A franchise is born 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 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 1969. The owners complied, but it forced the
Seattle Pilots to enter the league earlier than expected without a suitable stadium, leading to financial difficulty, and a rapid relocation to
Milwaukee in April
1970. The Kansas City franchise was formally awarded to
Ewing Kauffman on January 11, 1968. The owner selected
Los Angeles Angels vice president
Cedric Tallis as the Royals' first
general manager, and Tallis began to assemble a front office staff.
Expansion draft The
1968 Major League Baseball expansion draft for the Royals and the
Seattle Pilots was held on October 15.
Other offseason transactions • June 7, 1968:
Dane Iorg was drafted by the Royals in the 16th round of the
1968 Major League Baseball draft, but did not sign. • August 14, 1968:
Galen Cisco was purchased by the Royals from the
Boston Red Sox. • October 16, 1968: Purchased
John Gelnar from the Pittsburgh Pirates. • December 12, 1968:
Hoyt Wilhelm was traded by the Royals to the
California Angels for
Ed Kirkpatrick and
Dennis Paepke. • March 29, 1969: Dennis Ribant was purchased from the Royals by the
St. Louis Cardinals. Splittorff would win 166 games for the MLB Royals, including seasons of 20 () and 19 () victories, in a 15-year big-league career, then become a longtime analyst on the team's television crew. The Royals affiliated with three minor league clubs during 1968 to develop drafted players; the rosters were filled out by professional and amateur free agents that had been signed and players loaned from other organizations.
1968 farm system LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: High Point-Thomasville == Regular season ==