The Hawaii Islanders were a minor league baseball team based in Honolulu , Hawaii , that played in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League for 27 seasons from 1961 through 1987 .
166-580: Originally an affiliate of the Kansas City Athletics , the Islanders played their home games at Honolulu Stadium , Aloha Stadium and Les Murakami Stadium . After being one of the most successful minor league teams, the Islanders faltered and ultimately moved to the mainland as the Colorado Springs Sky Sox in 1988 . The Islanders were originally an amateur team, but on December 17, 1960,
332-466: A bond issue for a brand new baseball stadium (the eventual Royals Stadium, now Kauffman Stadium ) to be completed in 1973 . Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri blasted Finley on the floor of the U.S. Senate, calling him an "all-American disgrace to sport" and "one of the most disreputable characters ever to enter the American sports scene." (Symington is often quoted as saying in this speech that "Oakland
498-419: A brief amount of time, so they also rely on their legs. The appearance of the legs is similar in each caste, but the soldiers have larger and heavier legs. The structure of the legs is consistent with other insects: the parts of a leg include a coxa , trochanter , femur , tibia and the tarsus . The number of tibial spurs on an individual's leg varies. Some species of termite have an arolium, located between
664-447: A certain developmental path. Workers may also be fertile or sterile, however the term "worker" is normally reserved for the latter, having evolved in taxa that exhibit a bifurcated developmental pathway. As a result, sterile workers like in the family Termitidae are termed true workers and are the most derived, while those that are undifferentiated and fertile as in the wood-nesting Archotermopsidae are termed pseudergates , which are
830-616: A chance at the pennant due to an incident in May. Aloha Stadium management initially refused to allow the use of metal spikes; the stadium had opened the previous September, with artificial turf . When the Tacoma Twins complied with a parent-club directive to wear their metal spikes, stadium management turned off the center field lights. After 35 minutes, the umpires forfeited the game to the Twins. The Islanders protested, claiming they had no control over
996-472: A developmental process called incomplete metamorphosis , going through multiple gradual pre-adult molts that are highly developmentally plastic before becoming an adult. Unlike in other hemimetabolous insects, nymphs are more strictly defined in termites as immature young with visible wing buds, which often invariably go through a series of moults to become winged adults . Larvae , which are defined as early nymph instars with absent wing buds, exhibit
1162-515: A dynasty team. As happened with the end of the A's first dynasty in the early 1900s, the collapse was swift, sudden and total. The next three years were as bad as the worst days in Philadelphia or Kansas City, with the A's finishing last twice and next-to-last once. In 1977 , for instance—only three years after winning the World Series and two years after playing for the pennant—the A's finished with
1328-572: A factor in a pennant race again at that late date until 1969 —their second year in Oakland. Another winning record in 1949 sparked hopes that 1950—the 50th season for both the American League and Mack's tenure as manager of the A's—would bring a pennant at last. During that year, the team wore uniforms trimmed in blue and gold, in honor of the Golden Jubilee of "The Grand Old Man of Baseball." However,
1494-425: A few hundred individuals to enormous societies with several million individuals. Most species are rarely seen, having a cryptic life-history where they remain hidden within the galleries and tunnels of their nests for most of their lives. Termites' success as a group has led to them colonizing almost every global landmass, with the highest diversity occurring in the tropics where they are estimated to constitute 10% of
1660-501: A few months later, leaving the presidency to Mack. When John died on July 11, 1937, Mack bought enough shares from the Shibe estate to become majority owner. However, Mack had been the franchise's number-one man since Ben Shibe's death. Even as bad as the A's got during this time, Mack retained full authority over business and baseball matters. Long after most teams hired a general manager, Mack continued making all personnel decisions and leading
1826-432: A few more years, as the team finished second in 1932 and third in 1933. Mack was already 68 years old when the A's won the pennant in 1931, and many felt that the game had long since passed him by. Although he had every intention of building another winner, he did not have the extra money to get big stars. He also did not (or could not) invest in a farm system. Unlike most other owners, Mack had no source of income apart from
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#17328486789981992-513: A fontanelle, which appears as a circular pore or series of pores in a depressed region within the middle of the head. The fontanelle connects to the frontal gland, a novel organ unique to Neoisopteran termites which evolved to excrete an array of defensive chemicals and secretions, and so is typically most developed in the soldier caste. Cellulose digestion in the family Termitidae has co-evolved with bacterial gut microbiota and many taxa have evolved additional symbiotic relationships such as with
2158-502: A game up with one remaining. The results were reversed on the final day of the regular season and the two teams tied at 76–68 (.528). Hawaii prevailed in a one-game playoff the next day in Tacoma to win the division crown. The championship series (best-of-five) was a rematch with Eastern division champion Salt Lake 90–54 (.625), and all five games were played in Utah at Derks Field . After winning
2324-558: A lawsuit against Major League Baseball over the move of the Seattle Pilots to Milwaukee, Finley and others came up with an elaborate shuffle which would move the ailing Chicago White Sox to Seattle. Finley then would move the A's to Chicago, closer to his home in LaPorte, Indiana ; and take the White Sox' place at Comiskey Park . The scheme fell through when White Sox owner John Allyn sold
2490-410: A loosely controlled Yankee farm club." On the positive side, Johnson devoted attention to player development for the first time in the history of the franchise. Under longtime owner and manager Connie Mack , the A's did not or could not spend any money building a farm system, a major reason why Mack's Philadelphia teams fell from World Series champions to cellar-dwellers so quickly. When Johnson bought
2656-613: A moustache by Father's Day, at a time when every other team forbade facial hair. When Father's Day arrived, every member of the team collected a bonus. The 1972 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds was termed "The Hairs vs. the Big Squares", as the Reds wore more traditional uniforms and required their players to be clean-shaven and short-haired. A contemporaneous book about the team was called Mustache Gang . The A's seven-game victory over
2822-518: A passion. For instance, Finley threatened to pack Jackson off to the minors in 1969 after Jackson hit 47 homers; Commissioner Bowie Kuhn had to intervene in their contract dispute. Kuhn intervened again after Blue won the AL Cy Young Award in 1971 and Finley threatened to send him to the minors. Finley's tendency for micromanaging his team actually dated to the team's stay in Kansas City. Among
2988-454: A pedicel (typically shorter than the scape), and the flagellum (all segments beyond the scape and pedicel). The mouth parts contain a maxillae , a labium, and a set of mandibles . The maxillae and labium have palps that help termites sense food and handling. The cuticle of most castes is soft and flexible due to a resulting lack of sclerotization, particularly of the abdomen which often appears translucent. Pigmentation and sclerotization of
3154-489: A reputation as a prolific trader, as general manager. Lane began engineering trades with several other teams, including the Yankees, the bus-burning stunt notwithstanding. Lane lasted less than one year, being fired during the 1961 season. He was temporarily replaced by Pat Friday , whose sole qualification for the job was that he managed one of Finley's insurance offices. On paper, Friday remained general manager until 1965, when he
3320-459: A source of frustration for some time to the other AL owners, as they could not even begin to meet their expenses for trips to Philadelphia. As a result, Harridge had come to believe that the only way to resolve the "Philadelphia problem" was to move the Athletics elsewhere. For this reason, when Chicago businessman Arnold Johnson offered to buy the team, the other owners pressured Roy Mack to agree to
3486-408: A telephone in the dugout and instead would use a series of obtuse hand signs to signal his coaches on the field. For the most part, Mack's coaches handled in-game operations. Nonetheless, despite calls inside and outside the organization to step down, Mack would not even consider firing himself. Also, during this time, Mack gave minority stakes in the team to his sons, Roy , Earle and Connie Jr., with
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#17328486789983652-404: A termite is in flight, its wings remain at a right angle, and when the termite is at rest, its wings remain parallel to the body. Due to termites being hemimetabolous insects , where the young go through multiple and gradual adultoid molts before becoming an adult, the advent of eusociality has significantly altered the developmental patterns of this group of insects of which, although similar,
3818-465: A three-fourths majority. However, Detroit owner Spike Briggs was persuaded to change his vote, ending the A's 54-year stay in Philadelphia. In 1954, Chicago real estate magnate Arnold Johnson bought the Philadelphia Athletics and moved them to Kansas City, Missouri . Although he was initially viewed as a hero for making Kansas City a major-league town, it soon became apparent that he
3984-466: A wide variety of predators. The queens can be particularly long-lived for insects, with some reportedly living as long as 30 or 50 years. In both the linear and bifurcated developmental pathways, the primary reproductives only develop from winged immatures (nymphs). These winged immatures are capable of regressively molting into a form known as brachypterous neotenics ( nymphoids ), which retain juvenile and adult characteristics. BN 's can be found in both
4150-696: Is believed to be from the Upper Cretaceous in West Texas , where the oldest known faecal pellets were also discovered. Claims that termites emerged earlier have faced controversy. For example, F. M. Weesner indicated that the Mastotermitidae termites may go back to the Late Permian , 251 million years ago, and fossil wings that have a close resemblance to the wings of Mastotermes of the Mastotermitidae,
4316-468: Is consistent with all four-winged insects. The mesothorax and metathorax have well-developed exoskeletal plates; the prothorax has smaller plates. Termites have a ten-segmented abdomen with two plates, the tergites and the sternites . The tenth abdominal segment has a pair of short cerci . There are ten tergites, of which nine are wide and one is elongated. The reproductive organs are similar to those in cockroaches but are more simplified. For example,
4482-552: Is divided into the following clade and family groups, showing the subfamilies in their respective classification: The Neoisoptera , literally meaning "newer termites" (in an evolutionary sense), are a recently coined clade that include families such as the Rhinotermitidae and Termitidae . Neoisopterans have a bifurcated caste development with true workers, and so notably lack pseudergates (except in some basal taxa such as Serritermitidae : see below ). All Neoisopterans have
4648-538: Is expected to increase over time as a consequence of climate change . Increased urbanization and connectivity is also predicted to expand the range of some pest termites. The infraorder name Isoptera is derived from the Greek words iso (equal) and ptera (winged), which refers to the nearly equal size of the fore and hind wings. "Termite" derives from the Latin and Late Latin word termes ("woodworm, white ant"), altered by
4814-494: Is found mainly in the derived taxa (i.e. Neoisoptera ), and is believed to have evolved in tandem with the sterile worker caste as species moved to foraging for food beyond their nests, as opposed to the nest also being the food (such as in obligate wood-dwellers). There are three main castes which are discussed below: Worker termites undertake the most labor within the colony, being responsible for foraging, food storage, and brood and nest maintenance. Workers are tasked with
4980-422: Is not homologous to that of the eusocial Hymenoptera . Unlike ants, bees, and wasps which undergo a complete metamorphosis and as a result only exhibit developmental plasticity at the immobile larval stage , the mobile adultoid instars of termites remain developmentally flexible throughout all life stages up to the final molt , which has uniquely allowed for the evolution of distinct yet flexible castes amongst
5146-684: Is the Athletics' accent color. It was more a nauseous green the players wore on their wholesome, clean-cut faces the first few times they had to appear in public looking like refugees from a softball league. Finley replaced Mack's elephant with a Missouri mule —not just a cartoon logo, but a real mule, which he named after himself: " Charlie O, the Mule ". He also began phasing out the team name "Athletics" in favor of simply "A's". Some of his other changes—for instance, his repeated attempts to mimic Yankee Stadium's famous right-field "home run porch"—were less successful. AL President Joe Cronin ordered Finley to remove
Hawaii Islanders - Misplaced Pages Continue
5312-560: Is the luckiest city since Hiroshima," but there is no evidence he ever made such a statement. ) When 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 , but 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
5478-521: The nymphal (winged) and apterous (wingless) lines. The bifurcation occurs early, either at the egg or the first two instars, and represents an irreversible and committed development to either the reproductive or non-reproductive lifestyles. As such, the apterous lineage consists mostly of wingless and truly altruistic sterile individuals (true workers, soldiers), whereas the nymphal lineage consists mainly of fertile individuals destined to become winged reproductives. The bifurcated developmental pathway
5644-469: The Archotermopsidae , which are able to retain high developmental plasticity even up to the late instars. In these basal taxa, the immatures are able to go through progressive ( nymph-to-imago ), regressive ( winged-to-wingless ) and stationary ( size increase, remains wingless ) molts, which typically indicates the developmental trajectory an individual follows. There is significant variation of
5810-655: The Athletics Major League Baseball franchise spans the period from 1901 to the present day, having begun as a charter member franchise in the new American League in Philadelphia before moving to Kansas City in 1955 for 13 seasons and then to the San Francisco Bay in Oakland, California , in 1968 for 57 seasons. The team endured numerous attendance issues stemming from the aging Oakland Coliseum before
5976-614: The Chicago White Sox for $ 100,000. In December 1933 , Mack sent Grove, Rube Walberg and Max Bishop to the Boston Red Sox for Bob Kline , Rabbit Warstler and $ 125,000. Also in 1933, he sold Cochrane to the Detroit Tigers for $ 100,000. The construction of a spite fence at Shibe Park, blocking the view from nearby buildings, only served to irritate potential paying fans. However, the consequences did not become apparent for
6142-506: The Cincinnati Reds in the World Series . That year, the A's began wearing solid green or solid gold jerseys, with contrasting white pants, at a time when most other teams wore all-white uniforms at home and all-grey ones on the road. Similar to more colorful amateur softball uniforms, they were considered a radical departure for their time. Furthermore, in conjunction with a Moustache Day promotion, Finley offered $ 300 to any player who grew
6308-657: The Nasutes , which have a horn-like nozzle projection ( nasus ) on the head. These unique soldiers are able to spray noxious, sticky secretions containing diterpenes at their enemies. Nitrogen fixation plays an important role in Nasute nutrition. Soldiers are normally a committed sterile caste and so do not molt into anything else, but in certain basal taxa like the Archotermopsidae they are known to rarely molt into neotenic forms that develop functional sexual organs. In species with
6474-548: The National League (1953–1965). That number would never be approached again while the team was in Kansas City, and would remain the club record for attendance until 1982—the Athletics' 15th season in Oakland. The A's of this era were barely competitive; in five years under Johnson's ownership, the closest they got to a winning record was 1958 , when they finished 73–81, eight games below .500 and 19 games out of first. During Johnson's tenure, virtually every good young A's player
6640-532: The Sacramento Solons , a longtime PCL stalwart, moved to Honolulu. Minor league baseball was then in free fall, as sparse attendance, major league TV broadcasts, expansion and franchise shifts at the major league level, and retrenchment in farm system support caused the contraction of many minor league teams, and the collapse of entire leagues. The Islanders came to Hawaii in part due to these trends. The Solons had been suffering from attendance problems since
6806-606: The World Series on October 11, 1967, Finley announced his choice of Oakland over Seattle as the team's new home. A week later on October 18 in Chicago, A.L. owners at last gave him permission to move the Athletics to Oakland for the 1968 season. According to some reports, 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
Hawaii Islanders - Misplaced Pages Continue
6972-403: The claws , which is present in species that climb on smooth surfaces but is absent in most termites. Unlike in ants, the hind-wings and fore-wings are of equal length. Most of the time, the alates are poor flyers; their technique is to launch themselves in the air and fly in a random direction. Studies show that in comparison to larger termites, smaller termites cannot fly long distances. When
7138-436: The infraorder Isoptera , or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae , within the order Blattodea (along with cockroaches ). Termites were once classified in a separate order from cockroaches, but recent phylogenetic studies indicate that they evolved from cockroaches, as they are deeply nested within the group, and the sister group to wood eating cockroaches of the genus Cryptocercus . Previous estimates suggested
7304-503: The intromittent organ is not present in male alates, and the sperm is either immotile or aflagellate. However, Mastotermitidae termites have multiflagellate sperm with limited motility . The genitals in females are also simplified. Unlike in other termites, Mastotermitidae females have an ovipositor , a feature strikingly similar to that in female cockroaches. The non-reproductive castes of termites are wingless and rely exclusively on their six legs for locomotion. The alates fly only for
7470-462: The " Termite Palace," it had reached the end of its useful life by the mid-1960s. However, the new multi-purpose stadium was located in Halawa in west-central Oahu , far from the team's fan base. Attendance, already in decline, fell even further. Fans were unwilling to make the drive, and those wanting to take TheBus to the stadium balked at having to walk through Aloha Stadium's parking lots to get to
7636-524: The "best interests of baseball". Amid the turmoil, the A's still finished second in the AL West, 2.5 games behind the Royals. After the 1976 season, most of the Athletics' veteran players did become eligible for free agency, and predictably almost all left. More than 40 years and 3,000 miles (4,800 km) after Connie Mack's last dynasty, one of baseball's most storied franchises suffered yet another dismemberment of
7802-436: The "king" and "queen" that together form a lifelong monogamous pair. Also unlike ants, which undergo a complete metamorphosis , termites undergo an incomplete metamorphosis that proceeds through egg, nymph , and adult stages. Termite colonies are commonly described as superorganisms due to the collective behaviors of the individuals which form a self-governing entity: the colony itself. Their colonies range in size from
7968-476: The 12th inning of the A's Game Two loss to the Mets. When Williams, Andrews' teammates, and virtually the entire viewing public rallied to Andrews' defense, Kuhn forced Finley to back down. However, there was nothing that said the A's had to play Andrews. Andrews entered Game 4 in the eighth inning as a pinch-hitter to a standing ovation from sympathetic Mets fans. He promptly grounded out, and Finley ordered him benched for
8134-700: The 1930s and 1940s. In those days, the team's radio play-by-play man was Harry Kalas , who had just gotten out of the service. When Kalas later moved on to the mainland (with the Houston Astros and later the Philadelphia Phillies ), he was replaced as Islanders play-by-play man by Hank Greenwald (later a broadcaster for the Giants); Marty Chase succeeded Greenwald in 1966 and was the play-by-play announcer through 1968. A young Al Michaels arrived in June 1968 after Chase
8300-426: The 1950 season was an unmitigated disaster, as they were already out of contention by the end of May. Before May was out, Mack's sons had agreed to ease their father out as manager. On May 26, it was announced that Mack would resign at the end of the season. On the same day, former A's star Jimmy Dykes , who had returned to the A's as a coach a year earlier, was named assistant manager and would transition to manager for
8466-418: The 1951 season. However, for all practical purposes, Dykes took over as manager immediately; he was given control over the A's day-to-day operations and became the team's main game-day operator. Cochrane, who had been brought back as a coach earlier in the year, was named general manager, stripping Connie Sr. of his last direct authority over baseball matters. Ultimately, the A's finished with the worst record in
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#17328486789988632-408: The 1953–54 offseason, when they slashed over $ 100,000 from the player payroll, fired general manager Arthur Ehlers and replaced Dykes as manager with shortstop Eddie Joost . They also pared down the minor-league system to only six clubs. However, even with these measures, there still wasn't nearly enough money coming in to service the mortgage debt, and Roy and Earle began feuding with each other. By
8798-421: The 1957 season). Whatever the concern about the move to Kansas City, fans turned out in record numbers for the era. In 1955, the Kansas City Athletics drew 1,393,054 to Municipal Stadium, a club record easily surpassing the previous record of 945,076 in 1948; in fact, it was the third-highest attendance figure in the majors, behind only the all-powerful Yankees and the also recently relocated Milwaukee Braves in
8964-566: The 1968 campaign with an 82–80 record, their first winning record since 1952 (in Philadelphia ). The team's output also represented a 20-win increase over the prior year's 62–99 finish. Bob Kennedy was fired at the end of the season. Expansion brought optimism to Athletics fans after AL owners (unlike their counterparts in the National League) decided to realign their league strictly based on geography. Despite finishing in sixth place and only two games above .500 in 1968, Oakland actually had
9130-564: The 1974 season as called for. On December 13, 1974, arbitrator Peter Seitz ruled in Hunter's favor. As a result, Hunter became a free agent, and signed a contract with the Yankees for the 1975 season. Despite the loss of Hunter, the A's repeated as AL West champions in 1975, but lost the ALCS to Boston in a 3-game sweep. In 1975 , fed up with poor attendance in Oakland during the team's championship years, Finley thought of moving yet again. When Seattle filed
9296-582: The 2,972 extant termite species currently classified, 1,000 are found in Africa , where mounds are extremely abundant in certain regions. Approximately 1.1 million active termite mounds can be found in the northern Kruger National Park alone. In Asia , there are 435 species of termites, which are mainly distributed in China . Within China, termite species are restricted to mild tropical and subtropical habitats south of
9462-502: The A's finished the season with a record of 88–74. However, this was only good enough for second place behind the Minnesota Twins , and was not good enough for Finley, who had been expecting his team to win the division title. Hank Bauer was fired (and replaced with John McNamara ) near the end of the season. The team's record stood at 80–69 at the time of his firing. McNamara himself would be fired following an 89–73 finish in 1970 . He
9628-447: The A's midway through the 1938 season, not enough revenue came in for Mack to build another winner. By the mid-1940s, as Mack passed his 80th birthday, he was showing unmistakable signs of mental deterioration, almost to the point of senility. He would frequently sleep through innings, make bad calls that his coaches simply ignored, have inexplicable fits of anger, or call players from decades earlier to pinch-hit. Mack also never installed
9794-405: The A's moved into the major leagues' first concrete-and-steel ballpark, Shibe Park . This remains the second and last time in franchise history where a new ballpark was built specifically for the A's. In 1912, Mack bought the 25% of the team's stock owned by Sam Jones and Frank Hough to become a full partner with Shibe. Shibe ceded Mack full control over the baseball side while retaining control over
9960-469: The A's to Johnson no later than October 18. However, on October 17, Roy Mack suddenly announced that the A's had been sold to a Philadelphia-based group headed by auto dealer John Crisconi, with Roy having an option to buy a minority stake. The deal was to be approved at an American League owners' meeting on October 28. It looked headed for approval when rumors (reportedly planted by the Yankees) cropped up that
10126-454: The A's, so the dwindling attendance figures of the early 1930s hit him especially hard. As a result, the A's went into a decline that lasted for over 30 years, through three cities. The Athletics finished fifth in 1934, then last in 1935. Except for a fifth-place finish in 1944, they finished in last or next-to-last place every year through 1946. Tom Shibe died in 1936 and John succeeded him as club president. However, John resigned due to illness
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#173284867899810292-530: The A's. While the A's were still dreadful in the first eight years of Finley's ownership, he began to lay the groundwork for a future contender. Finley poured significant resources into the minor league system for the first time in the history of the franchise. By 1966, the A's were reckoned as having the strongest farm system in the majors. He was assisted by the creation of the Major League Baseball draft in 1965, which forced young prospects to sign with
10458-744: The Athletics finished second to the New York Yankees , then won pennants in 1929 , 1930 and 1931 , winning the World Series in 1929 and 1930 . In each of the three years, the Athletics won over 100 games. While the 1927 New York Yankees , whose batting order was known as the Murderers' Row , are remembered as one of the best teams in baseball history, the Athletics teams of the late 1920s and early 1930s are largely forgotten. Opponents who faced both teams considered them to be generally equal. Both teams won three consecutive pennants and two of three World Series. Many veteran baseball observers believe that
10624-417: The Athletics to other cities despite his promises that the A's would remain in Kansas City. Soon after the lease-burning stunt, it was discovered that what actually burned was a blank boilerplate commercial lease available at any stationery store. The actual lease was still in force—including the escape clause. Finley later admitted that the whole thing was a publicity stunt, and he had no intention of amending
10790-506: The Athletics — had long been afloat. He also threatened to move the A's to a "cow pasture" in Peculiar, Missouri , complete with temporary grandstands. Not surprisingly, attendance tailed off. The city rejected Finley's offer of a two-year lease agreement; finally, American League President Joe Cronin persuaded Finley to sign a four-year lease with Municipal Stadium in February 1964. During
10956-474: The Crisconi group was underfinanced, and Johnson collared Roy Mack at Roy's home to persuade him that his original deal was better for his family in the long run. On October 28, the sale to the Crisconi group came up one vote short of the five needed for approval, with Roy Mack voting against the deal he had just negotiated. While Connie and Earle had joined Roy in signing the contract to sell their stakes to Crisconi,
11122-478: The Islanders doing the same. Later, as the league expanded, the Islanders played an eight-game series against each team in order to cut down on travel costs. The travel costs also applied to radio coverage. In the early 1960s, due to the cost of line charges, Islanders radio announcers used the old method of "re-creating" the road games in the Honolulu radio studio. This method was used by most major league teams during
11288-498: The Islanders left Hawaii, the minor league Hawaii Winter Baseball was founded in 1993 and played their games from October to December. The league was affiliated with the Major Leagues and continued play until 1997, and from 2006 until it folded a second time in 2008. Pernell Roberts guest starred in a two-part Hawaii Five-O episode, "The Grandstand Play", as a former Major League Baseball star who moved to Hawaii for
11454-539: The Islanders' early deals with the San Diego Padres typically called for the Padres to send only about six players to Hawaii. The Islanders then signed players on their own to fill most of the roster spots, and were free to trade, sell or release them without approval from San Diego. This worked very well for the Islanders, as they won consecutive PCL titles in 1975 and 1976. The Islanders achieved success and stability as
11620-504: The MLB owners approved the team's application to relocate to Las Vegas, Nevada in 2023. With four locations, the A's have had the most homes of any MLB team. The Western League was renamed the American League in 1900 by league president Bancroft (Ban) Johnson and declared itself the second major league in 1901. Johnson created new franchises in the east and eliminated some franchises in
11786-561: The Macks sold the A's to Johnson for $ 3.5 million, $ 1.5 million for their shares plus $ 2 million in debt. Selling Shibe Park—which had been renamed Connie Mack Stadium a year earlier—proved more difficult, but the Phillies reluctantly bought it. The American League owners met again on November 8, and duly approved Johnson's bid to buy the A's. Johnson's first act was to request permission to move to Kansas City. This proved more difficult, since it required
11952-665: The PCL. Prior to the 1988 season, citing years of dwindling attendance, the team moved to Colorado Springs and became the Sky Sox . When announcing the Islanders' move in August 1987, owner David Elmore announced that he would move a Short-Season A Northwest League club, reported to be the Salem Angels to Honolulu for the 1988 season. This did not come to fruition, though, and Hawaii has been without minor league baseball ever since. Five years after
12118-531: The Padres' top affiliate from 1971 to 1982, but spent the second half of the 1980s in short-term affiliations with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago White Sox . The beginning of the end, however, came when the Islanders moved from rickety Honolulu Stadium to Aloha Stadium in 1976. It had been obvious for some time that Honolulu Stadium needed to be replaced. The wooden stadium was built in 1926 and had long since fallen below Triple-A standards; known as
12284-668: The Paleozoic and Triassic insects tentatively classified as termites are in fact unrelated to termites and should be excluded from the Isoptera. Other studies suggest that the origin of termites is more recent, having diverged from Cryptocercus sometime during the Early Cretaceous . The primitive giant northern termite ( Mastotermes darwiniensis ) exhibits numerous cockroach-like characteristics that are not shared with other termites, such as laying its eggs in rafts and having anal lobes on
12450-638: The Series, or at least "laid down," perhaps in protest of Mack's frugal ways. Mack himself alluded to that rumor years later but debunked it. He claimed that the team was torn by numerous internal factions and was also distracted by the allure of a third major league, the Federal League , which began play in 1914 and raided players from the AL and NL teams. Mack refused to match the upstart league's offers, preferring to rebuild with younger (and less expensive) players. The result
12616-625: The Shibe's on the other came to a head in July 1950, when Connie Jr. and the Shibe's decided to sell the team. However, Roy and Earle insisted that they have a 30-day option to buy out Connie Jr. and the Shibe's before the team was put on the market. Connie Jr. did not think Roy and Earle could get the $ 1.74 million required to buy him out, but Roy and Earle called their bluff by mortgaging the team to Connecticut General Life Insurance Company (now part of CIGNA ) and pledging Shibe Park as collateral. The mortgage deal closed on August 26. The shares of Connie Jr. and
12782-486: The Shibes were retired, ending the Shibes' half-century involvement with the A's and making Connie Sr., Roy and Earle the team's only shareholders. Although his father remained nominal owner and team president, Roy, who had been vice president since 1936, now became operating head of the franchise, sharing day-to-day control with Earle. However, under the terms of the mortgage, the A's were now saddled with payments of $ 200,000 over
12948-789: The Yangtze River. In Australia , all ecological groups of termites (dampwood, drywood, subterranean) are endemic to the country, with over 360 classified species. Because termites are highly social and abundant, they represent a disproportionate amount of the world's insect biomass . Termites and ants comprise about 1% of insect species, but represent more than 50% of insect biomass. Due to their soft cuticles, termites do not inhabit cool or cold habitats. There are three ecological groups of termites: dampwood, drywood and subterranean. Dampwood termites are found only in coniferous forests, and drywood termites are found in hardwood forests; subterranean termites live in widely diverse areas. One species in
13114-539: The Yankees an indemnity for moving to Kansas City, and also would have had to reimburse the Yankees for the costs they incurred for moving the Blues to Denver as the Denver Bears to make way for the A's. Major-league rules of the time gave the Yankees the major-league rights to Kansas City. However, the Yankees waived these payments as soon as the purchase was approved. Even though the Yankees had no intention of going anywhere,
13280-466: The Yankees and arguably helped keep the Yankee dynasty afloat. For example, ten players from the 1961 Yankees , reckoned as one of the best teams of all time, came from the A's. This led to accusations from fans, reporters and even other teams that Johnson had reduced the A's to a Yankee farm team at the major-league level. Bill Veeck , for instance, recalled that under Johnson, the A's were "nothing more than
13446-534: The Yankees' far more exalted status in history is due largely to the fact that they played in New York, where most of the national media is located. As it turned out, this would be the Athletics' last hurrah in Philadelphia. The Great Depression was well under way, and declining attendance drastically reduced the team's revenues. Mack again sold or traded his best players in order to reduce expenses. In September 1932 , he sold Simmons, Jimmy Dykes and Mule Haas to
13612-667: The Yankees' top Triple A level Minor league baseball farm team, the Kansas City Blues of the second American Association . After Johnson got permission from the American League to move the A's to Kansas City, he sold Blues Stadium to the city, which renamed it Kansas City Municipal Stadium and leased it back to Johnson. The lease gave Johnson a three-year escape clause if the team failed to draw one million or more customers per season. The subsequent lease signed in 1960 contained an escape clause that lowered that threshold to 850,000 per season. Normally, Johnson would have had to pay
13778-413: The age of 53. On December 19, 1960, Chicago insurance magnate Charlie Finley purchased a controlling interest in the team from Johnson's estate after losing out to Johnson six years earlier in Philadelphia. He bought out the minority owners a year later. Finley promised the fans a new day. In a highly publicized move, he purchased a bus, pointed it in the direction of New York, and burned it to symbolize
13944-528: The animal biomass , particularly in Africa which has the richest diversity with more than 1000 described species. They are important decomposers of decaying plant matter in the subtropical and tropical regions of the world, and their recycling of wood and plant matter is of considerable ecological importance. Many species are ecosystem engineers capable of altering soil characteristics such as hydrology , decomposition, nutrient cycling , vegetative growth, and consequently surrounding biodiversity through
14110-513: The area, and only made $ 20,000 in ticket sales. During their thirteen years in Kansas City, the Athletics' overall record was 829–1224 (.404), and the best season was 1966 at 74–86 (.463). The Athletics' Oakland tenure opened with a 3–1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on April 10, 1968, and their first game in Oakland was on April 17, a 4–1 loss to the Orioles. They played their home games at
14276-702: The arrival of the San Francisco Giants from New York City in 1958 . Salt Lake City businessman Nick Morgan bought the Solons and moved them to the Aloha State. Two years later, Morgan sold the Islanders to a locally based group. By the end of the 1960s, the Islanders were reckoned the strongest franchise in the minors. In 1970, the Islanders, then an affiliate of the California Angels and managed by Chuck Tanner , won 98 games and drew over 400,000 fans to lead
14442-498: The benefit of his son (played by Elliot Street ), who gets mixed up in the murder of a local socialite. The Islanders baseball team is mentioned on a number of occasions in the 1980s television series Magnum, P.I. The main character played by Tom Selleck was a fan of the Islanders and often wore a Detroit Tigers ball cap. History of the Oakland Athletics#Kansas City (1955–1967) The history of
14608-452: The best record of the four established teams to join the AL West , which also contained the two expansion teams. The Athletics began the 1969 season under the leadership of Hank Bauer . On July 20, 1969, future ace Vida Blue made his major league debut with a start against the California Angels . The Athletics' on-field performance continued to improve; led by Reggie Jackson 's 47 home runs,
14774-416: The business side. However, Mack had already enjoyed a nearly free hand in baseball matters since the franchise's inception. In 1914, the Athletics lost the 1914 World Series to the "Miracle Braves" in a four-game sweep. Mack traded, sold or released most of the team's star players soon after. In his book To Every Thing a Season , Bruce Kuklick points out that there were suspicions that the A's had thrown
14940-412: The cap. This was the first time the franchise had acknowledged its home city on its uniforms. He announced, "My intentions are to keep the A's permanently in Kansas City and build a winning ball club. I have no intention of ever moving the franchise." The fans, in turn, regarded Finley as the savior of Major League Baseball in Kansas City. Finley immediately hired Frank Lane , a veteran baseball man with
15106-458: The colony. Workers remain wingless and across many taxa become developmentally arrested, appearing to not change into any other caste until death. In some basal taxa, there is no distinction, with the "workers" (pseudergates) essentially being late instar larvae that retain the ability to change into all other castes. The development of larvae into adults can take months; the time period depends on food availability and nutrition, temperature, and
15272-431: The cuticle correlates with life history , with species that spend more time in the surface in the open tending to have a more sclerotized and pigmented exoskeleton. Consistent with all insects, the anatomy of the termite thorax consists of three segments: the prothorax , the mesothorax and the metathorax . Each segment contains a pair of legs . On alates, the wings are located at the mesothorax and metathorax, which
15438-439: The derived and basal termite taxa, and generally serve as supplementary reproductives. Termites are often compared with the social Hymenoptera (ants and various species of bees and wasps), but their differing evolutionary origins result in major differences in life cycle. In the eusocial Hymenoptera, the workers are exclusively female. Males (drones) are haploid and develop from unfertilised eggs, while females (both workers and
15604-527: The descendants of the genus Cryptocercus . Some researchers have suggested a more conservative measure of retaining the termites as the Termitoidae, an epifamily within the cockroach order, which preserves the classification of termites at family level and below. Termites have long been accepted to be closely related to cockroaches and mantids , and they are classified in the same superorder ( Dictyoptera ). The oldest unambiguous termite fossils date to
15770-496: The developmental patterns in termites even across closely related taxa, but can typically be generalized into the following two patterns: The first is the linear developmental pathway , where all immatures are capable of developing into winged adults ( Alates ), exhibit high phenotypic potency, and where there exists no true sterile caste other than the soldier. The second is the bifurcated developmental pathway , where immatures diverge into two distinct developmental lineages known as
15936-418: The digestion of cellulose in food and are thus the most likely caste to be found in infested wood. The process of worker termites feeding other nestmates is known as trophallaxis . Trophallaxis is an effective nutritional tactic to convert and recycle nitrogenous components. It frees the parents from feeding all but the first generation of offspring, allowing for the group to grow much larger and ensuring that
16102-627: The divergence took place during the Jurassic or Triassic . More recent estimates suggest that they have an origin during the Late Jurassic , with the first fossil records in the Early Cretaceous . Similarly to ants and some bees and wasps from the separate order Hymenoptera , most termites have an analogous "worker" and "soldier" caste system consisting of mostly sterile individuals which are physically and behaviorally distinct. Unlike ants, most colonies begin from sexually mature individuals known as
16268-533: The drywood group is the West Indian drywood termite ( Cryptotermes brevis ) , which is an invasive species in Australia. Termites are usually small, measuring between 4 and 15 millimetres ( 3 ⁄ 16 and 9 ⁄ 16 in) in length. The largest of all extant termites are the queens of the species Macrotermes bellicosus , measuring up to over 10 centimetres (4 in) in length. Another giant termite,
16434-620: The early Cretaceous , but given the diversity of Cretaceous termites and early fossil records showing mutualism between microorganisms and these insects, they possibly originated earlier in the Jurassic or Triassic. Possible evidence of a Jurassic origin is the assumption that the extinct mammaliaform Fruitafossor from Morrison Formation consumed termites, judging from its morphological similarity to modern termite-eating mammals. Morrison Formation also yields social insect nest fossils close to that of termites. The oldest termite nest discovered
16600-426: The end of the "special relationship" with the Yankees. He called another press conference to burn the existing lease at Municipal Stadium which included the despised "escape clause". He spent over $ 400,000 of his own money in stadium improvements (though in 1962 the city reimbursed $ 300,000 of this). He introduced new uniforms which had "Kansas City" on the road uniforms for the first time ever and an interlocking "KC" on
16766-419: The era, especially in light of the team's dreadful on-field performance. In contrast, during the years of Finley's ownership, the team averaged under 680,000 per year in Kansas City. According to baseball writer Rob Neyer (a native of the Kansas City area), this was largely because Finley tried to sell baseball tickets like he sold insurance. Just before the 1960 season, he mailed brochures to 600,000 people in
16932-572: The expansion teams — the Royals and the Seattle Pilots — began play in 1969 , two years earlier than originally planned. The owners complied, but while Kansas City was major league ready, Seattle was not; its stadium problems affected profitability and ultimately forced the sale and move to Milwaukee after only one season as the Pilots. During the Johnson years, the Athletics' home attendance averaged just under one million per season, respectable numbers for
17098-671: The extinct Gyatermes styriensis , flourished in Austria during the Miocene and had a wingspan of 76 millimetres (3 in) and a body length of 25 millimetres (1 in). Most worker and soldier termites are completely blind as they do not have a pair of eyes. However, some species, such as Hodotermes mossambicus , have compound eyes which they use for orientation and to distinguish sunlight from moonlight. The alates (winged males and females) have eyes along with lateral ocelli . Lateral ocelli, however, are not found in all termites, absent in
17264-409: The families Hodotermitidae , Termopsidae , and Archotermopsidae . Like other insects, termites have a small tongue-shaped labrum and a clypeus ; the clypeus is divided into a postclypeus and anteclypeus. Termite antennae have a number of functions such as the sensing of touch, taste, odours (including pheromones), heat and vibration. The three basic segments of a termite antenna include a scape ,
17430-560: The fence which duplicated the 296-foot right-field foul line in Yankee Stadium. Smarting from this edict from the league office, Finley ordered Municipal Stadium PA announcer Jack Layton to announce, "That would have been a home run in Yankee Stadium", whenever a fly ball passed the limit in Municipal Stadium's outfield. That practice ended quickly, however, when it was apparent that other teams were hitting more "would-be" home runs than
17596-446: The first five years, depriving them of badly needed capital that could have been used improving the team and the park. Attendance plummeted, and there was nowhere near enough revenue to service the mortgage debt. In response, Roy and Earle began cutting costs even further. They turned over the rent from the Phillies to Connecticut General and took cash advances from their concessions contractor. The cost-cutting ramped up even further in
17762-1011: The first fully sequenced termite genome, of Zootermopsis nevadensis , which was published in the journal Nature Communications , consists of roughly 500Mb, while two subsequently published genomes, Macrotermes natalensis and Cryptotermes secundus , are considerably larger at around 1.3Gb. External phylogeny showing relationship of termites with other insect groups: (Mantises) Blaberoidea Corydiodea Blattoidae Lamproblattidae Cryptocercidae (brown-hooded cockroaches) Isoptera (Termites) Internal phylogeny showing relationship of extant termite families: Mastotermitidae Stolotermitidae Hodotermopsidae Hodotermitidae Archotermopsidae Kalotermitidae Stylotermitidae Serritermitidae Rhinotermitidae Termitidae There are currently 3,173 living and fossil termite species recognised, classified in 12 families; reproductive and/or soldier castes are usually required for identification. The infraorder Isoptera
17928-551: The forehead that lead to a gland which exudes defensive secretions, are a feature of the clade Neoisoptera and are present in all extant taxa such as Rhinotermitidae. The majority of termite species have mandibulate soldiers which are easily identified by the disproportionately large sclerotized head and mandibles. Among certain termites, the soldier caste has evolved globular (phragmotic) heads to block their narrow tunnels such as seen in Cryptotermes . Amongst mandibulate soldiers,
18094-418: The form of wood , leaf litter , and soil humus . They are distinguished by their moniliform antennae and the soft-bodied and often unpigmented worker caste for which they have been commonly termed " white ants "; however, they are not ants , to which they are only distantly related. About 2,972 extant species are currently described, 2,105 of which are members of the family Termitidae . Termites comprise
18260-677: The fungus Termitomyces ; in contrast, basal Neoisopterans and all other Euisoptera have flagellates and prokaryotes in their hindguts. Extant families and subfamilies are organized as follows: Termites are found on all continents except Antarctica . The diversity of termite species is low in North America and Europe (10 species known in Europe and 50 in North America), but is high in South America , where over 400 species are known. Of
18426-401: The head of the franchise, and would remain so for the next three decades. By the latter half of the 1920s, Mack had assembled one of the most feared batting orders in the history of baseball, featuring three future Baseball Hall of Fame members, including Al Simmons , Jimmie Foxx , and Mickey Cochrane . A fourth future Hall of Fame member was pitcher Lefty Grove . In 1927 and 1928 ,
18592-406: The heavily favored Reds gave the team its first World Series Championship since 1930 . They defended their title in 1973 and 1974 . Unlike Mack's champions, who thoroughly dominated their opposition, the A's teams of the 1970s played well enough to win their division (which was usually known as the "American League Least" during this time). They then defeated teams that had won more games during
18758-598: The highest developmental potentiality and are able to molt into Alates , Soldiers , Neotenics , or Workers . Workers are believed to have evolved from larvae, sharing many similarities to the extent that workers can be regarded as "larval", in that both lack wings, eyes, and functional reproductive organs while maintaining varying levels of developmental flexibility, although usually to a much lesser extent in workers. The main distinction being that while larvae are wholly dependent on other nestmates to survive, workers are independent and are able to feed themselves and contribute to
18924-639: The highest phenotypic potency and can be described as totipotent ( able to molt into all alternative phenotypes ), whereas following instars can be pluripotent ( able to molt into reproductives and non-reproductives but cannot molt into at least one phenotype ), to multipotent ( able to molt into either reproductive or non-reproductive phenotypes ), to unipotent ( able to molt into developmentally close phenotypes ), and then finally committed ( no longer able to change phenotype, functionally an adult.) In most termites, phenotypic potency decreases with every successive molt. Notable exceptions are basal taxa such as
19090-436: The immatures. As a result the caste system of termites consists mostly of neotenous or juvenile individuals that undertake the most labor in the colony, which is in contrast to the eusocial Hymenoptera where work is strictly undertaken by the adults. The developmental plasticity in termites can be described similarly to cell potency , where each molt offers a varying level of phenotypic potency. Early instars typically exhibit
19256-536: The influence of Latin terere ("to rub, wear, erode") from the earlier word tarmes . A termite nest is also known as a termitary or termitarium (plural termitaria or termitariums ). The word was first used in English in 1781. Earlier attested designations were "wood ants" or "white ants", though these may never have been in wide use as termites do not exist in the British Isles . Termites were formerly placed in
19422-447: The intention to have all three of them inherit the team upon his death. He also intended for Earle, who had been assistant manager since 1924, to succeed him as manager. This decision would have dire consequences for the A's later on. During this time, Shibe Park was also becoming an increasing liability. While the facility had been state of the art when it opened in 1909, by the late 1940s, it had not been well maintained in some time. It
19588-399: The king will continue to mate with the queen throughout their lives. In some species, the abdomen of the queen swells up dramatically to increase fecundity , a characteristic known as physogastrism . Depending on the species, the queen starts producing reproductive alates at a certain time of the year, and huge swarms emerge from the colony when nuptial flight begins. These swarms attract
19754-568: The large mounds constructed by certain species. Termites have several impacts on humans. They are a delicacy in the diet of some human cultures such as the Makiritare in the Alto Orinoco province of Venezuela , where they are commonly used as a spice. They are also used in traditional medicinal treatments of various diseases and ailments, such as influenza, asthma, bronchitis, etc. Termites are most famous for being structural pests; however,
19920-547: The last year of his contract, he could not manage anywhere else. Finley relented later in 1974 and allowed Williams to take over as manager of the California Angels . After the Athletics' victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1974 Series (under Alvin Dark ), pitcher Catfish Hunter filed a grievance, claiming that the team had violated its contract with Hunter by failing to make timely payment on an insurance policy during
20086-401: The league's rejection voided the deal. A day later, Connie Mack released an open letter to A's fans (one that was likely written by his wife) blasting the owners and Roy for sinking the deal to the Crisconi group. However, he conceded that he didn't have enough money to run the A's in 1955, and the Johnson deal was the only one that had any prospect of winning league approval. A few days later,
20252-527: The lease. In 1961 and 1962, Finley talked to people in Dallas-Fort Worth and a four-man group appeared before American League owners, but no formal motion was put forward to move the team to Texas. In January 1964 , he signed an agreement on to move the A's to Louisville , promising to change the team's name to the "Kentucky Athletics". (Other names suggested for the team were the "Louisville Sluggers" and "Kentucky Colonels", which would have allowed
20418-829: The level of developmental plasticity even between closely related taxa, with many species having true workers that can molt into the other apterous castes such as ergatoids (worker reproductive; apterous neotenics), soldiers, or the other worker castes. Pseudergates sensu stricto are individuals which arise from the linear developmental pathway that have regressively molted and lost their wing buds, and are regarded as totipotent immatures. They are capable of performing work but are overall less involved in labor and considered more cooperative than truly altruistic. Pseudergates sensu lato , otherwise known as false workers , are most represented in basal lineages ( Kalotermitidae , Archotermopsidae , Hodotermopsidae , Serritermitidae ) and closely resemble true workers in which they also perform most of
20584-508: The lights. However, the PCL sided with the Twins, citing longstanding rules holding the home team responsible for providing acceptable playing conditions. Due to the forfeit, the Islanders entered the final series of the season 1½ games ahead of the Tacoma in the Western Division, but the Twins won three straight at home over Spokane and Hawaii lost two at home to Sacramento , so Tacoma was
20750-439: The linear developmental pathway, soldiers develop from apterous immatures and constitute the only true sterile caste in these taxa. The primary reproductive caste of a colony consists of the fertile adult ( imago ) female and male individuals, colloquially known as the queen and king. The queen of the colony is responsible for egg production of the colony. Unlike in ants, the male and female reproductives form lifelong pairs where
20916-401: The majors at 52–102, 46 games out of first. Mack's 50-year tenure is a North American professional sports record for manager/head coach that has never been threatened. They would have only one winning record from 1951 to 1954—a fourth-place finish in 1952. The nadir came in 1954, when the A's finished with a ghastly 51–103 record, easily the worst record in baseball and 60 games out of first. At
21082-444: The mandibles have been adapted for a variety of defensive strategies: Biting/crushing ( Incisitermes ), slashing ( Cubitermes ), slashing/snapping ( Dentispicotermes ), symmetrical snapping ( Termes ), asymmetrical snapping ( Neocapritermes ), and piercing ( Armitermes ). In the more derived termite taxa, the soldier caste can be polymorphic and include minor and major forms. Other morphologically specialized soldiers includes
21248-519: The minors as a whole. Although it lost the PCL playoff championship to the Spokane Indians , the 1970 team was named the 38th greatest team in minor league history by Minor League Baseball historians. Due to the Islanders being a distant 2,500 miles (4,000 km) from their nearest opponent, they utilized a unique schedule. Initially, PCL teams made a four- and a seven-game visit to the Islands, with
21414-566: The more notable incidents during this time was a near-mutiny in 1967; Finley responded by releasing the A's best hitter, Ken Harrelson , who promptly signed with the Red Sox and helped lead them to the pennant . The Athletics' victory over the New York Mets in the 1973 Series was marred by Finley's antics. Finley forced Mike Andrews to sign a false affidavit saying he was injured after the reserve second baseman committed two consecutive errors in
21580-412: The most basal. True workers are individuals which irreversibly develop from the apterous lineage and have completely forgo development into a winged adult. They display altruistic behaviors and either have terminal molts or exhibit a low level of phenotypical potency. True workers across different termite taxa ( Mastotermitidae , Hodotermitidae , Rhinotermitidae & Termitidae) can widely vary in
21746-641: The most primitive living termite, have been discovered in the Permian layers in Kansas. It is even possible that the first termites emerged during the Carboniferous . The folded wings of the fossil wood roach Pycnoblattina , arranged in a convex pattern between segments 1a and 2a, resemble those seen in Mastotermes , the only living insect with the same pattern. Kumar Krishna et al. , though, consider that all of
21912-461: The necessary gut symbionts are transferred from one generation to another. Workers are believed to have evolved from older wingless immatures ( Larvae ) that evolved cooperative behaviors; and indeed in some basal taxa the late instar larvae are known to undertake the role of workers without differentiating as a true separate caste. Workers can either be male or female, although in some species with polymorphic workers either sex may be restricted to
22078-472: The opener on Wednesday night, the Islanders lost the next two games, but won the final two to repeat as league champions. During its final season in 1987, the Islanders finished last in its division and last overall in attendance (116,000 fans) in the PCL. By this time, the team's financial problems were becoming more acute, in part due to what the Honolulu Star-Bulletin called the worst lease in
22244-470: The order Isoptera. As early as 1934 suggestions were made that they were closely related to wood-eating cockroaches (genus Cryptocercus , the woodroach) based on the similarity of their symbiotic gut flagellates. In the 1960s additional evidence supporting that hypothesis emerged when F. A. McKittrick noted similar morphological characteristics between some termites and Cryptocercus nymphs . In 2008 DNA analysis from 16S rRNA sequences supported
22410-518: The owners to the players for the first time since the days of the Federal League. Like Mack had done twice before, Finley reacted by trading star players and attempting to sell others. On June 15, 1976 , Finley sold left fielder Rudi and relief pitcher Fingers to Boston for $ 1 million each, and pitcher Blue to the New York Yankees for $ 1.5 million. Three days later, Kuhn voided the transactions in
22576-583: The position of termites being nested within the evolutionary tree containing the order Blattodea , which included the cockroaches. The cockroach genus Cryptocercus shares the strongest phylogenetical similarity with termites and is considered to be a sister-group to termites. Termites and Cryptocercus share similar morphological and social features: for example, most cockroaches do not exhibit social characteristics, but Cryptocercus takes care of its young and exhibits other social behaviour such as trophallaxis and allogrooming . Termites are thought to be
22742-415: The queen) are diploid and develop from fertilised eggs. In contrast, worker termites, which constitute the majority in a colony, are diploid individuals of both sexes and develop from fertilised eggs. Depending on species, male and female workers may have different roles in a termite colony. The life cycle of a termite begins with an egg , but is different from that of a bee or ant in that it goes through
22908-451: The recently opened Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum , the home of the AFL 's Oakland Raiders , with whom they shared the stadium. The Athletics drew national attention when, on May 8, 1968, Jim "Catfish" Hunter pitched a perfect game (the American League's first during the regular season since 1922) against the Minnesota Twins . The Athletics, under the leadership of manager Bob Kennedy , ended
23074-405: The regular season with good pitching, good defense, and clutch hitting. Finley called this team the "Swingin' A's". Players such as Reggie Jackson , Sal Bando , Joe Rudi , Bert Campaneris , Catfish Hunter , Rollie Fingers , and Vida Blue formed the nucleus of these teams. The players often said in later years that they played so well as a team because almost to a man, they hated Finley with
23240-457: The remainder of the Series. Andrews never played another major league game. As it was, the incident allowed the Mets, a team that went but 82–79 during the regular season, to stretch the Series to the full seven games against a far superior team. Williams was so disgusted by the affair that he resigned after the Series. Finley retaliated by vetoing Williams' attempt to become manager of the Yankees. Finley claimed that since Williams still owed Oakland
23406-700: The sale. Johnson had very close ties to the Yankees; he not only owned Yankee Stadium but also owned Blues Stadium in Kansas City , home to the Yankees' top farm team. Johnson intended to move the A's to a renovated Blues Stadium if he was cleared to buy them. The Yankees made no secret that they favored Johnson, and their backing gave him the upper hand with the other owners. After an October 12 owners meeting at which several offers from Philadelphia interests were rejected as inadequate (Harridge later said that while several of them "talked about millions," they didn't have any money behind them), Mack agreed in principle to sell
23572-417: The same time, the Phillies, who had been the definition of baseball futility for over 30 years, began a surprisingly quick climb to respectability. The A's were the more popular team in Philadelphia for most of the first half of the century, even though for much of the last decade they had been as bad or worse than the Phillies. But in the 1940s, the Phillies began spending lavishly on young prospects. The impact
23738-534: The seats; the Honolulu Stadium stop was right at the main gate. Additionally, the lease with the state government, which owned the stadium, didn't allow the Islanders to earn any proceeds from concessions or advertising, severely limiting the team's income. The 1976 pennant winners almost didn't finish the season when the IRS padlocked the team office and the PCL briefly canceled their franchise. The 1976 team almost lost
23904-430: The size of the colony. Since larvae and nymphs are unable to feed themselves, workers must feed them, but workers also take part in the social life of the colony and have certain other tasks to accomplish such as foraging, building or maintaining the nest or tending to the queen. Pheromones regulate the caste system in termite colonies, preventing all but a very few of the termites from becoming fertile queens. Queens of
24070-423: The summer of 1954, it was obvious that the A's were on an irreversible slide into bankruptcy. Earle and Roy decided that there was no choice but to sell the Athletics, with sorrowful approval from Connie Sr. Although several offers were put forward by Philadelphia interests, American League president Will Harridge was convinced that the team could never be viable in Philadelphia. The sparse crowds at Shibe had been
24236-487: The team on the field. One of the few times that he even considered ceding some of his duties came in the 1934–35 offseason, when the A's were not far removed from what would be their last great era. He seriously entertained hiring Babe Ruth to succeed him as manager, but backed off from this idea, saying that the Babe's wife, Claire , would be running the team within a month. Even when the Phillies moved to Shibe Park as tenants of
24402-434: The team that drafted them—at the price offered by the team—if they wanted to play professional baseball. Thus, Finley was spared from having to compete with wealthier teams for top talent. The Athletics, owners of the worst record in the American League in 1964, had the first pick in the first draft, selecting Rick Monday on June 8, 1965. Almost as soon as the ink dried on his purchase of the Athletics, Finley began shopping
24568-447: The team to another colorful owner, Bill Veeck , who was not interested in leaving Chicago. As the 1976 season got underway, the basic rules of player contracts were changing. Seitz had ruled that baseball's reserve clause only bound players for one season after their contract expired. Thus, all players not signed to multi-year contracts would be eligible for free agency at the end of the 1976 season. The balance of power had shifted from
24734-490: The team to keep the letters "KC" on their uniforms.) The owners turned it down by a 9–1 margin on January 16, with Finley being the only one voting in favor. Six weeks later, by the same 9–1 margin, the A.L. owners denied Finley's request to move the team to Oakland . These requests came as no surprise, as impending moves to these cities, as well as to Atlanta , Milwaukee , New Orleans , San Diego , and Seattle — all of which Finley had considered as new homes for
24900-403: The team's uniforms. The Philadelphia Athletics wore blue and white or black and gray outfits through most of their history; in the last years in Philadelphia and the first in Kansas City, the team used a red, white and navy blue scheme. In 1963, Finley changed the team's colors to "Kelly Green, Fort Knox Gold and Wedding Gown White". In June 1963, Bill Bryson wrote of the uniforms, Kelly green
25066-469: The team, the A's only had three scouts in the entire organization. Johnson did make some improvements to the farm system, but was unwilling to pay top dollar for players that could get the A's within sight of contention. Johnson was returning from watching the Athletics in spring training when he was fatally stricken with a cerebral hemorrhage . He died in West Palm Beach, Florida on March 3, 1960, at
25232-460: The vast majority of termite species are innocuous, with the regional numbers of economically significant species being: North America , 9; Australia , 16; Indian subcontinent , 26; tropical Africa , 24; Central America and the West Indies , 17. Of known pest species, 28 of the most invasive and structurally damaging belong to the genus Coptotermes . The distribution of most known pest species
25398-518: The waivers led to rumors of collusion between Johnson and the Yankees. The rumors grew louder due to the Yankees' thinly concealed support for the sale, to the point of planting rumors in the press to derail an 11th-hour attempt to keep the A's in Philadelphia. Rumors abounded that Johnson's real motive was to operate the Athletics in Kansas City for a few years, then move the team to Los Angeles (the Brooklyn Dodgers would later move there after
25564-464: The west. Philadelphia was given a new franchise to compete with the National League's Philadelphia Phillies . Former catcher Connie Mack was recruited to manage the club and persuaded Phillies minority owner Ben Shibe as well as others to invest in the team. The name of the team, Philadelphia Athletics, is a name taken from the 1876 NL Athletic Base Ball Club of Philadelphia . Columbia Park
25730-447: The wings. It has been proposed that the Isoptera and Cryptocercidae be grouped in the clade " Xylophagodea ". Termites are sometimes called "white ants", but the only resemblance to the ants is due to their sociality which is due to convergent evolution with termites being the first social insects to evolve a caste system more than 100 million years ago. Termite genomes are generally relatively large compared to those of other insects;
25896-575: The work and are similarly altruistic, however differ in developing from the linear developmental pathway where they exist in a stationary molt; i.e they have halted development before the growth of wing buds, and are regarded as pluripotent immatures. The soldier caste is the most anatomically and behaviorally specialized, and their sole purpose is to defend the colony. Many soldiers have large heads with highly modified powerful jaws so enlarged that they cannot feed themselves. Instead, like juveniles, they are fed by workers. Fontanelles , simple holes in
26062-406: The worst record in the American League, and the second-worst record in baseball. They even trailed the expansion Seattle Mariners (though by only 1 ⁄ 2 game, as one game with the Minnesota Twins was canceled by weather and never made up). Termite Termites are a group of detritophagous eusocial insects which consume a variety of decaying plant material , generally in
26228-405: Was a swift and near-total collapse, as the 1914 pennant winning Athletics collapsed to a modern major-league low record of 36–117 (.235) in 1916. The team would finish in last place every year through 1922 and would not contend again until 1925. Shibe died in 1922, and his sons Tom and John took over the business side, leaving the baseball side to Mack, who for all intents and purposes, was now
26394-472: Was also not suited to automobile traffic, having been designed before the Ford Model T was introduced. Surprisingly, in 1947 the Athletics finished with a winning record for the first time in 14 years. They contended for much of 1948, and most of the summer in either first or second place, though due to the firing of a number of pitchers, the team faded to fourth place by season's end. The franchise would not be
26560-461: Was immediate. In 1947, the A's finished fourth in the American League while the Phillies tied for the worst record in the National League. Just three years later, the A's compiled the worst record in the majors and the Phillies went all the way to the 1950 World Series . It soon became obvious that the Phillies had passed the A's as Philadelphia's number-one team. A power struggle that had developed betewen Roy and Earle Mack one side and Connie Jr. and
26726-409: Was motivated more by profit than any particular regard for the baseball fans of Kansas City. He had long been a business associate of New York Yankees owners Dan Topping , Larry MacPhail and Del Webb , and had even bought Yankee Stadium in 1953, though the league owners forced Johnson to sell the property before acquiring the Athletics. Johnson had also bought Blues Stadium in Kansas City, home of
26892-461: Was recalled to active Army duty. Other Islanders broadcast alumni who went on to broadcast Major League Baseball include Ken Wilson , Les Keiter , Mel Proctor , and Allan Elconin (a.k.a. Al Conin). In the early 1970s, the Islanders were the closest thing to an independent team in the high minors. While standard minor league working agreements in recent times require a minor league team to cede complete control of its roster to its major league parent,
27058-454: Was replaced by Hank Peters . After only a year, Peters was fired and replaced by Eddie Lopat , who also lasted only one season. After Lopat's ouster in 1966, the team had no formal general manager until 1981. In fact, Friday, Peters and Lopat were mere figureheads. With the firing of Lane in 1961, Finley effectively became the team's de facto general manager, and would remain so for the duration of his ownership. Finley made further changes to
27224-506: Was replaced by former Boston Red Sox manager Dick Williams . The Athletics, following two consecutive second-place finishes, finally claimed the division crown in 1971 . The A's would win 101 games (their first 100-win season since finishing 107–45 in 1931 ). However, they lost to the Baltimore Orioles in the American League Championship Series . In 1972, the A's won their first league pennant since 1931 and faced
27390-514: Was the Athletics first home. They played there from their founding in 1901 through the 1908 season, and it was the venue of their two home games in the 1905 World Series . In the early years, the A's established themselves as one of the dominant teams in the new league, winning the AL pennant six times (1902, 1905, 1910, 1911, 1913, and 1914), and winning the World Series in 1910, 1911, and 1913, led by its " $ 100,000 infield ." They won over 100 games in 1910 and 1911, and 99 games in 1914. In 1909,
27556-428: Was traded to the Yankees for aging veterans and cash. Over the years, Johnson traded such key players as Roger Maris , Bobby Shantz , Héctor López , Clete Boyer , Art Ditmar and Ralph Terry to New York; in return, he did receive some talented younger players such as Norm Siebern and Jerry Lumpe , and the cash helped the team pay the bills. However, with few exceptions, the trades were heavily weighted in favor of
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