athletics of the American League with his brother Earle Mack from through . In 1954, the brothers sold the Athletics to Arnold Johnson, who moved the team to Kansas City, Missouri one season later. Mack was the son of Hall of Fame manager and former...

 and Earle

Earle Mack

Earle Thaddeus Mack, born Earle Thaddeus McGillicuddy , was an American player and coach in Major League Baseball, and, during parts of two seasons, manager of the Philadelphia Athletics when his father, Connie Mack, was too ill to manage. He also became a part-owner of the franchise. His nephew...

, Mack's two sons from his first marriage, were ranged against Connie's second wife and their son from that union, Connie Jr.--resulted in a dangerous depletion of capital. Roy and Earle eventually won the struggle, but it came at a price. They mortgaged the team to Connecticut General Life Insurance Company (now part of CIGNA

CIGNA

Cigna , headquartered in Bloomfield, Connecticut, is a global health services company, owing to its expanding international footprint and the fact that it provides administrative services only to approximately 80 percent of its clients...

). However, as the A's languished at the bottom of the standings, attendance dwindled, depriving the team of badly needed revenue that could have serviced the debt. Connie Sr., 87, retired as manager in the autumn of 1950, reportedly under pressure from Roy and Earle. He remained team president, but when he disappeared from the scene, a lot of goodwill disappeared with him. By 1954, the last-place Athletics were gasping.

Controversial tenure in Kansas City

Wooing Roy and Earle Mack, who represented their father as majority owners, Johnson finally convinced them to sell their shares for $3.5 million, then withstood a furious, eleventh-hour "save the A's" campaign from Philadelphia officials that nearly swayed Connie Sr.'s support of the deal. When the 91-year-old patriarch approved the transaction, the A's moved to Kansas City. Amid concerns of a conflict of interest, Johnson sold Yankee Stadium

Yankee Stadium

Yankee Stadium was a stadium located in The Bronx in New York City, New York. It was the home ballpark of the New York Yankees from 1923 to 1973 and from 1976 to 2008. The stadium hosted 6,581 Yankees regular season home games during its 85-year history. It was also the former home of the New York...

 back to the Yankees as a condition of allowing the A's purchase. City officials bought Blues Stadium from Johnson and renamed it Municipal Stadium

Municipal Stadium (Kansas City)

Kansas City Municipal Stadium was a baseball and football stadium that formerly stood in Kansas City, Missouri. It hosted the minor league Kansas City Blues of the American Association from 1923 to 1954 and the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues during the same period...

, heavily renovating it to bring it to major league standards.

Johnson showed his true colors in the lease he signed with the city. It contained a three-year escape clause allowing the A's to break the lease if attendance dropped below one million. Rumors swirled that Johnson intended to keep the team in Kansas City for only a few years before moving it to Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

. If that was the case, it became moot when the Brooklyn Dodgers moved there for the 1958 season.

The team drew 1,393,054 fans in its first year in Kansas City, 1955—the third-highest figure in baseball (behind only the Yankees and Milwaukee Braves). However, the novelty wore off quickly as loss piled upon loss during the A's 13-year stay in Kansas City. The A's would never even approach their 1955 attendance figures again. Worse, Johnson's former business ties to the Yankees resulted in a series of trades with the Bronx Bombers that helped keep the New York dynasty afloat. Invariably, any good young player was traded to the Yankees for aging veterans and cash. Over the years, Johnson would trade such key players as Roger Maris

Roger Maris

Roger Eugene Maris was an American Major League Baseball right fielder. During the 1961 season, he hit a record 61 home runs for the New York Yankees, breaking Babe Ruth's single-season record of 60 home runs...

, Bobby Shantz

Bobby Shantz

Robert Clayton Shantz was a Major League Baseball pitcher for the Philadelphia Athletics , Kansas City Athletics , New York Yankees , Pittsburgh Pirates , Houston Colt .45's , St...

, Héctor López

Héctor López

Héctor Headley López Swainson is a former left fielder and third baseman in Major League Baseball who played for the Kansas City Athletics and New York Yankees from to...

, Clete Boyer

Clete Boyer

Cletis Leroy "Clete" Boyer was a Major League Baseball player.A third baseman who also played shortstop and second base occasionally, Boyer played for the Kansas City Athletics , New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves...

, Art Ditmar

Art Ditmar

Arthur John Ditmar is a former starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Athletics and the New York Yankees . He batted and threw right-handed.A finesse control pitcher, Ditmar divided his career between the Athletics and Yankees...

 and Ralph Terry

Ralph Terry

Ralph Willard Terry is a former right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the New York Yankees , Kansas City Athletics , Cleveland Indians and New York Mets...

 to the Yankees. In return, he did receive some talented younger players such as Norm Siebern

Norm Siebern

Norman Leroy Siebern was a Major League Baseball player for the New York Yankees, Kansas City Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, California Angels, San Francisco Giants, and Boston Red Sox from to . His best season came in with the A's, when he hit 25 home runs, had 117 runs batted in and a .308...

 and Jerry Lumpe

Jerry Lumpe

Jerry Dean Lumpe is a former Major League Baseball second baseman for the New York Yankees , Kansas City Athletics and Detroit Tigers ....

, and the cash helped the team pay the bills. However, with virtually no exceptions, the trades were heavily weighted in favor of the Yankees. This made any fans, reporters and even other teams think that Johnson ran the A's as a Yankee farm team at the major league level. Ironically, Kansas City had been home to the Yankees' top farm team before the A's came to town.

According to The Baseball Hall of Shame by Nash and Zullo, "Johnson had been wheeling and dealing with Yankee owners Del Webb and Dan Topping even before he bought the A's. Webb and Topping held a second mortgage of Johnson's totaling $2.9 million. ...and it was Webb's construction company that remodeled Kansas City's stadium to meet major league specifications." The authors commented, 'No wonder Johnson was a Yankee puppet.'

In March 1960, Johnson was returning from watching his Athletics in spring training

Spring training

In Major League Baseball, spring training is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for roster and position spots, and gives existing team players practice time prior to competitive play...

 when he was fatally stricken with a cerebral hemorrhage. He died in West Palm Beach, Florida

West Palm Beach, Florida

West Palm Beach, is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and is the most populous city in and county seat of Palm Beach County, the third most populous county in Florida with a 2010 population of 1,320,134. The city is also the oldest incorporated municipality in South Florida...

, at the age of 53. Later that season, his estate would sell its controlling interest in the team to Charles O. Finley

Charles O. Finley

Charles Oscar Finley , nicknamed Charlie O or Charley O, was an American businessman who is best remembered for his tenure as the owner of the Oakland Athletics Major League Baseball team. Finley purchased the franchise while it was located in Kansas City, moving it to Oakland in 1968...

, who would put an end to the A's being effectively a "farm club" of the Yankees (who would fall into mediocrity once this talent well dried up), and would eventually move the A's to Oakland

Oakland, California

Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

and assemble a dynasty there in the early 1970s.