Walter Haas

Walter A. Haas, Jr.

• School Harvard University

• Born January 24, 1916 in San Francisco, CA USA
• Died September 20, 1995 in San Francisco, CA USA

Biographical Information

Walter Haas was the owner of the Oakland Athletics from 1980-1995

Charlie Finley brought World Series championships to Oakland in 1972, 1973 and 1974, but after that run of success, ran the team on a shoestring budget, refusing to pay to keep his star players on board, and low attendance totals resulted. As a result, the 1979 season saw the A's lose 108 games and draw just over 300,000 fans. Finley was quickly losing money and he had been angling for approval to relocate the franchise elsewhere, most prominently Denver, CO.

It was Walter Haas, a third-generation San Franciscan, who rescued the Athletics, purchasing the ballclub from Finley on August 23, 1980, by which time the A's had begun a turnaround after hiring the fiery Billy Martin as the manager. By 1981, they were back in the playoffs. In 1987, a revamped Oakland Coliseum played host to the All-Star Game. The A's made three straight World Series appearances, from 1988 to 1990, winning the championship in 1989. From the late 1980s to the middle 1990s, the A's averaged over two million fans per season.

The owner of a Masters of Business Administration from the prestigious Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, Haas was regarded as one of the top businessmen in the United States. Before taking over the ownership reins of the Oakland Athletics, Haas headed large corporations such as Levi Strauss, Pacific Telephone, United Airlines and Bank of America. He was also a member of the Executive Committee of the National Alliance of Businessmen.

Haas passed away at the age of 79 on September 20, 1995, leaving the team to his son, Wally Haas, who had worked for his father as the team's president and CEO. Before that, his son-in-law, Roy Eisenhardt had served as team President from 1980 to 1986. On November 1, 1995, the younger Haas sold the Athletics to the partnership of Steve Schott and Ken Hofmann.