Roy Mack

Roy F. Mack

• Died February 10, 1960 in Philadelphia, PA USA

Biographical Information

Roy Mack was the second son of Connie Mack, from his first mariage. Contrary to his father and older brother Earle Mack, he never played minor or major league baseball, but was instead groomed to be an executive. He worked as business manager of the minor league Baltimore Orioles for a few years, then was president of the Newark Indians and Newark Bears. In 1924, he became General Manager of the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League, which were affiliated with his father's Philadelphia Athletics.

In 1936, Roy was named Vice-President and Secretary of the Philadelphia Athletics. Like his brother Earle and younger half-brother Connie Mack Jr., he was issued shares in the team by his father and sat on its board of directors. It was clear he was preparing to succeed his father as team President when he finally stepped aside. Things did not go as planned however. As the Athletics were sinking further behind the Philadelphia Phillies in popularity in the late 1940s and were strapped by lack of money or of a farm system, Connie Mack Jr. rebelled against his father and older brothers' staid and miserly approach to running the team, and orchestrated a boardroom coup with minority shareholders from the Shibe family to modernize the team's direction. He forced the board to convince Connie Mack to retire and cede the managerial reins to coach Jimmie Dykes (and not to Roy's brother Earle, who had long expected to have the job). Fearing for his future as team President, Roy orchestrated a buy-out of his half-brother after the 1950 season, for which he had to mortgage Shibe Park, the team's ballpark.

The move kept Connie Mack, Earle and Roy in effective control of the Athletics, but the mortgage payments proved crippling to the team with attendance at a low ebb. By 1954, it was clear that the Macks had to bring in outside capital or sell the club outright. Roy worked out a deal to sell the team to a syndicate of Philadelphia businessmen who wanted to keep the team in the city. However, by the time he was ready to present the deal to the American League owners, another potential buyer, Chicago businessman Arnold Johnson, had swept in. He offered a much higher price for the Macks' shares, and promised to hire Roy and Earle in senior positions. Thus, Roy voted against the proposal he had introduced to American League owners, and it failed to gain approval. Within a few weeks, a deal with Johnson was struck. Roy became a Vice-President of the now Kansas City Athletics, but quit after one year, realizing the position was entirely powerless.

Further Reading

• Robert D. Warrington: "Departure Without Dignity: The Athletics Leave Philadelphia", The Baseball Research Journal, SABR, Vol. 39, Number 2 (Fall 2010), pp. 95-115.