After George Steinbrenner, Who is the most famous baseball team owner in history?
 

And is George the only owner that has had at least one trading card made of him?

[IMG]https://www.comc.com/Cards/Baseball/1992/Fun_Stuff_Baseball_Enquirer_-_Base/38/George_Steinbrenner/8515177[/IMG]

[IMG]https://img.comc.com/i/Baseball/2022/Topps-Heritage---News-Flashbacks/NF-11/GEORGE-STEINBRENNER-PURCHASES-THE-YANKEES.jpg?id=b33b48b9-c8a6-408e-9f3d-dea8a4ec09dd&size=zoom[/IMG]

Gene Autry

Most famous owner would probably be former President George W Bush (Rangers) or Gene Autry (Angels).


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Marge Schott was the first to come to my mind.

Ted Turner, Branch Rickey, Connie Mack, Walter O'Malley, Tom Yawkey, Charles Comiskey

Charlie O. Finley and Bill Veeck.

Ted Turner, Marge Schott (infamous).

Connie Mack is always first in my mind, but a family friend that introduced me to collecting was a huge A’s fan from when they were in Philly.


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Harry Frazee

[QUOTE=seanbros55;19857932]Harry Frazee[/QUOTE]

:doh:

[QUOTE=JMStang;19857899]Most famous owner would probably be former President George W Bush (Rangers) or Gene Autry (Angels).


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Bush apparently only had 2% ownership tho. Per Wiki…

“In April 1989, Bush assembled a group of investors from his father's close friends, including fellow fraternity brother Roland W. Betts; the group bought an 86% share of the Rangers for $75 million. Bush received a 2% share by investing $606,302, of which $500,000 was a bank loan.”

Gene Autry was 100% though…

“Gene Autry, the cowboy actor and entertainer, was the founding owner of the Los Angeles Angels (later California Angels) franchise, owning 100% of the team from 1960 to 1997, when he sold the team to The Walt Disney Company”

[QUOTE=atk825;19857898]Gene Autry[/QUOTE]

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George W Bush also has a card (or a hundred)…

[IMG]https://img.comc.com/i/Non-Sports/2020/Upper-Deck-Presidential-Weekly-Packs---Base/43/George-W-Bush.jpg?id=52eb99c1-bdc1-450e-86a0-5eef64cffeec&size=zoom[/IMG]

Incidentally, the rabbit hole I went through that began this thread was to see if there was a Peter Angelos card for my Orioles collection. Not that I could find.

Magic Johnson is art of an ownership group that owns a small percentage of the Dodgers

[QUOTE=glen87;19858008][IMG]https://img.comc.com/i/Baseball/1961/Nu-Cards-Baseball-Scoops---Base/414/Gene-Autry.jpg?id=daa13d56-edbd-45dd-b947-830a4f21fb24&size=original[/IMG][/QUOTE]


Gene Autry
[IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20250327/48825f0f506f8104b0803dcdc47a9c52.jpg[/IMG]


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Yeah… I think there are probably a ton of cases of celebrities being tangential owners of clubs. Cal Ripken owns a sliver of the Rubenstein Orioles, for example. I guess I should clarify that I was more thinking of majority owners when I started this thread.

It’s Al Reach and that’s no reach. He was the First professional baseball player and then was owner of the Phillies who are the longest tenured team.

Bob Hope was a partial owner of his hometown Indians in the 40's.

As the Cleveland Indians team owner, Bill Veeck signed Larry Doby and helped integrate the American League in 1947.

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And as the owner of the St. Louis Browns Veeck introduced Eddie Gaedel in 1951.

[IMG]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/96/Eddie_Gaedel.jpg[/IMG]

[QUOTE=corndog;19858174]As the Cleveland Indians team owner, Bill Veeck signed Larry Doby and helped integrate the American League in 1947.

[/QUOTE]

He was also the first that came to mind for me, but there's no doubting a Former President is "most famous" (I always forget about Bush and owning a small % of the Rangers)

I'd have to say that the Mount Rushmore of baseball owners - specifically for the contributions to the game - would definitely include Branch Rickey and Bill Veeck, probably have Al Spalding, and maybe someone like Walter O'Malley.

I argued in a different thread that Ted Turner should be in the Hall of Fame, and I stand by that.

Rachel Phelps, though she did fail to get the Indians moved to Miami

Most famous owners, a thread

Yankees: Steinbrenner
Red Sox: Yawkey
Orioles: Angelos
Blue Jays: Comcast
Rays: the current dudes who aren't trying to win

indians: veeck
royals: kaufmann
tigers: the briggs family, or one of the two pizza guys
twins: the kid in Little Big League
White Sox: Comiskey

Mariners: Nintendo
Angels: Autry
Oakland: Charles Finley
Rangers: George W. Bush
Astros: Jim Crane

--

Braves: Ted Turner
Marlins: the dude who put the Home Run statue up
Mets: Will be Steve Cohen
Phillies: oh gosh, i have no idea
Nationals: Lerner Family

Cubs: Wrigleys or Al Spalding
Cardinals: Anheuser-Busch
Pirates: Didn't bing crosby have an ownership stake at one point?
Reds: Marge Schott, of course
Brewers: Probably Bud Selig

Rockies: Monforts
GIants: I think John McGraw was an owner as well.
Padres: McDonalds
D'Backs: What's the name of the guy who owns them?
Dodgers: Walter O'Malley, although Branch Rickey had a stake as well

Some dude named Derek used to own 4% of the Marlins! ;-)

Definitely Marge Schott

Mount Rushmore and it isn’t even a debate