He is also known as a short-lived owner of the National Hockey League's California Golden Seals and the American Basketball Association's Memphis Tams.
In 1956, Charles Finley purchased a home built in 1942 on Johnson Road just north of Pine Lake in LaPorte, Indiana.
[3] Finley entered the ranks of Major League Baseball owners after multiple failed attempts to acquire franchises during the 1950s.
He first attempted to buy the Philadelphia Athletics in 1954, but American League owners instead approved the sale of the team to Arnold Johnson, who moved the club to Kansas City for the 1955 season.
[4] In 1956, Finley unsuccessfully bid for the Detroit Tigers, who instead were sold to a Michigan-based group led by broadcasting magnates John Fetzer and Fred Knorr.
In 1959, when Dorothy Comiskey Rigney put her majority holdings in the Chicago White Sox up for sale, Finley lost out to a group headed by Bill Veeck.
[5] Fate, however, would play a role in Finley's fifth, and ultimately successful, attempt to enter baseball — and it would come from his 1954 target, now the Kansas City Athletics.
Just weeks after Finley lost his bid for the Angels' franchise, on December 19, 1960, he purchased the estate's controlling interest in the Athletics;[6] he then bought out the minority owners a year later.
Finley quickly started to turn the franchise around, refusing to make deals with the New York Yankees (for which the Athletics had been criticized) and searching for unheralded talent.
[7] When that proposed move was blocked by the American League he entertained offers from Denver and San Diego[8] Finley replaced the Athletics' traditional elephant mascot with a live mule.
"Charlie-O" was paraded about the outfield, into cocktail parties and hotel lobbies and into the press room after a large feeding to annoy reporters.
[16] In 1963, Finley changed the team's colors to Kelly Green, Fort Knox Gold, and Wedding Gown White.
)[17] When the Beatles made their August/September 1964 concert tour of the United States, Finley was determined to bring them to Kansas City to perform at Municipal Stadium.
Seeing one open date on the tour, Finley offered and paid the Beatles $150,000 ($1,473.6 million+ today) for a concert on September 17, 1964, erasing a scheduled off day for the band in New Orleans.
"[18] John Lennon was quoted later as saying he disliked Finley's attempt to strong-arm the Beatles into playing longer than their then-standard half-hour concert set.
[19] Finley visited the group's manager, Brian Epstein, in San Francisco on August 19, 1964, where the Beatles were playing the first date of the tour.
[20][21] The A's (as they were officially known from 1970) moved to California in January 1968, just as the new talent amassed over the years in the minors (such as Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Joe Rudi, Bert Campaneris, Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers, and Vida Blue) became ready for the Majors.
[24] In 1974, after winning a third straight World Series championship, Finley lost ace pitcher Jim 'Catfish' Hunter to free agency as a result of a contract clause violation.
Finley, in turn, hired famed sports attorney Neil Papiano and proceeded to file a $10 million restraint-of-trade lawsuit against Kuhn and Major League Baseball.
Kuhn also claimed that the addition of Blue to an already formidable Reds pitching staff would make a mockery of the National League West race.
The Finleys brought in future stars such as Rickey Henderson, Tony Armas, Mitchell Page, Mike Norris, and Dwayne Murphy to rebuild the team.
However, just before Finley and Davis were due to sign a contract, the NFL's Oakland Raiders announced they were moving to Los Angeles in 1982.
Forced to turn to local buyers, Finley agreed to sell the A's to Walter A. Haas, Jr., president of Levi Strauss & Co. in August 1980 for $12.7 million,[26][27][28] with the deal finalized before the 1981 season.
[36] The A's have recently held promotional days with throwback uniforms from the Finley years, and have invited former players and play-by-play announcer Monte Moore to attend.