Baseball Team Owners

Video Transcript

"BEN GRAHAM: There's a time in baseball when the team owner was larger than life, almost larger than everything but the game itself. These were the days of Branch Rickey and Walter Comiskey. Those days are kinda passed with George Steinbrenner being the last of a dying breed of those in-your-face, powerful, despotic owners. They've been replaced more today by faceless corporations who sometimes are in the game more for the money they can potentially make or the tax shelter than the love of the game. But every now and again, you get an owner who really takes an interest in the actual success of the team, who really loves the team and loves the game of baseball. And these guys, they're responsible for hiring the staff, hiring the trainers, hiring the coaches, the general manager, the front office. They're investing the money in the field, working with the taxpayers on publicly-funded fields, making sure that the team is relating with the public and being a good citizen. Oftentimes, the owner is just--he is the impetus behind everything that the team does. Oftentimes, you won't see them. They'll be in their owner's boxes and you may think they're not doing anything, but they are taking an active role in the success of the team."