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In 1948, when Finley recovered, he went right to work persuading insurance companies to underwrite his plan. Talking his way from doctor to doctor in Indiana, he made his first group sale to the Lake County Medical Society. His big break came in 1951 when he convinced Continental Casualty that it should handle his first national plan, for the American College of Surgeons. After borrowing $2,000 to pay for, among other things, two suits, his first manicure and a plane ticket to the ACS convention in San Francisco, Finley was on his way to deals that would earn him over $1 million in commissions the following year.
Peddling insurance demanded the same fierce energy and concentration that Finley later brought to baseball —endless hours on the job, limited delegation of authority and a careful accounting of even the most minor expenditures. Today the talk around Chicago is that the business of Charles O. Finley & Co. has been slipping. Finley insists that it is better than ever. His annual premium volume is $30 million a year. Finley himself is worth at least that amount.
For all the money that was rolling in by the 1950s, Finley was not satisfied. "I wanted a team in the worst way," he recalls. His first four bids—for the Philadelphia Athletics, Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox and California Angels—were either too little or too late. In 1960 he finally bought control of the Kansas City Athletics for $2 million. It was a large price for a last-place team.
Still, the new owner had several things going for him: the A's had a small but shrewd scouting crew, and Finley himself soon showed an uncanny instinct for spotting young talent. He was tireless in pursuit of prospects. In 1962 he struck one of baseball's alltime bargains by paying only $500 to sign Shortstop Bert Campaneris, then a catcher for a team in Cuba. Two years later Finley heard about a kid pitcher from Hertford, N.C., who had peppered his foot with shotgun pellets in a hunting accident. Finley descended upon Hertford, stalked the youngster, captured him with a $75,000 bonus and sent him to the Mayo Clinic for a foot operation. As a publicity stunt, Finley told the 18-year-old to call himself Catfish. Ten years later, Jim ("Catfish") Hunter won the Cy Young Award as the best pitcher in the American League. Catcher Gene Tenace, Outfielder Joe Rudi and Relief Pitcher Rollie Fingers, all now A's stars, were signed by Finley within a year after he caught Catfish. They were all fresh out of high school, and Charlie O. had to pay them a total of only $37,000 in bonuses.
With Kansas City still in last place when the baseball draft began in 1965, Finley took advantage of early-round selections to sign Outfielder Rick Monday and Third Baseman Sal Bando. The next year he grabbed Reggie Jackson for $85,000. In 1968, the year Finley transplanted the A's to Oakland, he flew to Mansfield, La., to corral a high school fastballer named Vida Blue for a more modest $35,000. Three years ago, Bargain Hunter Finley paid $3,000 for an obscure 17-year-old named Claudell Washington. This year Washington is the A's leading hitter, batting .321 last week (TIME, July 21).