OPINION:
I pulled this book off my shelf for summer reading — “The Man To See: Edward Bennett Williams, Ultimate Insider; Legendary Trial Lawyer,” published in 1991 and written by Evan Thomas, a journalist, historian, lawyer, and author of 11 books, including two New York Times bestsellers.
Williams, who died in 1988, was indeed a legendary trial lawyer who represented clients like labor boss Jimmy Hoffa and mob boss Frank Costello, among other famous clients.
But on the sports pages, he was better known as the controlling owner of the Washington Redskins from 1965 to 1979 and then owner of the Baltimore Orioles from 1979 until he passed away in 1988.
Within the 587 pages of this tome, there are many tales and tidbits about Williams and his role in sports in Washington and Baltimore.
Some came as news to me decades later – like how Williams nearly owned the Washington Senators and how his Washington football team partner, Jack Kent Cooke, nearly came to own the Orioles.
When the first Washington Senators left town for Minneapolis in 1960, Major League Baseball placed an expansion team back in the nation’s capital in 1961. Williams bid on that version of the Senators, and told his friends — among them Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio — that he was the favorite to secure the franchise, according to the book.
“On November 17, 1960, DiMaggio was leaving Toots Shor’s (legendary New York bar) when he ran into a flushed Williams. ‘I’m gonna buy a baseball club,’ Williams said. ‘Can I use your name?’ DiMaggio asked Williams what this was all about. Williams explained that the Washington Senators were moving to Minnesota and that the American League was creating a new franchise in the capital.
“Williams had a good chance to get it. He had pulled together $3.5 million of his own money and had a couple of bankers, including his law partner Coleman Stein. (Chicago White Sox owner) Bill Veeck (a friend of Williams was working to line up the other league owners to vote for him. It would help Williams to drop DiMaggio‘s name at the owners meetings, now being held at the Plaza Hotel. Could he? DiMaggio said yes.
“Williams gave him a happy handshake and headed for the Plaza. Williams lost. At the last minute, Cal Griffith, who was moving the Senators out to the Twin Cities, double crossed and changed his vote from Williams to a rival syndicate (led by former FAA Administrator Elwood Richard Quesada). “
If Williams had won, it’s doubtful that he would have moved the team to Arlington, Texas, 10 years later like owner Bob Short did. Williams was too invested as a Washington fixture.
He would wind up owning a team 18 years later up the road in Baltimore — but almost lost that team to Cooke, his Redskins partner.
Williams bought 5% of the football team from George Preston Marshall in 1962. He would later acquire more shares and took over as controlling owner and team president in 1965. Cooke also owned the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Kings, and NFL rules barred active management across ownership. Cooke was content to let Williams run the team.
The book reveals that in 1978 Williams and Cooke talked about buying the Orioles and moving them to a new stadium off I-95 between the two cities the baseball club would share with the Redskins. But the cross-ownership rules still prevented that, and instead, Cooke loaned Williams $3.5 million and Williams purchased the Orioles in 1979 for $12 million.
Five years later, when the Orioles had become more successful and profitable under Williams’ ownership, Cooke made his move. He told Williams that he was exercising his “option“ to buy half the Orioles at the original price of $12 million — a fraction of what it was worth.
Williams said Cooke’s claim was a figment of his imagination, and Cooke threatened to sue. According to the book, Williams believed Cooke was doing this to force Williams, who was still named team president, out of the Redskins.
The two had been feuding since Cooke sold his NBA and NHL Los Angeles teams in 1979 and began asserting his control over the football team. Eventually, Williams told his remaining 14% of the football team to Cooke for $5 million — less than half of what it was worth, Thomas wrote, but Williams just wanted out at that point. Cooke, who died in 1997, dropped his claim on the Orioles.
A lot of what-ifs that could have changed the DMV sports landscape.
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