Red Sox GM Dick O'Connell asked for Rudi and Fingers and purchased them for a million dollars a piece. O'Connell was very concerned that his arch nemises, Gabe Paul and the NY Yankees, would get in on the act, which would have negated his deals for Fingers and Rudi, by acquiring pitcher Vida Blue. To prevent the Yankees from getting Blue, O'Connell called the Tigers to get in on the bidding for Blue's services. Despite those efforts, Finley eventually sold Blue to the Yankees for $1.5 million, neglecting to tell Detroit, until the next day.
The news of the A's fire sale of their star players quickly hit the press and eventually the baseball Commissioner's office. Bowie Kuhn, then the baseball Commissoner, summonded Finley to a "face-to-face meeting" on these transactions.
Finley told Kuhn that free agency and poor attendance were killing any chance for the A's to be competitive and that he was going to use the money from these sales to invest in new players for the A's. Finley basically told Kuhn, "don't butt into this," however, Kuhn saw it differently. He ordered both the Yankees and Red Sox not to play their new players. Allowing them to play would send a signal that pennants could be bought outright and that was something that would create a mockery of the game.
Three days later, Kuhn ruled all sales void, in the "best interest of baseball" and had Rudi, Fingers and Blue returned to the A's. That drove Finley off the deep-end. He called Kuhn, "the village idiot."