A Short Story of a Eccentric Baseball Promotor

Terry Murray, who is currently the LA Kings head coach, played for the California Golden Seals hockey club in the Bay Area in the early 70's. He passed along a funny story about team owner Charlie O. Finley, who happened to own the Oakland A's at the time.

“It was a playoff game, but not the World Series. There was a TV timeout, and they had the usher walking down, and they had the Oakland A’s banner on a stick, and they passed it out to all of us. Charlie Finley stood up and turned around to all of us, and he said, `So, you see that TV (camera) down there? When that light comes on, on that TV, I want everybody standing up and waving that Oakland A’s banner.’ So we did. Some didn’t. I was a kid, so I was the first one up, but a bunch of the veteran guys said, `Shove it.’ The funny part about it was, now play starts, the camera turns and the usher came back and made us pass them all back.”

Baseball history is filled with characters like this. Where have they all gone?

From Rich Hammond LA King Insider Blog. BTW, if your a Kings fan and don't already know of this blog go and check it out right away. It's a daily must read.