June 11, 1964 - The Kansas City Athletics fired manager Ed Lopat (pictured right with Wayne Causey in 1963) today and named Mel McGaha, a former coach with the club, to succeed him.
Announcement of the switch was made by general manager Pat Friday shortly after the A’s arrived in Cleveland for a four-game series with the Indians starting tomorrow night.
Friday said Lopat’s release was no reflection on the former Yankee pitching star, who took over the managerial post on the last day of the 1962 season when Hank Bauer stepped out.
Friday said the A’s, who have been consistently in 10th place in the American League this season, “haven’t seemed to jell and something had to be done to jack them up.”
“We thought maybe a change in field managers might help,” Friday said. “At any rate, it’s worth trying.”
Before leaving for his Hillsdale, N.J., home, Lopat called the firing “inevitable.”
“That’s what you do in cases like this, fire the manager,” said Lopat. “You’ve got to expect things. I had an idea it was coming.
“It’s easier to change the manager than to change five or 10 ballplayers. Now I’ll have a chance to spend some time with my family for the first time in 28 years. Maybe somebody else can do better with the A’s.
“I guess they were just impatient. You don’t develop players like scrambling eggs. You have to wait. This is a young club. There are seven or eight kids on it who are coming, but it takes time to get experience. There is no other way.”
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