Years before free agency, Ken "Hawk" Harrelson ended up in one of baseball's first bidding wars

Few baseball personalities were as unique as that of Charlie O. Finley, longtime owner of the A's. Finley was instrumental in moving the team from Kansas City to Oakland in 1968, and he's also responsible for the team's white cleats and green and gold color scheme.
But the Finley era was a tumultuous one, despite the A's winning three consecutive World Series in 1972, '73 and '74. His story is one that might make a great movie someday, and that film wouldn't be complete without devoting some screen time to the odd saga that was Ken Harrelson's tenure in the organization.
Yes, that's Ken "Hawk" Harrelson, legendary White Sox broadcaster and 2007 Ford C. Frick Award nominee (not to mention winner of the national baseball golf championship in 1966, as pictured atop this post). Long before he ever stepped foot in the booth, Hawk was a first baseman -- he signed with the A's out of high school in 1959, and became a regular in the lineup by 1963. On occasion, he even rode Finley's mule/team mascot, Charlie-O:

Harrelson was enjoying a career year in 1967, leading the A's in hitting over their first 61 games with a robust .305/.361/.471 slash line. And then, on August 25, Finley cut him from the team.
The reason? On Aug. 18, A's pitcher Lew Krausse had been suspended over an incident on the team plane. In response, the players sent a letter to Finley that simply read, "We players feel that if Mr. Finley would give his fine coaching staff and excellent manager the authority they deserve, these problems would not exist." 
Finley responded by firing manager Alvin Dark, and on Aug. 24, Harrelson spoke out. He dubbed the situation "a great mistake," even going so far as to refer to Finley as "a menace to baseball." A day later, he was unconditionally released. Of course, that turned out to be not such a bad thing -- as Harrelson himself later said, tongue planted firmly in cheek, "Charlie Finley has been good to me financially."

Two years before Curt Flood's lawsuit, MLB still operated under the reserve clause, which stipulated that a team retained complete control of a player's rights unless and until the team released him. Harrelson wasn't baseball's first free agent -- that honor went to Catfish Hunter more than seven years later, also thanks to Finley -- but he was one of the first players in the modern era to find himself open to the highest bidder, smack in the prime of his career.
And man, what a bidding war it was. Several clubs jumped in, including the then-Tokyo Giants of Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. Finally, after a few days in limbo, Harrelson signed with the Boston Red Sox, at the time tied atop the AL with the White Sox and looking for a difference-maker down the stretch. Boston signed Hawk for $75,000 -- a huge pay increase over the $12,000 he had made under Finley.  
Harrelson played out the rest of the '67 season in Boston, as the "Impossible Dream" Red Sox fell just short of beating the Cardinals in the World Series. He spent the next year and a half with the team, before ending his Major League career in Cleveland -- and moving on to a career as a pro golfer.