William Daley

William R. Daley

• School Western Reserve University

• Born September 26, 1892 in Ashtabula, OH USA
• Died October 21, 1971 in Cleveland, OH USA

Biographical Information

William Daley was the principal owner of the Cleveland Indians from 1956 to 1966, although he was generally not involved in the day-to-day running of the franchise. He purchased his shares from brothers Charles and Andy Baxter, investment bankers who did not take an active role in running the team and were virtually invisible in the public eye. Instead, minority owner Mike Wilson remained in his position as team President (some sources say that Daley bought the team from Wilson, but that is incorrect) while General Manager Hank Greenberg continued to run the show in terms of the on-field product. In fact, Grrenberg became a minority owner as part of the group led by Daley. At the time of the purchase, Daley was the president of Otis & Company, an investment bank and was also a major investor in the steel industry and in the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad.

Within two years, things began to go sour, with the team's board of governors voting for Greenberg's replacement as General Manager, bringing in the frantic Frank Lane in his place. Lane became the public face of the club. Greenberg attempted to re-gain his former position through a buy-out of Daley's shares with the help of the Baxter brothers, making an offer of $4 million on August 22, 1958. Daley rejected the offer and Greenberg was instead bought out by the remaining partners, including Daley. The team began a slow decline, Lane in turn bailed out for the apparently greener pastures of the Kansas City Athletics, and Gabe Paul was brought in in 1962 as the new head man. In 1966, Daley sold out to another prominent local businessman, Vernon Stouffer, while Paul continued as the most influential figure in the team's head office.

Daley resurfaced in baseball circles in 1968 when he provided financing to Dewey Soriano to purchase an expansion franchise based in Seattle, WA, the Seattle Pilots. His financial participation made him the team's largest shareholder, but it came to nought as the franchise went bankrupt after just one season, and was sold to Bud Selig and moved to Milwaukee, WI in April of 1970, where it became the Milwaukee Brewers. Daley passed away the following year, after a long illness.

Further Reading

• David Bohmer: "Cleveland Guardians team ownership history", Team Ownership History Project, SABR. [1]