| Every baseball fan should know about the New | | | | of Johnson's purchase of the franchise and the |
| York Yankees dynasty during the 1950's. From | | | | move to Kansas City, even though there were |
| 1949 through 1962, the Yankees won 9 World | | | | reportedly higher offers on the table that would |
| Series championships. Other than the Yankees, | | | | have kept the team in the City of Brotherly Love. |
| only the St. Louis Cardinals have won more than | | | | Arnold Johnson's relationship with Del Webb and |
| 9 World Series titles in the nearly 110 years the | | | | Dan Topping could be considered friendly but |
| World Series has been held. What kept the | | | | business-oriented. They had opposing goals that |
| Yankees perennial World Series contenders in the | | | | just happened to work well together: Johnson |
| latter half of the 1950's and into the early 1960's | | | | wanted to make money, and Webb and Topping |
| was a special relationship the team had with | | | | wanted the best team in baseball. The idea was |
| another American League team, the Kansas City | | | | simple: Johnson would develop talented young |
| Athletics. This relationship is unknown by many | | | | players on his Kansas City team, and the best |
| baseball fans. | | | | would be traded to the Yankees in exchange for |
| Arnold Johnson purchased the A's when they | | | | prospects or just plain cash. The Yankees could |
| were still playing in Philadelphia. He moved the | | | | also send players "down" to the Athletics instead |
| team into their own market (they had shared | | | | of optioning them to the minors. That way they |
| Philadelphia with the Phillies) in Kansas City in 1955. | | | | could still get major league experience without |
| Besides the A's, Arnold Johnson had another | | | | costing the Yankees games as they developed. |
| interesting property in his portfolio: Yankee | | | | Some of the names that went back and forth |
| Stadium. That's right, the owner of the Kansas | | | | between the A's and the Yankees in the 1950's |
| City A's owned the stadium one of his league | | | | include Norm Siebern, Irv Noren, Bob Cerv, Marv |
| rivals played in. This might have been considered a | | | | Throneberry, Hector Lopez, Harry Simpson, Art |
| point of contention, but Johnson was not an | | | | Ditmar, Bud Daley, Bobby Shantz, Ralph Terry, |
| enemy of Yankee owners Del Webb and Dan | | | | Roger Maris, and Billy Martin. They could have |
| Topping. In fact, it was Webb and Topping who | | | | saved money if they'd built a railroad running |
| helped convince the American League to approve | | | | directly from the Bronx to Kansas City. |