- Bob Short
Robert Earl Short (
July 20 ,1917 —November 20 ,1982 ) was an American sport teams owner and politician.A native of
Minneapolis, Minnesota , Short bought theMinneapolis Lakers of theNational Basketball Association in the late 1950s and moved the team toLos Angeles in 1960. He later sold the team in 1965 toCanadian magnateJack Kent Cooke .Outbidding comedian
Bob Hope , Short then bought the Washington SenatorsMajor League Baseball franchise in the autumn of 1968. The Senators had just finished in theAmerican League basement and were last in the majors in attendance. Short immediately installed himself as the team's general manager and hired Hall of FamerTed Williams — the major leagues' last .400 hitter — as its field manager for 1969.Miraculously, the '69 Senators improved by 21 games and posted 86 victories en route to the only winning season the expansion-era version of the club would experience in its 11-year lifespan. Williams coaxed career-best
batting average s out of a number of Washington hitters. With a winning team, Williams as a drawing card, and the 1969Major League Baseball All-Star Game atRobert F. Kennedy Stadium , the Senators almost doubled their 1968 attendance, to over 918,000 paid spectators.But it was a one-year wonder. The 1970 edition won only 70 games and fell into the basement of the
American League East Division . Players began to complain about Williams's approach to managing — and batting. At season's end, Short dealt his best startingpitcher and the left side of his infield to theDetroit Tigers for erstwhile 30-game-winnerDenny McLain , who had spent most of the 1970 campaign suspended because of gambling allegations. The deal turned the Tigers back into contenders, while McLain was a monumental bust, losing a league-worst 22 games. The Senators' attendance sunk back to near-1968 levels and Short successfully petitioned the AL to move the franchise toArlington, Texas , where it became the Texas Rangers in 1972.The Senators' move to Texas would make Short one of the most reviled figures in Washington sports. During the final Senators game at
RFK Stadium onSeptember 30 ,1971 , the fans let their feelings known about Short, unfurling two giant vertical banners that read "Short Stinks". Fans would later storm the field near the end of the game, resulting in a Senators forfeit. During theWashington Nationals ' final game at RFK Stadium onSeptember 23 ,2007 , a similar scene unfolded. Nationals' fans unrolled a series of three banners vertically spelling out "Short Still Stinks", in nearly the same place in the stadium that the two banners hung 36 years earlier.In Texas, Short is infamously remembered for drafting high school phenom
David Clyde and rushing him into the major to sell tickets, blowing out Clyde's arm within two years. The Rangers remained a cellar-dwelling unit and did not begin to win consistently until he sold them to new, local ownership in 1974.Short then returned to Minnesota, where he had run unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 1966. He was the Democratic candidate for one of two
United States Senate seats up in 1978, but lost again with 35% of the vote against RepublicanDavid Durenberger . During the campaign, his anti-abortion led to strife within the traditionally strong state party. He was a longtime member of theDemocratic National Committee .
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