On moving to from Philadelphia to KC with the A's, Joe said: We started hearing rumors at the end of 1954, but most of us didn’t really care. I heard about it on the radio actually. We were so happy, especially our wives. I sure didn’t miss those Philadelphia fans, they were absolutely brutal. The people were different there—just mean, for some reason. I remember the day that Gus Zernial got booed by the fans when he hurt his shoulder. They booed Santa Claus, poured beer on us—my wife stopped coming to the games, because she really had a tough time...it was like being reborn moving to Kansas City.”

Born in San Francisco, CA, Joseph Paul DeMaestri (December 9, 1928 – August 26, 2016), nicknamed "Froggy", was an American shortstop in Major League Baseball who played for the Chicago White Sox (1951), St. Louis Browns (1952), Philadelphia and Kansas City Athletics (1953–59) and New York Yankees (1960–61).

Joe was selected by the White Sox in the 1950 Rule 5 Draft. In an 11-season MLB career, DeMaestri was a versatile, "good-field, no-hit" type player Athletics. He made the American League All-Star team in 1957.

Career Highlight: On July 8, 1955, at Briggs Stadium, DeMaestri collected six hits in six at bats in an 11-inning game against the Detroit Tigers. He led off the first, third, fifth and eighth innings with a hit. He was the thirty-fourth player in major league history to collect six hits in a game. All his hits were singles and he scored two runs.

In December 1959, Demaestri was traded to the New York Yankees in the seven-player deal that famously brought Roger Maris to the Bronx Bombers. When the Yankees won the 1960 American League pennant, he appeared in his first and only World Series, getting into four games and collecting one hit, a single off Joe Gibbon of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the opening contest, in two at bats.

(excerpted from SABR, BR Bullpen, This Great Game, and Wikipedia)