Who are the best owners in baseball history?

SJ24

SJ24

New member
Here are 4 I came up with:

Charles O. Finley: owned those AWESOME Oakland Athletics teams in the 70s that won 3 straight World Series. No team other than the Yankees has ever done that. Had to give up ownership due to his divorce.

Ted Turner: bought the Braves and made them a consistent winner and essentially the center of the baseball universe. 14-straight division titles and a 1995 world championship.

John W. Galbreath: won 3 world championships as owner of the Pirates. Had the first all-black starting lineup in Major League history in 1971. Signed Roberto Clemente. Signed Dave Parker to the first million dollar contract.

Bill Veeck: owner of the Indians, Browns, and White Sox at various points. Broke the AL color barrier by signing Larry Doby, who would eventually lead Cleveland in their 111 win, World championship season in 1954.

This list is not exhaustive by any means. I am hoping you guys will chime in with additions so I can learn more.
 
SJ24 said:
Here are 4 I came up with:

Charles O. Finley: owned those AWESOME Oakland Athletics teams in the 70s that won 3 straight World Series. No team other than the Yankees has ever done that. Had to give up ownership due to his divorce.

Ted Turner: bought the Braves and made them a consistent winner and essentially the center of the baseball universe. 14-straight division titles and a 1995 world championship.
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Going to question both of these owners. With Finley, his outlandish ideas (i.e. orange balls) and then he let the team implode, which ruined the franchise for years to come. After finding out what he did with the California Golden Seals NHL team, it was even worse. His legacy is mixed.

Even Ted Turner. It was a LONG time before the Braves became a winner after he bought them. Even then, success was only fleating '82-'83. He bought the team initially just to provide programming on his UHF channel. Ted was heavily involved with damaging free agent signings (Andy Messersmith, Bruce Sutter). He embraced the "Mouth of the South" reputation and fancied himself as sort of a poor man's Steinbrennber by firing managers without the championships to back it up. Yes, he did later express regret for the initial firing of Bobby Cox. It wasn't until he let Stan Kasten take over that the organization began to demonstrate focus. The organization likes to make mention of the division titles, and the run was impressive, but the team was no longer feared by opponents after '96. The Marlins came in as an expansion team, and won 2 World Championships with buffoonish ownership. Which is better?

Bill Veeck is certainly legendary. What about Connie Mack for all time?
 
People around here won't like it, but it's the Steinbrenner family hands-down. Really not even particularly close IMO.

More than any other ownership group in professional sports, the bottom line has always been about winning with the Yankees - price be damned. They had to be FORCED to stop spending money by MLB - the luxury tax didn't cause them to bat an eye until MLB made the penalties for giving the most money to the most sought-after players so harsh that the Steinbrenners were forced to allow Cashman to make a couple trades to pick up prospects last season. Otherwise they'd still be trying to buy Championships.

What's going to be really funny to watch is the organization thumb their noses at everyone in 2019. The Gnats are shell-shocked at Harper's $400 million price tag now? Just listen for the outcry in a couple winters when the Yankees sign Harper AND give $400 million to Machado too.

Just because they can.
 
he is right. We don't have to like it. George was the owner who was most driven to win and did so.. His biggest fault was getting in the way too much.
 
cajunrevenge said:
Your dead to me clvclv........
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Doesn't mean I like it any more than anyone else does - just the only "real" answer.

Still remember - and miss terribly - the good old days when Ted's question to JS or Bobby when they wanted to trade for or sign someone was "Do we need them?" followed by "OK - here's a check."
 
His greatest contribution to their 90's run was getting suspended for hiring a mobster to spy on Dave Winfield in an attempt to dig up dirt to avoid having to paying 300k he owed. He is every bit the dirty businessman Trump is.

Besides that he actively blocked a salary cap to protect his competitive advantage. The NFL Giants owner did the opposite and that's why the NFL got it done. Steinbrenner also caused player salaries to skyrocket. Might not sound like our problem but it means we pay more for tickets and to watch the games.
 
Turner was a good owner once he turned the keys to the vehicle over the people who knew what they were doing.l

Agree somewhat on Steinbrenner. Absolutely driven to win, but man, he wasted a lot of money.
 
SJ24 said:
Ted Turner: bought the Braves and made them a consistent winner and essentially the center of the baseball universe. 14-straight division titles and a 1995 world championship.
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Interesting note:

The Braves were REALLY bad from 1976 (when Ted bought the team) until 1990 (when JS was hired and Bobby went back into the dugout). They were 978-1,225 (.444) before Ted finally got out of the way and just wrote checks and smiled when he was at the stadium.

1976: 70-92
1977: 61-101
1978: 69-93
1979: 66-94
1980: 81-80
1981: 50-56
1982: 89-73
1983: 88-74
1984: 80-82
1985: 66-96
1986: 72-89
1987: 69-92
1988: 54-106
1989: 63-97

After that happened, they took off - 615-453 (.576)...

1990: 65-97
1991: 94-68
1992: 98-64
1993: 104-58
1994: 68-46
1995: 90-54
1996: 96-66

Don't get me wrong, I loved Ted and most of his wackiness - especially when he just got out of the way. I just think Braves' fans have been so spoiled by recent success that many really don't realize just how bad things were when some of us had to see the truly dark days. Of course he sold the team following the 1996 season, so crediting him with the majority of "The Run" is a bit ridiculous - he was only around for the first 6 Division Titles.
 
SJ24 said:
Bill Veeck: owner of the Indians, Browns, and White Sox at various points. Broke the AL color barrier by signing Larry Doby, who would eventually lead Cleveland in their 111 win, World championship season in 1954.
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The 54 Indians lost the World Series in a sweep. "The Catch" by Willie Mays in the Polo Grounds was a famous part of that. Dusty Rhodes, who wasn't a star was the big bat.
 
clvclv said:
People around here won't like it, but it's the Steinbrenner family hands-down. Really not even particularly close IMO.

More than any other ownership group in professional sports, the bottom line has always been about winning with the Yankees - price be damned. They had to be FORCED to stop spending money by MLB - the luxury tax didn't cause them to bat an eye until MLB made the penalties for giving the most money to the most sought-after players so harsh that the Steinbrenners were forced to allow Cashman to make a couple trades to pick up prospects last season. Otherwise they'd still be trying to buy Championships.

What's going to be really funny to watch is the organization thumb their noses at everyone in 2019. The Gnats are shell-shocked at Harper's $400 million price tag now? Just listen for the outcry in a couple winters when the Yankees sign Harper AND give $400 million to Machado too.

Just because they can.
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THIS. Love them or hate them they belong at the top... unfortunately.
 
We had a pretty ****ing good market until MLB changed the rules regarding national revenue that was supposedly about stopping the Yankees but resulted in the Braves losing their TBS revenue. I am not mad at you, but I am still bitter about that whole deal.
 
Bill Veeck is my sentimental choice.

A lot of owners who got the best results were jerks like Steinbrenner or tight-fisted buggers like Finley or Walter O'Malley. In general, MLB owners aren't a warm and cuddly group.

Branch Rickey was a minority owner when he set the Dodgers up for a couple decades of dominance. The Busch family has had a good run in STL.
 
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