Welcome back to “KC Royals Rewind,” our Kings of Kauffman series highlighting interesting moments in team history and players fans may not remember or realize played for the Royals. Today’s “Rewind” examines a collection of Royal “firsts.”
By the time April 1969 rolled around, Kansas City had been without baseball since October 1967, when the regular season ended and the American League granted KC Athletics’ owner Charlie Finley’s long-held wish to move the club. Fans were stunned; after Missouri Senator Stewart Symington suggested stripping the game of its antitrust exemption, Major League Baseball suddenly decided to expand and Kansas City won a new franchise.