Clarence Miles

Clarence W. Miles

• School University of Maryland

• Born June 29, 1897 in Cambridge, MD USA
• Died October 8, 1977 in Queenstown, MD USA

Biographical Information

Clarence Miles was a minority owner of the Baltimore Orioles and served as team President and Chairman of the board during their first two seasons after relocating from St. Louis, MO in 1954 and 1955. He was an influential figure in Maryland Democratic Party politics, although he never held public office.

He was a prominent attorney in Baltimore, MD and joined forces with mayor Tom D'Alesandro in 1952, forming a group dedicated to bringing a major league team to the city. They found an appropriate candidate in the struggling St. Louis Browns, owned by Bill Veeck, who had just been thwarted in his efforts to drive the St. Louis Cardinals out of the city when the Cards were bought by August A. Busch, the deep-pocketed owner of Anheuser-Busch Breweries. Veeck knew the writing was on the wall for his team and attempted to move the team to Baltimore himself before the 1953 season, but was voted down by fellow American League owners, who saw this as an opportunity to drive the iconoclastic Veeck out of the game by forcing him to sell his team. Veeck made one final attempt to sell half of his stock to Miles and D'Alesandro's group, which would have maintained his position as the single largest stockholder, but this was also voted down.

With a competing bid for the team being engineered by a group wanting to move to Browns to Los Angeles, CA, Miles and D'Alesandro turned around and found new local investors in Baltimore, including brewer Jerry Hoffberger, real estate developer James Keelty and businessman Zanvyl Krieger, putting together sufficient capital to buy out Veeck entirely for $2.5 million. The deal was approved unanimously, paving the way for the move just as the 1953 season was winding down. Miles became the face of the ownership group, but after two seasons of poor on-field results, he was voted out of the presidency by fellow owners and replaced by Keelty. Hoffberger eventually bought out most of the other minority owners to become principal owner.

Miles later served as chairman of the Greater Baltimore Council, which put together the ground-breaking plan to revitalize the city by renovating its downtown core, including the area around the inner harbor, in what is considered one of the most successful examples of urban renewal in recent U.S. history. He also worked on projects to develop Maryland's Eastern Shore, where his family had its roots. He entered the Democratic primary for Governor of Maryland in 1965, running on a progressive platform, and when he was defeated, threw his support behind the Republican candidate, future Vice-President Spiro T. Agnew. Agnew in turn appointed him head of Maryland's Gambling Commission, which oversaw thoroughbred racing, an important industry in the state at the time.

Related Sites

• Biography on the Maryland History site