- Except for the World Series, the 1965 baseball season is now a matter of history. As far as followers of the Athletics are concerned, it makes grim reading. The A's season was filled with promotions, gimmicks and defeats. Some of the promotions were highly successful, and some of the gimmicks were unusual, but the defeats were an old, old story. Much of the galling to Kansas City's long-suffering fans is the manner in which the expansion clubs have passed up the A's. The Angels have finished ahead of the A's four of the five years they have been in the league. Washington finally squeezed ahead of the A's last season, and repeated the feat this season. But, once again, there is room to hope as the club finished with a .500 mark for the months of September and October.
Finley went all out on the promotions. Among the most successful were Farmer's Night, Sportsmen's Night, Automotivve Industry Night, Campy Campaneris Night (September 8), and Satchel Paige Appreciation Night. Finley also set up a zoo behind the stands in left field and advertised it as the only zoo in the major leagues. It contained monkeys, rabbits, peacocks, pheasants and a dog known as Old Drumm who was allowed to go on the field with the ground crew when it dragged the infield. The best known member of the A's animal contingent was Charlie O., the mule, who toured the league in an air-conditioned trailer and appeared in hotels and ballparks. The White Sox refused Finley permission to exhibit Charlie O. at Comiskey Park, but Finley got the last laugh on the next-to-last day of the season when one of his mules delayed the game for seven minutes. The mule, identified as Charlie O. II, was smuggled into Comiskey Park and was released from the K.C. dugout in the home half of the second inning. The mule took a leisurely walk from first to second base but did not touch the bag and instead remained near the edge of the grass and stood looking into center field. Ken Harrelson was finally nominated to lead the jackass back into the A's dugout.
- Two September promotions proved very successful at the gate. First, Campy Campaneris Night worked as attendance for the game against the Angels umped to 21,576, more than double the 10,489 that showed up for the Labor Day double-header against the league-leading Twins. Campaneris played all nine positions, starting at shortstop, then to second base, third base, left field, center field, right field, and first base. With the applause of those remaining, Campaneris takes the mound in relief of Jim Dickson who was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the seventh. PH Santiago Rosario takes over at first base. The first batter, Paul Schaal, grounds out to Green at second. Campy's first three pitches to his counterpart, Chance, are balls. He is able to get the next pitch over, but walks Chance with the next pitch. Next up is Campy's cousin, Jose Cardenal who watches the first pitch for a ball. Cardenal grounds the next pitch to Green who flips to first for the second out. Campaneris' next pitch to little Albie Pearson is wild, and Chance moves to third. Pearson takes the next pitch for a strike, and hits a routine grounder to Causey at short to end the inning. 13 pitches, 5 strikes, but Campaneris is out of the inning without surrendering a run. campaneris concluded his journey around the diamond behind home plate which proved to be no place for a 5'10", 160 lb. player. Campy was injured and played in only one game the next two weeks. The A's lost the game, 5-2. The next promotion was as successful at the box office and in the box score. Kansas City Monarch legend Satchel Paige, 59, pitched three innings of one-hit ball as the A's beat Boston, 9-0.
