Deliverance in Denim

"Big hats, no cattle," sighed Charlie Finley last year when Dhe put the Oakland A's on the auction block after 20 years of stormy ownership. Finley was referring to the ensuing stampede of publicity-seeking, would-be buyers who did not have the scratch. But last November, Walter A.

Haas Jr., 65, chairman of Levi Strauss & Co., rode to the rescue like a cowboy in copper-riveted jeans. Haas did not need a big hat: he had the cattle. Plopping down $12.7 million of the family fortune, he vowed, "We're going to do what we did with Levi's: quality product, concern for people, being part of the community and conducting business with integrity."

The great-grandnephew of the gold rush outfitter Levi Strauss, Haas built the jeans-making firm into a sportswear conglomerate that had $2.8 billion in sales last year. Haas, whose family is an anchor of Bay Area society, quietly serves on corporate and charity boards. In a limited partnership with Son Walter J., 30, and Son-in-Law Roy Eisenhardt, 42, he acquired a team that was a smouldering shambles. Finley lost or traded away its talent. The farm system had gone to seed. The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum had fallen into such disrepair that the scoreboard did not always work, and functioning concession stands were hard to find. Last year the A's sold only 75 season tickets.

Enter Haas. The team payroll, formerly $1.3 million, one of the majors' lowest, has tripled to $3.8 million. The farm and scouting systems have also been infused with cash. The coliseum has received $1 million worth of lights, new seats and other renovations. The anemic public-address system is now an audio marvel. The left-field Scoreboard even tells the score. The clubhouse was TIME chart by redecorated, a recreation room was added for the players, and Billy Martin's office was enlarged. He has a new color TV, a refrigerator and a dressing room as big as his old office. The A's flagging radio contract was sold by Eisenhardt to San Francisco-based KSFO and eight other area stations, and the 30-game television package will be renegotiated next season. The result of this greenback good will: by this week the club will have drawn more fans to the coliseum than it did in all of 1979. More than 3,000 season tickets have been sold. Said Martin, after signing a new five-year pact: "The only charter we had last year was a bus. The Haases are wonderful people."

When the elder Haas retires from Levi Strauss next year to indulge his passion for fly-fishing on Oregon streams, Eisenhardt, a Berkeley law professor before he became the team's president, will continue to reflect the family philosophy. Says he: "You wouldn't go into this as a business investment. You do it because you can get a lot of satisfaction out of it." His relationship with Martin is refreshingly tension-free, at least so far. Says Eisenhardt: "Billy is in charge of everything on the field. I'm in charge of everything that has to do with money. The system works very well."

Eisenhardt and the younger Haas, a former Levi Strauss Foundation officer who is the A's executive vice president, plan to install baseball's first computerized ticket-selling operation, with satellite terminals in San Francisco, Sacramento, San Jose, Fresno and Stockton to cope with the lengthening lines of excited fans. The executives also intend to get athletes involved in community projects, and, as the elder Haas dreams, "win the World Series." October is a long way off, but if the new owners keep their cattle rollin' and their hats on the rack, their phenomenal success with the A's just could be 100%, true blue denim.

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