The "Swingin' A's" aka...the "mustache gang"

Charlie Finley's Oakland A's were the true dynasty team of the decade.  They won 3 straight World Championships from 1972-1974 and 5 straight AL West Division Titles.  While virtually unbeatable on the field the team with the multi-colored jerseys was beatable at the box office.  Playing in the cavernous Oakland Coliseum the A's consistently drew less fans than 80% of the league.  Even worse, the A's were being outdrawn by their crosstown rivals (SF Giants), who were fielding last place teams.  When you put a championship team on the field and can't draw fans the franchise has issues.  Finley, who was known to the baseball world as a maverick innovator was also known to his players as a "tightwad", which is a polite way of saying "cheapskate".  In fairness to Finley there wasn't much more he could do to keep his franchise solvent.  His team was not only exciting to watch, they were repeat champions.  Finley tried everything to bring the fans in.  He encouraged his players to grown their hair out, so they could reflect the youth of the time and hopefully draw in the kids.  That didn't work.  He had them all grow Mustaches, which he paid each player $250 each for, and that didn't get much local interest.  His team would wear multi-colored uniforms and break with the long tested major league tradition of Home "whites" and Road "grays".  That didn't help either. 

Once free agency hit the franchise was doomed.  The cash strapped Finley began losing players left and right.  Future HOF'er Catfish Hunter became the first big free agent to leave after the 1974 championship.  He went to the Yankees, who paid him millions.  In 1976 Reggie Jackson was shipped to Baltimore, because Finley knew he couldn't afford to pay him and had to get something in return.  From 1977 through the end of the decade the once proud Oakland A's dynasty began to crumble as Finley had himself a desperation fire sale going on.  Major league rosters across both leagues had former Oakland All-Stars, while the A's had triple A talent on their roster.  Instead of dominating the decade and probably winning another 2 or 3 championships, the A's were drawing 5,000-8,000 fans a game.  The Yankees, who acquired future HOF'ers (Hunter & Jackson), went on to win 2 championships with those two players as centerpieces of their team.  While that was occurring you have to wonder if Oakland fans were thinking about "what might have been" and not "what we already accomplished".