1969 Kansas City Royals season

MLB yearly infobox
name = Kansas City Royals
season = 1969
misc =

current league = American League
y1 = 1969
division = West Division
y2 = 1969
Uniform
ballpark = Municipal Stadium
y4 = 1973
city = Kansas City, Missouri
y5 = 1969
owners = Ewing Kauffman
managers = Joe Gordon
television =KMBC-TV
radio =KMBZ
(Buddy Blattner, Denny Matthews|The 1969 Kansas City Royals season was the Royals inaugural season. The season involved the Royals finishing 4th in the American League West with a record of 69 wins and 93 losses. The club's inception is connected to the Athletics franchise. On October 18, 1967, A.L. owners at last gave Charles O. Finley permission to move the Athletics to Oakland for the 1968 season. According to some reports, Joe Cronin promised Finley that he could move the team after the 1967 season as an incentive to sign the new lease with Municipal Stadium. The move came in spite of approval by voters in Jackson County, Missouri of a bond issue for a brand new baseball stadium (the eventual Kauffman Stadium) to be completed in 1973. When U.S. Senator Stuart Symington threatened to have baseball's antitrust exemption revoked, the owners responded with a hasty round of expansion. Kansas City was awarded an American League expansion team, the Royals. They were initially slated to begin play in 1971. However, Symington was not willing to have Kansas City wait three years for another team, and renewed his threat to have baseball's antitrust exemption revoked unless the teams began play in by|1969. The owners complied.

Offseason

Expansion Draft

The 1968 Major League Baseball expansion draft for the Royals and the Seattle Pilots was held on October 15.

Player stats

Batting

tarters by position

"Note: G = Games played; AB = At Bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting Average; HR = Home Runs; RBI = Runs Batted In"

Other pitchers

Relief pitchers

Farm system [Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., "The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball," 2nd edition. Durham, N.C.: Baseball America, 1997]

* Class AAA: Omaha Royals (American Association; Jack McKeon, manager) -- LEAGUE CHAMPION
* Class AA: Elmira Pioneers (Eastern League; Harry Bright, manager) -- Affiliation shared with San Diego Padres
* Class A: High Point-Thomasville Royals (Carolina League; Harry Malmberg, manager)
* Class A: Waterloo Hawks (Midwest League; Rollie Hemsley, manager)
* Class SS-A: Corning Royals (New York-Penn League; Buddy Peterson, manager)
* Class SS-A: Winnipeg Goldeyes (Northern League; Spider Jorgensen, manager)
* Rookie: Kingsport Royals (Appalachian League; Red Norwood, manager)

References

* [http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/KC/1969.shtml 1969 Kansas City Royals team page at Baseball Reference]
* [http://baseball-almanac.com/teamstats/roster.php?y=1969&t=KCA 1969 Kansas City Royals team page at www.baseball-almanac.com]