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Tom Hicks (left) is not only one of the worst MLB owners but one of the all time worst sports owners AP Photo/Paul Thomas
There is no doubt that baseball has a special place in the sports fan’s heart. Along with that comes a healthy admiration for the baseball owner. It is really too bad that compared with the other major sports leagues baseball may have the biggest collection of bad sports owners.
SI.com recently published their list of the worst baseball owners for 2009. While their list is a good one, it does not go far enough. On top of that they have the Steinbrenner family listed as one of the best owners in the MLB, at this point noting could be farther from the truth.
First a look at their worst MLB owners list:
1. Peter Angleos-Baltimore Orioles
2. Tom Hicks- Texas Rangers
3. David Glass-Kansas City Royals
4. Jeffery Loria-Florida marlins
5. Ted Lerner-Washington Nationals
As I said that is a pretty good list, as all of these men have stumbled and helped to ruin the legacy of their teams and sport. However Jeffery Loria needs to be on the top of that list. He is directly responsible for running two Major League Franchises, and is about to get a brand new stadium for his efforts. Loria ruined the Expos, and even though we could argue that the 1994 strike sealed the fate of the Expos in Montreal, Loria ruined that team and took over another ruined franchise in the Marlins.
We all know the Nationals were the Expos and since they are both on this list we must rate Loria as the worst owner in the MLB right now. Two is greater than one and this guy has ruined one franchise and has failed to do anything with another. Sure he won a world series, but his teams are consistently in at the bottom of MLB payrolls, and he wants the citizens of South Florida to spend money on a new stadium when he will not spend money on his own team.
I also find it kind of surprisingly that Pittsburg Pirates owner Robert Nutting is not on this list. The Pirates are little more than a Triple A affiliate for any other MLB club looking to make a playoff run in the second half of the season. Over the last ten years the Pirates have continually dumped salaries at the trading deadline, and their low attendance numbers are a result of that.
Tom Hicks, from the Texas Rangers is also this list, even though he may not be a MLB owner for much longer. Hicks signed the infamous Alex Rodriguez contract, a contract larger than the amount he payed for his franchise. It was also Hick’s dressing room that birthed the Steroids era of baseball. On top of all that Hicks is deeply in debt, and has defaulted on million of dollars of loans tied to the Rangers and his NHL Dallas Stars.
I find it troubling that SI would label the Steinbrenner family among the best baseball owners. From everywhere else it would appear that the Steinbrenner clan is among the worst baseball owners.
They have priced a large percentage of their fans out of their own home baseball stadium. They built a 1.5 billion dollar stadium, during an economic crisis, and cannot figure out why people are not attending. It is really simple they can not afford too.
On top of that they have the highest baseball payroll, by a large margin, and continually add to it. They are destroying baseball by outspending every club. In a lot of these cases they are outspending clubs 2 to 1. High end payroll spenders are just as bad for this game as the low end payroll spenders. Therefore they all must be labeled as bad sports owners.
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