Built in 1923 and known as Ruppert Stadium and later Blues Stadium before being sold to the city, it was home to the Negro League Kansas City Monarchs and the minor league Kansas City Blues until the Athletics moved from Philadelphia. The arrival of ML baseball prompted the addition of a tall second deck to the grandstand and the centerfield scoreboard came from Boston’s Braves Field. Eccentric A’s owner Charlie Finley later installed a host of unique features and gadgets, including a small zoo behind the right-field fence that housed a mule named Charlie O. (the team mascot), a compressed-air device that blew dirt off the plate from below, and a mechanical rabbit that rose out of the ground with new baseballs for the umpire.
