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Worst Owners in Sports (past and present)

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by DanOregon, Oct 14, 2009.

  1. Smasher_Sloan

    Smasher_Sloan Active Member

    I'm fascinated by the revisionist history on O'Malley. He could have stayed in the wrong part of NY as one of two teams in the market.....or he could have booming, growing, MLB-starved <i>southern California</i> to himself, complete with a sweetheart real estate deal.

    I'm guessing they didn't have to pry his fingers off Brooklyn when it came time to go.
     
  2. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Two other owner/groups from the past:

    1. Dewey Soriano and the Seattle Pilots.

    How does MLB give an expansion franchise to a group that's so unstable that they couldn't hold onto the franchise for more than one year?

    2. Donald Trump -- An owner that basically doomed his league. Can't top that for screwing up.
     
  3. Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.

    Corky Ramirez up on 94th St. Well-Known Member

  4. I can't believe that the Nuttings only have one vote. Count me in.
     
  5. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    Although his impartiality is probably somewhat questionable, Bill Veeck had rather extensive chapters on the Dodgers/Giants move to California in both of his books.

    The phrase that sticks out went something like: "The L.A. city fathers promised not to sell O'Malley, but to give him -- GIVE him -- 400 acres of prime L.A. real estate, real estate worth not only more than the Dodgers franchise, but more than all the franchises in baseball put together. After that, all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't have dragged O'Malley back to the Brooklyn he loved so much."

    Veeck also noted that NYC officials (i.e. Robert Moses) had had Shea Stadium on the drawing boards since the early 1950s, but dragged their feet on getting the project started (hoping the Dodgers would pick up some or all of the check). When the city continued to stall, O'Malley started looking elsewhere for leverage. When L.A. made its Santa Claus offer, it was hasta la vista.

    The only remaining task for O'Malley was to help grease the wheels to send the Giants to San Francisco (rather than Minneapolis, where they were probably headed), in order to get the move approved by the other NL owners. Having two teams on the West Coast made the travel arrangements much much easier than having to fly out there and back to play one team.

    The period 1952-1968 was really a convulsive era in MLB. Of the 16 MLB franchises in operation in 1952, which had been in their current cities for 50 years, six franchises moved (Braves, Athletics, Browns, Senators, Dodgers, Giants), two others fairly seriously threatened to move (Indians, White Sox), and two moved a second time (Braves, A's).

    And that doesn't even include any of the expansion teams.
     
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