The quote in the title of this presentation comes from A’s pitcher Vida Blue after resolving a season-opening salary dispute and holdout with A’s owner Charles Finley in May 1972. The dispute was finally resolved after both MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn decided to mediate the dispute and after the President of the United States, Richard Nixon publicly sided with Blue. Blue went on to say, "[Charlie Finley] treated me like a damn colored boy." Vida Blue’s experience with Finley exemplified the owner’s relationship with many of his players during the 1970’s. Charles O. Finley could be a very generous, kindhearted, and charming person. On several occasions he spent huge sums of money helping players and coaches with family medical emergencies. However, Finley had a darker side – one of control and manipulation. In later years, Finley’s "generosity" included many strings and caveats, which damaged his relationships with his players. This presentation examined the "paternal relationship" Finley imposed upon his players and explored the positive and negative reactions it produced.
This presentation reappraised the controversies between Finley and his players, exploring the historiographical position of Finley and his key players, assessing their disputes, and offering a revisionist interpretation of these incidents; relying on primary sources held at various collections of personal and corporate papers containing material on the subject.
G. Michael Green is a Senior Planner in the NASA Office of Aeronautics, where he serves as Director for Communications and Outreach. He received a Masters degree in Political Science from American University and a Bachelor degree in Communications and Political Science from Ball State University. His articles on space policy and historic preservation have appeared in numerous national newspapers and journals.
Roger D. Launius is chair of the Division of Space History at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Between 1990 and 2002 he served as chief historian of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. A graduate of Graceland College in Lamoni, Iowa, he received his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, in 1982. He has written or edited several books on aerospace history. More recently he has been studying the relationship of baseball to American culture and has published, Seasons in the Sun: The Story of Big League Baseball in Missouri (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2002).
