Peter Angelos, the longtime owner of the Baltimore Orioles, passed away on Saturday. He was 94 years-old.
Angelos had been ill for several years, and his family announced his death in a statement thanking the caregivers “who brought comfort to him in his final years.” As his health declined, his son John became the Orioles’ chairman and control person. His death comes as John sells the Orioles to a private equity group led by Baltimore native David Rubenstein.
“I offer my deepest condolences to the Angelos family on the passing of Peter Angelos,” Rubenstein said in a statement. “Peter made an indelible mark first in business and then in baseball. The city of Baltimore owes him a debt of gratitude for his stewardship of the Orioles across three decades and for positioning the team for great success.”
Longtime Orioles Owner Peter Angelos Passed Away At Age 94
A Baltimore native, Peter Angelos was a renowned trial lawyer who built his fortune by winning high-profile liability cases. He most notably represented over eight thousand steel, shipyard, and manufacturing workers in a landmark consolidated-action asbestos suit in 1992. Angelos was the principal investor in a group that purchased the Orioles in 1993 in a sale forced by the bankruptcy of then-owner Eli Jacobs. Jacobs sold the Orioles for $173 million, the highest price ever paid for a sports franchise at the time. Angelos is also credited for keeping his beloved Orioles in Baltimore.
After the Colts’ middle-of-the-night move in 1984, fans feared what new ownership could mean for the Orioles—having Peter Angelos as the team’s new owner brought a security that the Orioles would remain in Baltimore, where they belonged. During the 1994-95 MLB strike, Angelos was the only one out of 28 club owners who refused to follow a plan to use replacement players. “We are duty bound to provide Major League Baseball to our fans, and that can’t be done with replacement players,” he insisted.
At the time, Cal Ripken Jr. was 122 games short of Lou Gehrig’s record of 2,130 consecutive games played. His streak would have ended if the season began with replacement players while Ripken remained on strike. The lockout was settled before Opening Day and Ripken would ultimately surpass Gehrig’s record for consecutive games played with 2,632.
The Start of the Orioles Rebuild
Despite early success, the Orioles never won a World Series during the Angelos era. The Orioles went through plenty of ups and downs during his tenure but snapped a run of 14 consecutive losing seasons in 2012. Baltimore returned to the ALCS in 2014 but finished 47-115 four years later, leading to the major Orioles rebuild. Led by Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson, Baltimore’s youth movement helped the Orioles make a swift rise from their rebuild. The Orioles clinched their first division title in nearly a decade last season and ended a six-year postseason drought.
Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened in 1992 to consistently sold-out crowds. The iconic stadium has been widely hailed as one of the best stadiums in baseball since the beginning. During a time when owners were selling the naming rights of their team’s stadium to advertisers, Angelos never did.
The End Of An Era In Baltimore
Now, a new era is set to begin in Baltimore as the Angelos family sells a 40% stake in the franchise to another Baltimore native, David Rubenstein. With Angelos’ passing, Rubenstein’s group could now buy the Angelos family’s remaining stake in the Orioles franchise. However, a Rubenstein spokesperson said that the passing of Peter Angelos will not impact the impending sale. Rubenstein’s full purchase of the organization is expected to be approved by the league within a few weeks’ time. The sale values the Baltimore Orioles at $1.725 billion.
Main Photo Credits: Kim Klement Neitzel-USA TODAY Sports
