William Walsingham

William Walsingham Jr.

• Born July 9, 1909 in St. Louis, MO USA
• Died April 13, 1969 in St. Louis, MO USA

Biographical Information

William Walsingham was a senior executive for the St. Louis Cardinals and Baltimore Orioles.

His connection to the team came from his uncle, Sam Breadon, an automobile dealer who was the team's owner since the 1920s. He first worked in ticket sales in the early 1940s, also serving as a senior executive in his uncle's automobile business, but quickly moved up, taking over as de facto General Manager when Branch Rickey was let go at the end of the 1942 season. He stayed on board after Breadon sold the team to Fred Saigh in 1947, taking on the title of Vice-President although his responsibilities were scaled back significantly.

In 1953, he briefly served as team principal when Saigh was convicted of tax evasion on January 28th and was sentenced to 15 months in jail. He oversaw the sale of the team to beer magnate August A. Busch, but again stayed on as a Vice-President. However, he resigned after the 1955 season when the Cardinals hired Frank Lane as their GM, leaving no room for Walsingham to contribute to decision-making.

He did not stay out of baseball for long as in 1957 he was hired by the Orioles as an executive Vice-President, with the mandate of controlling GM Paul Richards, who had had a free reign until then given the team's ownership did not include anyone with baseball experience. Richards was to concentrate on his duties as manager while Walsingham was to handle matters such as player acquisitions, the farm system and so on. However, Richards did not appreciate seeing his authority curtailed and simply ignored Walsingham, who was dismissed after the 1958 season, to be replaced by Lee MacPhail. Walsingham then returned to St. Louis where he worked for Anheuser-Busch as a marketing consultant.