Peter George Angelos, longtime Orioles proprietor, Baltimore political activist and one of the profitable class-action attorneys in U.S. historical past, died Saturday, in keeping with the Orioles. The Baltimore resident was 94.
The staff issued an announcement Saturday afternoon that stated Angelos “handed away quietly.” It didn’t give a location.
His dying got here as his household ready to promote the staff to David Rubenstein, a purchase order that’s awaiting last approval by MLB house owners.
Robust-minded and ego-driven, Angelos rose from a blue-collar background to amass a fortune as a lawyer. Casting himself as a defender of steelworkers towards company irresponsibility, Angelos gained greater than $1 billion in damages from asbestos corporations in the course of the Nineties and constructed his private wealth on the commissions.
He used that fortune to purchase the Orioles for a then-record $173 million in 1993. Angelos, who grew up in East Baltimore, believed the membership ought to not be owned by out-of-towners, and his early willingness to spend on free brokers earned him the love of hometown followers.
In an interview previous to Angelos’ dying, Democratic Del. Samuel I. “Sandy” Rosenberg of Baltimore mirrored on the staff proprietor’s affect on the town.
“His legacy will likely be that he made Orioles’ possession native,” Rosenberg stated. “Peter Angelos was terribly dedicated to this metropolis — and he proved it by placing his cash the place his mouth was.”
The staff assertion stated the burial could be non-public, including “the household asks for understanding as they honor that request.”
“Mr. Angelos had been in poor health for a number of years, and the household thanks the docs, nurses, and caregivers who introduced consolation to him in his last years,” the assertion stated.
Earlier than his dying, Angelos had turned incapacitated, in keeping with paperwork in a 2022 authorized battle that pitted his youthful son, Louis, towards Peter Angelos’ spouse, Georgia, and elder son, John. In February 2023, the events settled all litigation arising from Louis’ claims that his mom and brother had sought improperly to grab management of the elder Angelos’ property, together with his actual property holdings and the Orioles.
Choices in regards to the staff have been being made by his spouse, Georgia, on his behalf.
Throughout his energetic years because the staff’s proprietor, Angelos was an iconoclast, swimming towards the tide on labor points, taking Main League Baseball again to Cuba and refusing to present an inch as he negotiated compensation for the Washington Nationals’ transfer into the Baltimore-Washington market.
He owned the Orioles by one of many darkest durations in membership historical past — 14 consecutive shedding seasons accompanied by a gentle decline in attendance and the exodus of the Orioles’ sharpest executives, a few of who discovered themselves at odds with Angelos’ autocratic, heavy-handed strategy.
The Orioles pulled out of an extended tailspin in 2012, making a shock playoff run led by broadly revered supervisor Buck Showalter, whom Angelos had aggressively recruited. In 2014, they gained the American League East for the primary time in 17 years.
The successful seasons, and Angelos’ renewed willingness to spend freely to maintain signature stars equivalent to Adam Jones and Chris Davis, prompted a reassessment of his file as an proprietor. Even that was sophisticated by the membership’s subsequent return to the underside of the standings in 2017, with the Davis deal and different strikes proving disastrous, and Angelos enjoying a lowered position as his well being declined.
“Although there are those that will lean towards some negatives of his legacy, there are vital accomplishments to assist a constructive legacy,” longtime Baltimore sports activities agent Ron Shapiro stated in an earlier interview.
“There’s nobody you’d slightly have in your aspect,” Alan Rifkin, the longtime main exterior counsel to the Orioles and a buddy, stated earlier than Angelos died. “He put peculiar folks within the asbestos and tobacco instances on his shoulders and lifted them up, and that’s who he was.”
This text will likely be up to date.