William Locke (owner)

William Henry Locke

• Born August 27, 1869 in Pittsburgh, PA USA
• Died August 14, 1913 in Ventnor, NJ USA

Biographical Information

William Locke was the principal owner of the Philadelphia Phillies for a few months in 1913. He led a group that purchased the team from Horace Fogel on January 15, 1913 after Fogel had been banned from baseball by National League President Thomas Lynch for criticizing umpires and hurling unsubstantiated accusations at St. Louis Cardinals manager Roger Bresnahan.

The Phillies were an up-and-coming team when Locke purchased them, but they were saddled with a poor ballpark, National League Park, dating back to the 19th Century and badly outdated by contemporary standards while in need of repairs. However, Locke had no time to act on this issue, as he passed away only a few months later, on August 14th. His cousin, William Baker, who was a minority shareholder in his group, bought his parts and the following October was named Team President, succeeding Locke.

Locke's father was a newspaper editor in Pittsburgh, PA and he himself got his start in the news business. He became a sportswriter, covering baseball and in 1893 was named sports editor of the Pittsburgh Press, a job he held for a decade. In this position, he became close to Pittsburgh Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss and in 1902 was hired as the team's secretary, replacing Harry Pulliam, who had just been named President of the National League. In 1905, he represented an ill Dreyfuss at a National League owners meeting and would be a regular participant at such gatherings henceforth. In 1908, he was instrumental in getting Forbes Field, the Pirates' new modern ballpark, built. He was considered an important enough figure that in 1910, when Tip Top Bread put out a series of baseball cards honoring the 1910 World Champions, he was depicted on card #2 in the series. But he was ambitious and wanted to join the ownership ranks himself.

Early in 1911, he put in a bid to buy the St. Louis Cardinals after the death of owner Stanley Robison, but his heir, niece Helen Britton, shocked everyone by deciding to keep the team and run it herself. He then turned his attention to the Boston Rustlers, as owner William Hepburn Russell was said to be looking to sell after just one year, and made an offer in July of 1911. But Russell only wanted to sell less than half of the team's shares, retaining control for himself, and the sale never went through before Russell died suddenly shortly afterwards, with James Gaffney of Tammany Hall fame snapping up the team.

The Fogel scandal happened one year later, and in a desperate attempt to save his position, Fogel tried to get Locke named NL President in place of Lynch, hoping this would do the trick. However, other owners were not willing to back him, Lych kept his position, and the ban was enacted. And ironically, Locke was the one to profit. Charles Phelps Taft, half brother of President William Howard Taft and owner of the Cincinnati Times-Star, stepped in as Phillies President in the interim. Locke was always the leading candidate to take over the team, but Fogel now had a grudge against him and vowed to prevent this. But Locke enlisted the help of Pennsylvania Governor John Tener (himself a former player and executive) who helped put together an ownership group. It included his cousin Baker, who had his own political and Tammany Hall connections, as he was a former Police Commissioner of New York City. These manoeuverings were supposed to be secret, but leaked all over the press (Locke, knowing full well how the media worked, may well have been complicit), and the deal was closed in early January of 1913. Locke was named team President and Baker Vice-President. Unfortunately, Locke was already suffering from a malignant tumor at the time; it was removed in an operation, but his health never recovered as the cancer continued to progress. He turned over the day-to-day running of the club to his cousin in May while he retired to a resort town near Atlantic City, NJ. That's where he passed away in mid-August at the age of 43. While his widow Blanche was his sole heir, she quickly moved to sell her shares to Locke's cousin, Baker.

Further reading

• Shane Tourtellotte: "The William Locke Centennial", The Hardball Times, January 15, 2013. [1]