Longtime Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos dies at 94

Peter Angelos died at the age of 94 on Saturday, three decades after he purchased the Baltimore Orioles and just days before his family’s sale of the franchise he bought for $173 million was expected to be finalized.

Angelos, who made his fortune as a Baltimore attorney specializing in employee liability cases, was in failing health the last several years and in 2018 ceded control of the club to his son, John. After years in which his children, John and Louis, and wife Georgia were embroiled in court battles over the future course of the club, the family agreed in January to sell the club to Baltimore native David Rubenstein, at a reported price of $1.725 billion.

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred indicated in February that the league and its 29 other owners would fast-track approval of the sale, in which Rubenstein was expected to purchase a controlling 40% stake of the club and pay the rest upon Angelos’s death.

That plan was designed to avoid capital gains taxes on the significant profit the family enjoyed off the franchise, but Peter Angelos’s death would figure to accelerate the timeline for Rubenstein to take full control of the franchise. 

“Today, Peter G. Angelos passed away quietly at the age of 94,” the Orioles said in a statement. “Mr. Angelos had been ill for several years, and the family thanks the doctors, nurses, and caregivers who brought comfort to him in his final years.

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“It was Mr. Angelos' wish to have a private burial, and the family asks for understanding as they honor that request. Donations may be sent to charity in lieu of flowers.”

Rubenstein, the 74-year-old co-founder of the private equity Carlyle Group, will upon MLB approval become the fifth owner since the franchise moved to Baltimore.

“I offer my deepest condolences to the Angelos family on the passing of Peter Angelos," Rubenstein said in a statement released Saturday. "Peter made an indelible mark first in business and then in baseball. The city of Baltimore owes him a debt of gratitude for his stewardship of the Orioles across three decades and for positioning the team for great success.”

On-field struggles

Angelos’ tenure in Baltimore spanned the almost the entire life span of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, which opened one year before he purchased the team from Eli Jacobs and ushered in a new era of intimate, retro ballparks; the stadium remains one of the jewels of the game.

The team that inhabited it saw only occasional bursts of on-field success, capturing American League East titles in 1997 and 2014 and wild-card berths in 1996, 2012 and 2016 while Peter Angelos was its control person.

In the first year John Angelos assumed control, the club lost 115 games, most in franchise history, prompting the firing of GM Dan Duquette and manager Buck Showalter. Mike Elias and Brandon Hyde were hired to replace them and, after two more 100-loss seasons, the club broke through last year to win 101 games and its first division title in nearly a decade.

The hope now, under Elias, is that the club can build a sustainable winner, a task that proved elusive in Angelos’s tenure.

At times impetuous, the Orioles under Angelos became known as a team unique to deal with for agents and rival executives. On more than one occasion, deals with free agents were agreed upon, only for them to fall apart, aggravating fans. The benefit of hindsight often showed Angelos displayed proper prudence in nixing these deals, even if he tossed cold water on baseball’s hot stove.

As baseball’s economics shifted and the biggest-market New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox reigned over the AL East, the Orioles found it challenging to change their role in the pecking order. The Yankees plucked ace Mike Mussina from them before the 2001 season, effectively ending an era when the Orioles imported aging and high-priced talent like Roberto Alomar, Albert Belle and Eric Davis around franchise icon Cal Ripken Jr.

The Orioles lost at least 88 games 11 times in 12 seasons between 2000 and 2011 and finished next-to-last or last in the AL East in 13 of 14 seasons from 1998-2011.

An unpredictable owner

Yet Angelos did have a competitive streak and a penchant for playing favorites. When the Duquette-Showalter regime produced three playoff berths in five years, the club faced losing beloved slugger Chris Davis to free agency.

Angelos green-lit a seven-year, $161 million deal for Davis in January 2016, and the first baseman’s career cratered shortly thereafter. He retired with one year left on his deal, long after fellow fan favorites Manny Machado and Adam Jones left via trade and free agency.

Angelos was also not afraid to be a maverick among owners.

In the 1990s, Angelos lobbied the U.S. government to allow the Orioles to play an exhibition in Havana, Cuba, ultimately securing the controversial trip in March 1999 as then-President Bill Clinton eased travel restrictions to the island nation. Baltimore defeated the Cuban national team at the Estadio Latinoamericano with president Fidel Castro in attendance. Castro greeted the Orioles on the field and sat with Angelos and then-MLB commissioner Bud Selig in the stands for the first game.

A month later, the Cuban national team traveled to face the Orioles at Camden Yards, a 12-5 win for the visitors.

"Peter Angelos was a proud native of Baltimore who deeply appreciated owning the Baltimore Orioles," Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement Saturday. "Peter’s lifetime of philanthropy greatly benefited numerous worthy causes throughout his hometown.  He championed the Orioles’ historic 1999 series with the Cuban National Team.  Peter ably served the game on our Labor Committee, and I will always remember his personal support when I was first elected to this role in his home city in 2014.

"On behalf of Major League Baseball, I send my condolences to Peter’s wife, Georgia, their sons John and Louis, and the entire Angelos family.”

Angelos could bring an attorney’s pugnacity to the job, his franchise still embroiled in a dispute with the Washington Nationals over cable television revenue as part of an agreement that enabled the former Montreal Expos franchise to relocate to what was then the Orioles’ territorial rights.

And while he and his family’s ownership could take some bizarre turns, the Orioles ultimately remained entrenched in Baltimore.

In December, John Angelos, after several false starts, agreed with the state on a Camden Yards lease extension, shelving dreams of a more ambitious – and potentially profitable – plan to develop the area around the ballpark.

Less than two months later, an agreement was reached to sell to Rubenstein, who soon will have the right to purchase the franchise in its entirety.

Baltimore Ravens owner shares condolences

Steve Bisciotti, the owner of the NFL's Ravens, expressed his sympathies for his fellow Baltimore owner on Saturday evening.

“I am saddened to learn about the passing of Peter Angelos. As a native Baltimorean, Peter was an important figure in our city’s rich sports history." Bisciotti said. "He was a smart businessman who wasn't afraid to stand up to issues he felt were important.

"Above all, the impact Peter made through his philanthropic efforts left a lasting impression on our community."