Gerry Nugent

Gerald Paul Nugent Sr.

• High School Northeast High School (Philadelphia)

• Born October 25, 1892 in Philadelphia, PA USA
• Died November 25, 1970 in Philadelphia, PA USA

Biographical Information

Gerry Nugent was the owner of the Philadelphia Phillies from 1932 until 1943, when he was forced to give up the team after being unable to pay its running expenses. This came after years of penurious management during which the team was run on a shoe-string budget and was never competitive.

Nugent was born and raised in Philadelphia, PA where he became a successful leather goods merchant after serving with distinction in World War I. he had been a star athlete in high school and remained a big sports fan, which impressed Phillies owner William Baker who hired him as an assistant in 1925. He married Baker's secretary, who became known as Mae Nugent, soon afterwards and rose through the ranks, becoming business manager in 1926, and a member of the Board of Directors in 1928. He is credited during that time with landing Chuck Klein who would become Philly's biggest star of the period, from the minor leagues.

After Baker's death in 1930, his wife Mae inherited some of his shares, and he took on an even more active role when Baker's successor as team President, Charlie Ruch, left most of the decision-making to him. Ruch retired in 1932 and he was elected as President with the support of Baker's widow, who was now the team's largest shareholder. She died as well in 1932, leaving her shares to Mae and their son, making Gerry Nugent the principal owner. Mae Nugent then became the team's Vice-President.

During Nugent's term, the Phillies only had one winning season - in 1932, the year he became principal owner, when they finished at 78-76. Otherwise, they were in competition with the Boston Braves for the National League cellar as Nugent did not have enough outside income to spend on improving the team's fortunes. He tried to be creative, spending some money on scouting and sometimes finding some talent. But mostly, the Phillies at the time were known for fielding players straight out of college with little or no minor league training, leading to some painful on-the-job learning. He often had to trade any young player that became useful in order to raise cash to keep the team afloat. In 1938, he abandoned the team's long-time home, the Baker Bowl, which had by then become completely dilapidated, to move in as tenants to Shibe Park, the home ballpark of the Philadelphia Athletics of the American League. In 1942, the Phillies posted the worst record in their history, at 42-109, slightly worse than the previous mark of 43-111 set the year before. Attendance was so thin that Nugent could not come close to paying the bills. With a debt estimated at $300,000, other National League owner agreed on February 9, 1943, to take over the team in order to find a new buyer, paying $10 a share for 4,685 out of 5,000 outstanding shares in the club.

It has often been said that Nugent's plan in late 1942 was to sell the team to Bill Veeck, who wanted to stock it with Negro League stars, but that Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who was opposed to integration, stepped in to prevent the move. There is no evidence that there was ever anything more than preliminary talks to that effect, however. In any case, only days after taking over the team, the National League sold it to lumber baron William Cox. Cox agreed to take over the team's debts, leaving Nugent to live out the rest of his life in relative obscurity in his home city. In 1947, he served as President of the minor league Inter-State League.

Further Reading

• David Jordan, Larry Gerlach and John Rossi: "A Baseball Myth Exploded: the Truth About Bill Veeck and the '43 Phillies", in The National Pastime, SABR, Cleveland, OH, 1998, pp. 3-13.
• Jules Tygiel: "Revisiting Bill Veeck and the 1943 Phillies", in The Baseball Research Journal, SABR, Cleveland, OH, # 35 (2007), pp. 109-114.

Related Sites

• Blog article about the Nugent era in Phillies history