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1963 Kansas City Athletics season

Field	Value
name	Kansas City Athletics
season	1963
league	American League
ballpark	Municipal Stadium
city	Kansas City, Missouri
record
league_place	8th
owners	Charles O. Finley
general_managers	Pat Friday
managers	Ed Lopat
television	KCMO
radio	KCMO (AM)
(Monte Moore, George Bryson)

(Monte Moore, George Bryson) |}} The 1963 Kansas City Athletics season was the ninth for the franchise in Kansas City and the 63rd overall. It involved the A's finishing eighth in the American League with a record of 73 wins and 89 losses, games behind the AL Champion New York Yankees. The 1963 season was also the first season in which the Athletics debuted their current color scheme of green and gold and the first to feature names on the back of the jerseys.

Regular season

Owner Charlie Finley changed the team's colors to Kelly green, Fort Knox Gold and Wedding Gown White, and replaced Connie Mack's elephant mascot with a Missouri mule — not just a cartoon logo, but a real mule, which he named after himself: "Charlie O, the Mule." In reading the Chicago Tribune, Charlie Finley read about the Missouri Mule, a mule which helped troops in World War I carry ammunition. Finley decided that a mule would become the club's new mascot.
He also began phasing out the team name "Athletics" in favor of simply, "A's." In June 1963, Bill Bryson wrote of the uniforms,

Kelly green is the Athletics' accent color. It was more a nauseous green the players wore on their wholesome, clean-cut faces the first few times they had to appear in public looking like refugees from a softball league.

Owner Charlie Finley was upset about his stadium deal with Kansas City. He had visited Dallas, Texas and Oakland, California as prospective places for relocation. Finley also talked to Atlanta Journal sportswriter Furman Bisher about relocating the A's to Atlanta. Later in the season, Finley made threats of moving the club to Louisville, Kentucky and renaming the franchise the Kentucky Colonels. As a sign of protest, Finley relocated the A's offices from the stadium to the garage of team scout J Bowman.

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Notable transactions

May 25, 1963: Joe Azcue and Dick Howser were traded by the Athletics to the Cleveland Indians for Doc Edwards and $100,000.
May 26, 1963: Sammy Esposito was signed as a free agent by the Athletics.

Roster

1963 Kansas City Athletics
Roster
Pitchers

Player stats

	= Indicates team leader

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos.	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C		71	240	60	.250	6	35
1B	Norm Siebern	152	556	151	.272	16	83
2B	Jerry Lumpe	157	595	161	.271	5	59
SS	Wayne Causey	139	554	155	.280	8	44
3B	Ed Charles	158	603	161	.267	15	79
LF	Chuck Essegian	101	231	52	.225	5	27
CF	Bobby Del Greco	121	306	65	.212	8	29
RF	Gino Cimoli	145	529	139	.263	4	48

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
José Tartabull	79	242	58	.240	1	19
Ken Harrelson	79	226	52	.230	6	23
George Alusik	87	221	59	.267	9	37
Charley Lau	62	187	55	.294	3	26
Manny Jiménez	60	157	44	.280	0	15
Haywood Sullivan	40	113	24	.212	0	8
Billy Bryan	24	65	11	.169	3	7
John Wojcik	19	59	11	.186	0	2
Tony La Russa	34	44	11	.250	0	1
	15	41	8	.195	0	1
Dick Green	13	37	10	.270	1	4
Jay Hankins	10	34	6	.176	1	4
Sammy Esposito	18	25	5	.200	0	2
Tommie Reynolds	8	19	1	.053	0	0
Héctor Martínez	6	14	4	.286	1	3
	2	4	0	.000	0	0

Pitching

	= Indicates league leader

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Dave Wickersham	38	237.2	12	15	4.09	118
Orlando Peña	35	217.0	12	20	3.69	128
	26	174.1	7	13	3.05	109
Ed Rakow	34	174.1	9	10	3.92	104
Fred Norman	2	6.1	0	1	11.37	6
John O'Donoghue	1	6.0	0	1	1.50	1

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Diego Seguí	38	167.0	9	6	3.77	116
	41	111.1	5	7	4.45	67
Tom Sturdivant	17	53.0	1	2	3.74	26
Dave Thies	9	25.1	0	1	4.62	9
Dan Pfister	3	9.1	1	0	1.93	9
	3	7.2	0	0	11.74	4

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
	63	6	4	21	3.13	81
Bill Fischer	45	9	6	3	3.57	34
Dale Willis	25	0	2	1	5.04	47
Pete Lovrich	20	1	1	0	7.84	16
José Santiago	4	1	0	0	9.00	6
Aurelio Monteagudo	4	0	0	0	2.57	3
Bill Landis	1	0	0	0	0.00	3

Awards and honors

All-Star Game

Norm Siebern, reserve

Farm system

References

Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.88, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, {{ISBN. 978-0-8027-1745-0
Bryson, Bill. (June 1963). "Whose Hues? A's colored uniforms recall varied suits of the past". [[Baseball Digest]].
Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.70, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, {{ISBN. 978-0-8027-1745-0
Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.71, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, {{ISBN. 978-0-8027-1745-0
Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.72, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, {{ISBN. 978-0-8027-1745-0
[https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/azcuejo01.shtml Joe Azcue page at Baseball-Reference]
[https://www.baseball-reference.com/e/espossa01.shtml Sammy Esposito page at Baseball-Reference]
"1963 All-Star Game".

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