Top 10 Worst MLB Owners of All Time

July 28, 2011

For the first time in a long, long time, baseball may be the healthiest sport in America. It’s been 17 years since the 1994 season — and more significantly, the 1994 World Series — was canceled, and not a single game has been stricken from the schedule due to labor strife since the 1995 season. Meanwhile, the NFL has just resolved its lockout, and the NBA is currently embroiled in one that could kill its 2011-12 season.

However, not everything in baseball is perfect, as a few bad owners have drawn negative attention to their franchises. Rangers owner Tom Hicks, who previously gave A-Rod a record $250 million contract and signed Chan Ho Park to an absurd $65 million contract, had to borrow money from MLB to meet the team’s payroll and eventually filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, who tainted the good name shared by the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who authored Angela’s Ashes, has run the team into the ground amid his much-publicized divorce to former team CEO Jamie McCourt. Baseball has seen some bad owners through the years, the worst of which are listed below. Each one did his, her or its best to become a villain to their team’s fans and players, blemishing a piece of America’s pastime.

Harry Frazee, Red Sox

Baseball has always been a business, as evidenced by Frazee’s tenure as owner of the Sox. He bought the team for $400,000 in 1917 and sold it for $1.5 million in 1923, peddling his best players in the meantime to finance his theatrical investments. His favorite trade partner was the Yankees, who received Carl Mays, Herb Pennock, Everett Scott, and infamously, Babe Ruth. After Ruth’s departure in 1919, the team wouldn’t reach .500 again until 1934, while the Yankees won four World Series titles during that period. Not even the 1918 World Series title, which was won with players inherited by Frazee, excuses his moves as the owner.
David Glass, Royals

Notoriously cheap, Glass’s first accomplishment as CEO in 1993 was slashing the team’s payroll from $41 million to $19 million. During the strike in 1994-95, he was a staunch advocate of implementing a salary cap and endorsed the use of replacement players. He became the club’s sole owner in 2000, and it has since lost 100 or more games on four occasions, only once finishing above .500. Glass has shamelessly benefited from baseball’s revenue sharing system, focusing primarily on profit like he did as the CEO of Wal-Mart. Currently, the Royals have baseball’s lowest payroll, dishing out just more than $36 million for the 2011 season.
Gerry Nugent, Phillies

Part of one of the worst stretches endured by a franchise in sports history was overseen by Nugent. From 1918 to 1948, the Phillies lost more than 100 games 12 times, half of which occurred during his stint as the owner from 1932 to 1942. Although Nugent wasn’t a blatant profiteer, he lacked the funds to field a competitive team. Married to longtime Phillies secretary Mae Mallen, who inherited half of the estate of owner William Baker when he died in 1930, Nugent became team president in 1930 and assumed full ownership of the club when Baker’s widow died. The furniture salesmen did experience a morsel of success during his first season, when the Phillies achieved their only winning season in 30 years.
Frank McCourt, Dodgers

It’s a sad state of affairs for a once proud franchise. The Dodgers are just two seasons removed from reaching their second consecutive NLCS, but the embarrassment thrust upon the club thanks to McCourt has made that a distant memory. Entrenched in a financial mess, the saga started when he purchased the team in 2004 entirely with borrowed money. While McCourt has pocketed large sums of money to maintain his family’s lavish lifestyle, the Dodgers have accumulated $390 million in debt — the team’s payroll has included McCourt’s family members and a Russian psychic in Boston. In 2009, Jamie McCourt was fired from her position as CEO and filed for divorce soon after, creating a complex dispute over ownership. Currently, Major League Baseball is overseeing the operation of the Dodgers, who filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June.
George Argyros, Mariners

Argyros is a name not recognized by many current baseball fans. His forgettable stint as the Mariners owner from 1981 to 1989 included the departure of stars such as Mark Langston, Danny Tartabull, Floyd Bannister, Ivan Calderon and Bill Caudill, yielding very little in return and ensuring the team finished at least 10 games under .500 in each of those seasons — the franchise, whose first season came in 1977, had yet to achieve a winning season when he sold it. A wealthy real estate developer who understood the value of a buck, Argyros detested multi-year contracts, refused to sign big-name free agents and even attempted to convince his front office to draft Mike Harkey over Ken Griffey Jr. in 1987. His unwillingness to spend to win and constant threats to move the team made him less than popular among the Seattle faithful.
Bob Short, Senators/Rangers

Suffering through owners such as Eddie Chiles, Brad Corbett, Hicks and Short, it’s no wonder the Rangers went five decades before reaching the World Series. Short purchased the moribund Washington Senators in 1968, named himself the general manager, and watched the team improve by 21 games in his first season operating the club, achieving its first winning season since the franchise was reinvented in 1961. But he failed to build on that success, as the team won just 70 games in 1970. After the season, he dealt four quality players — Ed Brinkman, Joe Coleman, Jim Hannan and Aurelio Rodriguez — for former 30-game winner Denny McClain, who was suspended for most of the 1970 season due to gambling allegations. The team remained in the cellar and fan interest dwindled, enabling Short to successfully petition to move the team to Arlington, Texas, which became its new home in 1972. There, the team lost 100 games in its first two seasons and Short drafted teen phenom pitcher David Clyde, whose career was ruined when Short rushed him into the majors. Short’s final foolish move was selling the team to Corbett in 1974.
Peter Angelos, Orioles

A criminal defense lawyer who earned his fortune with asbestos litigation during the ’80s, Angelos enjoyed championing the underdog, which might explain why he turned a contender into an underdog in a matter of a couple of seasons. His 18-year (and counting) tenure began swimmingly — he inherited a team that had just moved into Camden Yards, then arguably the nicest ballpark in baseball, and added free agents Roberto Alomar, BJ Surhoff, David Wells and Randy Myers. Under the stewardship of accomplished manager Davey Johnson, the team made the playoffs in 1996 and 1997. But a petty spat between Johnson and Angelos ended in Johnson’s firing, general manager Pat Gillick’s contract was allowed to expire, several key players left in free agency, and new general manager Frank Wren inked Albert Belle to baseball’s largest contract. Two seasons later, Belle retired due to degenerative osteoarthritis in his hip. Since 1998, the Orioles haven’t finished a season at or above .500.
The Tribune Company, Cubs

During the Tribune’s 28 years controlling the Cubs beginning in 1981, the team nearly won that elusive pennant twice, reaching the NLCS in 1984 and 2003, only to blow 2-0 and 3-1 leads respectively. Habitually poor personnel moves prevented it from doing much more. Its worst was allowing the Braves to snag 1992 Cy Young Award winner Greg Maddux, who proceeded to win the next three Cy Young Awards and a World Series. Jose Guzman, who was signed to a $14 million contract to replace him, posted a 4.78 ERA in 34 starts over two seasons before leaving baseball. Other poor signings made by the Tribune Company over its rein: Todd Hundley, Milton Bradley, LaTroy Hawkins and Dave Smith.
Jeffrey Loria, Expos and Marlins

Immediately upon assuming majority ownership of the Expos, Loria alienated the team’s few remaining fans in Montreal by demanding a new stadium and threatening to relocate if one wasn’t built. He eventually sold the team to baseball in 2002 and in turn bought the Marlins, who won the World Series in 2003. Like former owner Wayne Huizenga after the Marlins won the 1997 World Series, Loria dismantled the team, trading Derek Lee and allowing Pudge Rodriguez to sign with the Tigers, again alienating his team’s usually weak fanbase. The team hasn’t reached the playoffs since, though it was hung around .500. Notably, Loria fired Fredi Gonzalez and 2005 Manager of the Year and eventual World Series champion manager Joe Girardi, and he caused the resignation of Edwin Rodriguez despite the objections of his baseball operations department. Even more inexcusable, he lied about profits to avoid contributing more funds to the Marlins’ new ballpark, instead lining his own pockets.
Marge Schott, Reds

Few personalities in baseball history have been as bold as Schott’s. A successful woman who daringly entered the conservative, male-dominated world of baseball, she presided over her organization with an iron fist, tight wallet and quick tongue. From 1985 to 1998, the Reds boasted eight winning seasons and a World Series title, but her mistreatment of her employees and numerous offensive comments sullied her reputation. In one instance, she banished general manager Bob Quinn, the Major League Executive of the Year during the club’s World Series-winning season in 1990, to the press dining room from the private box. That was the year after he had to pay his own way to the All-Star Game. She reportedly made disparaging comments about her black players and employees, and presented herself as a Nazi sympathizer on more than one occasion. In 1993, because of her conduct, she was banned from day-to-day operations of the Reds. When she sold the team in 1999, she was serving her third suspension from Major League Baseball.