BOSTON — Larry Lucchino, the hard-driving power behind baseball’s retro ballpark revolution and the transformation of the Boston Purple Sox from cursed losers to World Collection champions, has died. He was 78.
Lucchino, who was a three-time most cancers survivor, died early Tuesday of congenital coronary heart failure. His demise was confirmed by his household and the Triple-A Worcester Purple Sox, the place he had most lately been the first proprietor and chairman — the final mission in a profession that was additionally linked to 3 main league baseball franchises and one within the NFL.
“Larry leaves behind a large baseball legacy stuffed with historic accomplishments with three completely different organizations,” stated Theo Epstein, who labored for Lucchino in Baltimore, San Diego and Boston, the latter when he grew to become the youngest basic supervisor to that time in baseball historical past. “For me and for thus lots of my finest associates in baseball, Larry gave us our begin, believing in us and setting an everlasting instance together with his work ethic, imaginative and prescient, competitiveness and fearlessness. He made a profound influence on many in baseball — and on the sport itself — and might be missed.”
Lucchino was remembered with a second of silence earlier than the WooSox residence opener on Tuesday at Polar Park — his fifth and ultimate ballpark mission, and “the infant of his ballpark household.” Lucchino was additionally acknowledged earlier than the Purple Sox recreation in Oakland.
The Padres honored Lucchino with a second of silence earlier than their recreation in opposition to the St. Louis Cardinals at Petco Park in San Diego. Earlier than the videoboard went darkish, it confirmed an image of Lucchino holding the 1998 NL championship trophy throughout a parade via downtown just a few days after the Padres had been swept by the New York Yankees within the World Collection.
The Purple Sox & the sports activities world have misplaced a large.
Larry was a visionary whose aggressive spirit & sturdy will took sports activities franchises to new heights, significantly ours.
He was a curse-breaker, ballpark-preserver & neighborhood champion.
Thanks, Larry. pic.twitter.com/KFjuqNeaKE
— Purple Sox (@RedSox) April 2, 2024
We misplaced an excellent man right now. RIP Larry Lucchino. If anybody deserves to be within the Corridor of Fame it is Larry.
— Bobby Valentine (@BobbyValentine) April 2, 2024
A Pittsburgh native who performed on the 1965 NCAA Last 4 Princeton basketball group captained by future U.S. senator and basketball Corridor of Famer Invoice Bradley, Lucchino went on to Yale Legislation College and labored on the Home Judiciary Committee investigating the Watergate scandal. He landed a job with Washington lawyer Edward Bennett Williams and shortly discovered himself engaged on Williams’ sports activities groups, the Baltimore Orioles and the Washington NFL franchise now generally known as the Commanders.
Lucchino rose to president of the Orioles and led the trouble to exchange Memorial Stadium with a downtown, old-style ballpark that ended the fad of cavernous, cookie-cutter stadiums surrounded by parking tons. Camden Yards grew to become a trendsetter, and Lucchino himself would observe up with a brand new ballpark for the Padres, whom he served as president and CEO.
As Padres proprietor John Moores’ right-hand man, Lucchino led the push for Petco Park — one other downtown ballpark — permitting the group to depart growing older Qualcomm Stadium, which they shared with the NFL’s Chargers. The Padres ended a 14-year playoff drought by successful the NL West in 1996, after which gained the NL pennant in 1998.
Lucchino’s subsequent cease was in Boston, serving to to assemble the brand new possession group led by John Henry and Tom Werner that purchased the franchise in 2002. Their resolution to replace Fenway Park quite than substitute it — bucking one other development — preserved one in every of baseball’s jewels, which is able to open its 113th season on April 9.
“We did not know that we had been going to ignite a revolution in ballpark structure,” Lucchino instructed The Related Press in 2021 because the WooSox ready to open their new residence. “We simply needed to construct a pleasant little ballpark.”
However an excellent greater overhaul was going down within the Purple Sox entrance workplace, and on the sphere. After hiring as GM the 28-year-old Epstein, who’d began with the Orioles as an intern and adopted Lucchino to the Padres, the Purple Sox ended an 86-year championship drought — vanquishing the archrival Yankees, whom he dubbed “the Evil Empire” alongside the way in which.
They gained two extra World Collection in his tenure as president earlier than an aborted try to retire in 2015. As a substitute, he grew to become the entrance man for a gaggle that bought the Pawtucket Purple Sox, finally shifting them from Rhode Island to central Massachusetts.
“Larry was a winner,” stated former Purple Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who performed for the group from 2006 to 2019, successful three championships. “Did not matter if it was a contract negotiation, saving Fenway, asking gamers what we have to compete. Larry was going to work till the job was completed. He had a presence and an angle that would not be denied. He was a tone-setter for our group.”
The lawyerly Lucchino was recognized for an aggressive, usually adversarial strategy that got here off as antagonistic however was designed to hone arguments and squeeze out a plan’s tiniest imperfections. It additionally impressed a loyalty amongst his cadre of followers, together with Worcester Purple Sox president Charles Steinberg, who additionally labored with Lucchino in Baltimore, San Diego, Boston and Pawtucket; architect Janet Marie Smith, who labored on Camden Yards, Petco Park and Fenway Park; and present Purple Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy, who adopted Lucchino from San Diego to Boston together with Epstein, his highschool good friend.
“There are such a lot of of us who got our begin in baseball by Larry,” Kennedy stated. “He instilled in us, and so many others, a piece ethic, ardour, aggressive hearth that we’ll carry endlessly. His legacy is one that every one of us who had been taught by him really feel a deep duty to uphold.”
Steinberg, who labored with the feisty Lucchino for 45 years, referred to as him “Earl Weaver in a go well with — with a greater vocabulary.”
“Boss, coach, mentor, good friend,” Steinberg stated. “How do you thank somebody for a life and a lifetime?”
Ex-Purple Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez stated Lucchino’s combative exterior camouflaged a caring good friend.
“My coronary heart goes out to the Lucchino household. They misplaced not solely an excellent man, however a visionary with the most important coronary heart,” stated Martinez, who was the ace of the pitching employees that led Boston to the 2004 World Collection title. “Regardless that he tried to cowl it taking part in shy and making an attempt to cover away from individuals’s eyes … however not me; he did not idiot me.”
Lucchino was stated to be distinctive in his possession of 5 World Collection rings — having collected one with the Orioles in 1983 and one other in 2018 because the Purple Sox president and CEO emeritus — a Tremendous Bowl ring from Washington in 1983 and a Last 4 watch. He was additionally energetic in serving to Main League Baseball unfold internationally, taking journeys to China and Japan and as an early supporter of the World Baseball Traditional.
“Larry Lucchino was one of the crucial completed executives that our trade has ever had,” baseball commissioner Rob Manfred stated. “He was deeply pushed, he understood baseball’s place in our communities, and he had a eager eye for government expertise.”
Lucchino was additionally a boss of The Jimmy Fund, the charitable arm of the Dana-Farber Most cancers Institute.
“To us, Larry was an distinctive one that mixed a Corridor of Fame life as a Main League Baseball government together with his ardour for serving to these individuals most in want,” Lucchino’s household stated in a press release. “He introduced the identical ardour, tenacity, and probing intelligence to all his endeavors, and his achievements converse for themselves.”
