Athletics History: Mack Family Sells Team to Arnold Johnson
By David Hill
During their time in Philadelphia, the Athletics were synonymous with their owner and long time manager Connie Mack. On this day in 1954, with the team in dire financial straits, the Mack family was forced to sell the team to Arnold Johnson.
From the time that the Philadelphia Athletics became a Major League franchise in 1901, and right on to the 1950’s, there was one familiar face. Connie Mack, always dressed in a suit, was there on the bench, managing the team. For fifty years, Mr. Mack was there in the dugout, leading the Athletics as best as possible.
Although he won nine American League championships, and five World Series, it was obvious he was no longer the same dynamic manager later in his career. However, as the majority owner, who would fire him? It took until the end of the 1950 season when a push by the board of directors led to his ouster as the manager, replacing him with Jimmy Dykes.
His struggles also led to the front office. After being devastated by the Great Depression, Mack had to sell his stars to meet operating expenses. As the team fell to the bottom of the league to stay, and Mack’s judgment declined, he entered into a costly mortgage to retain control of the team. Yet, it was still time to sell a decade later.
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Faced with the reality that they could no longer afford to be the majority owners of the team, the Mack family sold the team to Arnold Johnson, who, amongst other interests, owned Yankee Stadium. Once the league approved the sale, Johnson moved the team west, heading off to Kansas City.
Unfortunately, this did not lead to a renaissance for the Athletics. Johnson began to operate the team as though they were a feeder system for the Yankees, sending their top players to New York. The Athletics again failed to get their way out of the second division, as players such as Clete Boyer, Ralph Terry, Roger Maris, and Bobby Shantz all found their way to the Bronx.
Unlike Johnson, who sought only to enrich the Yankees, and help his bottom line due to his ownership of the stadium, Connie Mack had the best interests of the Athletics at heart. The game had just passed him by without his realizing it, as he kept trying to make the team better. It just did not work.
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On this day in 1954, the Philadelphia Athletics saw the end of an era. Connie Mack, the father of the A’s, no longer had majority ownership in the team.