FINLEY, CHARLES O.

born Feb. 22, 1918, Ensley, Ala., U.S. died Feb. 19, 1996, Chicago, Ill. in full Charles Oscar Finley, byname Charlie Finley, or Charlie O. American insurance executive and professional baseball club owner, who, though constantly involved in controversy with the commissioner, the American League, managers, and players, had great financial success. His Oakland Athletics won three consecutive World Series (197274). Finley was a farm boy who loved baseball in Alabama, and after he moved with his family to Gary, Ind., and went to work in a steel mill, he organized the Gary Merchants in an Indiana-Michigan industrial league. During World War II, he worked in a defense plant and showed an aptitude for selling, to which occupation he later turned full-time. While hospitalized with tuberculosis (194648), he planned a new group insurance coverage for physicians and formed his own company, becoming a millionaire in two years. Finley started looking for a baseball franchise in 1954, and in 1960 bought the American League Kansas City Athletics. He dressed them in green and gold uniforms and white shoes (1963) and in 1964 suggested that World Series games be played at night and on weekends. After falling out with civic leaders he moved the Athletics to Oakland, Calif., in 1968, where he outraged traditional owners with such promotions as hot pants nights and cow milking contests. Later he introduced a mule, Charlie O., as a mascot. In his ownership career (196080) he had 18 managers, some of them twice. After his World Series successes, attendance fell off and the city of Oakland sued him for not promoting the club. Attendance revived with his last manager, Billy Martin, but Finley sold the club in 1980, and retired to his insurance business.