The power brokers

Sporting News, The, August 22, 1994

Upon selling his A's for $12.7 million in August 1981, colorful Owner Charlie O. Finley said, "I'm going to have to leave baseball because of these idiotic, astronomical salaries." That same year, barely four months after his team won its first world championship, Phillies Owner Ruly Carpenter announced that the family-owned team was for sale after 38 years, over which the team value increased nearly tenfold. Carpenter cited astronomical salaries and squabbling among owners and said, "It was one of the most difficult decisions the family ever had to make."

Now baseball is into its longest strike since that turbulent summer, and many of the same things are heard. Yet new owners keep coming. George Shinn wants a major league team for Charlotte, Jerry Colangelo wants one for Phoenix, Vince Naimoli wants one for St. Petersburg. The list of suitors is as certain as the presence of an O'Malley in the Dodgers organization calling for a peaceful, sensible conclusion to a labor dispute rather than jumping the ship.

Fans know everything about the players, but they often know little about the people on the other side of the picket line. Who are they, how did they make their fortunes and when did they buy their teams? How much did they pay, and how much are those holdings worth now? These are some of the questions THE SPORTING NEWS attempts to answer on the following pages.

The figures for each club's value and its estimated 1993 profit or loss were obtained from Financial World magazine. The profit or loss is the club's revenues minus its operating expenses, and it includes distribution of the expansion fees paid by the Rockies and Marlins. Both National League teams paid a $95-million expansion fee, and then-Commissioner Fay Vincent ordered 22 percent of that $190-million total -- or $42 million -- to be distributed to American League teams. So we included $12.3 million for 1993 in the N.L. teams' profit or loss -- putting the Reds, for example, in the black -- and $3 million for each A.L. team. That is one reason the only clubs showing losses were in the A.L.

Each club's payroll is based on contracts entering this season, so incentives are not reflected. To determine the percent of capacity at each stadium, we used 1993 figures. For consistency's sake, we included attendance figures from the old ballparks in Cleveland and Texas, which were left behind for new and packed stadiums this season.

A.L. owners

Baltimore Orioles

Ironically, Peter Angelos made his fortune by winning lawsuits for union workers who had been crippled or killed by asbestos. He has represented local unions for more than 30 years, but Angelos became a union foe October 4, 1993, when American League owners unanimously approved the $173-million sale of the Orioles by principal shareholder Eli Jacobs. Angelos is principal owner and managing general partner, and he was influential in the free-agent signings of Rafael Palmeiro and Lee Smith (good moves) and Chris Sabo and Sid Fernandez (not-so-good moves). The ownership group also includes best-selling author Tom Clancy, who is vice chairman of community projects and public affairs.

Franchise value: $129 million.

1993 profit: $31.9 million.

1994 payroll: $37.7 million.

Oriole Park at Camden Yards capacity: 48,262.

1993 average percent of capacity: 93.

Boston Red Sox

Just before this spring training, Haywood Sullivan sold his share of the Red Sox to John Harrington for $33 million. That made Harrington and JRY Corp. the first primary owner of the Red Sox since Tom Yawkey died in July 1976, about 43 years after buying the club. Harrington, the chief executive officer, was an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Management at Boston College when he started his baseball career as a controller for the American League from 1970-73. He was involved in scheduling and helped draft the designated-hitter rule. Harrington's specialty was the business side when he joined the Red Sox in 1973, and he remains executive director of the Yawkey Foundations. Harrington is a director of the Baseball Hall of Fame, a member of the Pension Trust Committee and a director of The Baseball Network.

Franchise value: $141 million.

1993 profit: $10.4 million.

1994 payroll: $36.3 million.

Fenway Park capacity: 33,871.

1993 average percent of capacity: 88.

California Angels

Gene Autry, now 86, attended baseball's 1960 winter meetings in St. Louis to find a club to broadcast. The Singing Cowboy left with his own team -- the expansion Los Angeles Angels. Autry had plunked down $1 and made 50-cent monthly payments to acquire his first guitar at the age of 11 -- leading to a legendary cowboy-movie and singing career -- and he found a similar bargain with the Angels. He merely had to pay Dodgers Owner Walter O'Malley $350,000. That included $250,000 as half of the payment O'Malley had been required to give the Pacific Coast League to invade its turf after moving from Brooklyn and $100,000 for the rights to share the southern California market.

Franchise value: $93 million.