Peter Angelos, proprietor of a Baltimore Orioles staff that endured lengthy shedding stretches and shrewd proprietor of a regulation agency that received high-profile circumstances towards business titans, died Saturday. He was 94.
Angelos had been sick for a number of years. His household introduced his loss of life in an announcement thanking the caregivers “who introduced consolation to him in his remaining years.”
Angelos’ loss of life comes as his son, John, plans to promote the Orioles to a bunch headed by Carlyle Group Inc. co-founder David Rubenstein. Peter Angelos’ public function diminished considerably in his remaining years. In line with a lawsuit involving his sons in 2022, he had surgical procedure after his aortic valve failed in 2017.
Commissioner of Baseball Robert D. Manfred, Jr mentioned in an announcement on Saturday Angelos was a proud Baltimore native who “deeply appreciated” proudly owning the Orioles.Â
 “On behalf of Main League Baseball, I ship my condolences to Peter’s spouse, Georgia, their sons John and Louis, and the whole Angelos household,” Manfred mentioned.Â
Born on the Fourth of July in 1929 and raised in Maryland by Greek immigrants, Peter Angelos rose from a blue-collar background to launch a agency in his personal identify after receiving his regulation diploma from the College of Baltimore in 1961.
In August 1993, Angelos led a bunch of traders that purchased the Orioles. The group included author Tom Clancy, filmmaker Barry Levinson and tennis star Pam Shriver. The worth tag of $173 million – on the time the best for a sports activities franchise – got here in a sale compelled by the chapter of then-owner Eli Jacobs.
Whereas remaining energetic in a regulation agency specializing in private damage circumstances, Angelos assumed a hands-on method to working his hometown staff. Few participant acquisitions had been carried out with out his approval, and his status for not spending thousands and thousands on high-priced free brokers belied his internet value, which in 2017 was estimated at $2.1 billion.
In 1996, his agency introduced a lawsuit on behalf of the state of Maryland towards tobacco big Philip Morris, securing a $4.5 billion settlement. The Legislation Places of work of Peter Angelos additionally earned thousands and thousands of {dollars} by way of the settlement of asbestos circumstances, together with a class-action go well with on behalf of metal, shipyard and manufacturing facility staff.
Angelos made headlines as nicely in baseball. In 1995, he was the one one in all 28 house owners who refused to stick to a plan to make use of substitute gamers throughout a union strike that started in the course of the 1994 season.
“We’re responsibility sure to offer main league baseball to our followers, and that may’t be performed with substitute gamers,” he insisted.
On the time, Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. was solely 122 video games from breaking Lou Gehrig’s file of two,130 consecutive video games performed. The streak would have ended if the season began with substitute gamers and Ripken remained on strike, however the house owners and gamers reached an settlement earlier than opening day and Ripken in the end ended up extending his file run to 2,632.
Angelos additionally fought for years to create an exhibition collection between the Orioles and Cuba’s nationwide staff, a quest that reached fruition in 1999. On March 28, the Orioles performed in Havana whereas Angelos sat alongside Cuban chief Fidel Castro. The groups met once more on Might 3 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
The collection marked the primary time the Cuban nationwide staff had confronted a squad composed solely of main league gamers, and the primary time since 1959 a giant league membership performed in Cuba.