Kansas City Athletics - Spring Training Shots

While I was putting the Lew Krausse card back in my 1967 binder after a recent post, I noticed a large number of Athletics' players photographed in spring training. The Athletics trained in Bradenton, FL from 1963-68, before moving to Arizona in 1969.  (The Pirates moved in to Bradenton in 1969, where they remain to this day.)

As I did with the Dodgers about a year ago, here are the Athletics, in their last year as Kansas City Athletics. Most of the players in the 1967 set are featured WITH caps, and in their green and white uniform. (I think only infielders Ed Charles and Ossie Chavarria are in the green and gold (away?) uniforms.

Here are the two standard "pitching poses". Most of the A's pitchers were very young. Catfish Hunter completed 2 years in the majors, Jim Nash and Chuck Dobson 1 each, with Lew Krausse the veteran of these four pitchers with 4 years.

Here are four more players, warming up before manager Al Dark puts them through some "fundamentals training". That white building behind Campy appears in several of the photos. I wonder if that's the clubhouse, or maybe just the maintenance shed for the lawn tractors and such.

Here we see Al Dark, in the white cap that the coaching staff wore (maybe so the fans in Kansas City knew where to direct their vitriol during a game?). Paul Linblad's cap looks like it just came out of the box THAT day.

Lots of youth here. Every one of these 11 players had 4 years or less in the bigs, except Mike Hershberger with 6 years.

I really like the 1967 Athletics' cards.  In the 1968 set, they're a complete airbrushed mess, what with their move to Oakland.

Lew Krausse (#565)

Today we check out Lew Krausse, pitcher for the Kansas City Athletics. This was the Athletics' last year in Kansas City, and Krausse was in the rare 7th series, so it's really the last look at a player in a KayCee uniform. (The other 7th series Athletics are rookie cards, and a capless Bob Duliba.)

Krausse grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs (the topic for my next 1960s Baseball blog post), and went to Chester High School, as did long-time Pirates' manager Danny Murtaugh. (Lew's stomping grounds were the same as my dad's, although Krausse was 12 years younger, so they probably didn't cross paths.)

Krausse's dad (Lew Sr.) pitched for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1931-32.

Lew Jr. had been a star all through little league and high school baseball (pitching 18 no-hitters in high school), and was signed as a $125,000 bonus baby by the Athletics in 1961. He pitched a complete game shutout (vs the Angels) in his major-league debut in June, at age 18.

After appearing in 12 games (8 starts) as a rookie, he spent all of 1962 (class-A) and 1963 (AAA) in the minors. Krausse also spent the bulk of 1964-65 in the minors, but did appear in a half-dozen games with the A's in each season.

Lew became a full-time big-leaguer at the start of the 1966 season. In each of the next four years, he split his time between the starting rotation and the bullpen, but was always among the top four or five A's pitchers in innings pitched (along with Catfish Hunter, Chuck Dobson, Blue Moon Odom, and Jim Nash).

After the 1969 season, Krausse was traded to the Brewers (along with outfielder Mike Hershberger, catcher Phil Roof, and pitcher Ken Sanders) for 1st baseman Don Mincher and infielder Ron Clark.

After 2 seasons in Milwaukee, Lew was traded to the Red Sox (with pitcher Marty Pattin and outfielder Tommy Harper) for first baseman George Scott, pitchers Jim Lonborg and Ken Brett, catcher Don Pavletich, and outfielders Billy Conigliaro and Joe Lahoud. Lew pitched for the BoSox in 1972, but was released the following spring.

He was quickly re-signed by the Athletics, and spent most of the season in the minors, before signing with the Cardinals in September. Krausse spent the '74 and '75 seasons bouncing around in the minors with the Braves and Athletics.