Tombstone
Born: January 6, 1966 – The Birmingham Barons relocate to Mobile, AL1ASSOCIATED PRESS. “Mobile Gets Baron Club In Southern”. The Advertiser (Montgomery, AL). January 7, 1966
Moved: December 10, 1966 (Birmingham Athletics)2UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL. “Birmingham To Field A’s”. The Tennessean (Nashville, TN). December 12, 1966
First Game: April 21, 1966 (L 3-2 @ Montgomery Rebels)
Last Game: September 7, 1966 (W 7-4 vs. Montgomery Rebels)
Southern League Champions: 1966
Stadium
Ownership & Affiliation
Owner: Charles O. Finley
Major League Affiliation: Kansas City Athletics
Attendance
Editor's Pick
Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic
Reggie, Rollie, Catfish and Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s
By Jason Turbow
The Oakland A’s of the early 1970s: Never before had an entire organization so collectively traumatized baseball’s establishment with its outlandish behavior and business decisions. The high drama that played out on the field—five straight division titles and three straight championships—was exceeded only by the drama in the clubhouse and front office.
Under the visionary leadership of owner Charles O. Finley, the team assembled such luminary figures as Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers, and Vida Blue, and with garish uniforms and revolutionary facial hair, knocked baseball into the modern age. Finley’s insatiable need for control—he was his own general manager and dictated everything from the ballpark organist’s playlist to the menu for the media lounge—made him ill-suited for the advent of free agency. Within two years, his dynasty was lost.
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Background
Minor League Baseball returned to Mobile, Alabama in 1966 after a four-year absence. Kansas City Athletics owner Charles O. Finley transferred his team’s Class AA Birmingham farm club to the Azalea City after failing to come to an agreement for a new lease on Birmingham’s Rickwood Field.
The 1966 Mobile Athletics were an outstanding club, packed with future Major League regulars. The team ran off with the Southern League pennant, posting an 88-52 record and leaving the 2nd place Asheville Tourists nine-and-a-half games in the dust.
Key Players
24-year old Bill Edgerton was the circuit’s dominant pitcher that summer, posting a 17-4 record with a 3.66 ERA before a September call-up to the Major League club in Kansas City. 21-year old Blue Moon Odom, who would go on to win 3 World Series crowns with Finley’s Oakland A’s in the early 1970’s, was also on the Mobile pitching staff that summer and won 12 games.
Top offensive threats include future Major League All-Stars Sal Bando (.277, 12 HR, 50 RBI) and Rick Monday (.267, 23 HR, 72 RBI). Bando, like Odom, would go on to be part of the Athletics’ World Series three-peat team in Oakland from 1972 to 1974.
Management Training
The 1966 Mobile A’s also produced quite a few Major League managers. Mobile’s 34-year old field manager John McNamara went on to manager the A’s Major League club at Oakland in 1969 and 1970. He also would manage five other Major League teams, including the Boston Red Sox during their infamous 1986 World Series loss to the New York Mets.
Slugging catcher Rene Lachemann (.256, 15 HR, 65 RBI) would go on to manage the Seattle Mariners, Milwaukee Brewers, Florida Marlins and Chicago Cubs.
Last but certainly not least, 21-year old infielder Tony La Russa would go on to a Hall-of-Fame managerial career as a three-time World Series champion. That included a 1989 world championship at the helm of the post-Finley Oakland A’s in 1989.
Back to Birmingham
Despite the outstanding season and a 2nd place ranking in the Southern League’s published attendance figures in 1966, Finley moved the back to Birmingham, Alabama after just one season in Mobile. Finley lived in Indiana at the time he owned the Mobile A’s, but he spent his childhood in Birmingham.
Mobile had one other equally short-lived team at Hartwell Field – the Mobile White Sox of 1970 – before a long stretch without pro baseball for the next quarter century. The Mobile BayBears of the Southern League arrived in 1997 to play in the brand new $8 million Hank Aaron Stadium. The BayBears departed for Madison, Alabama in 2020 after 23 seasons in Mobile.
Mobile Athletics Shop
In Memoriam
Owner Charlie Finley died of heart & vascular disease on February 19, 1996 at age 77. New York Times obituary.
Pitcher Tony Pierce, who won 13 games for Mobile in 1966, passed on January 31, 2013. Pierce was 67 years old.
Pitcher Joe Grzenda died on July 12, 2019. Grzenda, who spent parts of eight seasons in the Majors, was 82 years old.
Infielder Weldon “Hoss” Bowlin passed on December 8, 2019 at age 78.
Manager John McNamara who also suited up to play in 8 games for the team, passed away on July 28, 2020 at age 88. New York Times obituary.
Downloads
6-28-1966 Mobile A's vs. Asheville Tourists Game Notes
Links
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One Response
A Friend of mine tells me he was the first Black Bat boy in Mobile Alabama, in 1966, for th e Mobile Atheletics at Hartwell Field. His name is Jerome A. Rogers lll . At that time, John McNamara, Rick Monday and Sal Bando of the Mobile Athletics where his mentors? He has some personal great stories of these Great men of baseball? For the Records.