club's logo, underneath the much larger stylized-"A" that had come to represent the team since the early days. Former owner Charlie Finley banned the word "Athletics" from the club's name because he felt that name was too closely associated with former Philadelphia Athletics owner Connie Mack. During the Finley era, average home attendance from 1968–1980 was 777,000 per season, with 1,075,518 in 1975 being the highest attendance for a Finley-owned team. In marked contrast, during the first year of Haas' ownership, the Athletics drew 1,304,052—in a season shortened by a player strike. Were it not for the strike, the A's were on a pace to draw over 2.2 million in 1981. The A's finished with the second-best overall record in baseball, and the best record in the American League. Spring training The Oakland Athletics held spring training at Rendezvous Park in Mesa, Arizona. Regular season April 19, 1981: In the first game of a doubleheader with the Seattle Mariners, the A's won 6-1 to win their then-record 11th consecutive game to start a season. April 25, 1981: Prior to a game against the Seattle Mariners, Seattle manager Maury Wills advised the Kingdome groundskeepers to enlarge the batter's box by a foot. A's manager Billy Martin noticed. Martin showed umpire Bill Kunkel that the batter's box was seven feet long instead of six feet. Martin felt that batters being able to move up a foot in the box could cut at pitches before a curveball broke. Wills was suspended for two games and fined $500. Game log First half |- | 1 || April 9 || @ Twins |- | 2 || April 10 || @ Twins |- | 3 || April 11 || @ Twins |- | 4 || April 12 || @ Twins |- | 5 || April 13 || @ Angels |- | 6 || April 14 || @ Angels |- | 7 || April 15 || @ Angels |- | 8 || April 16 || @ Angels |- | 9 || April 17 || Mariners |- | 10 || April 18 || Mariners |- | 11 || April 19 || Mariners |- | 12 || April 19 || Mariners |- | 13 || April 20 || Twins |- | 14 || April 21 || Twins |- | 15 || April 22 || Twins |- | 16 || April 24 || @ Mariners |- | 17 || April