Fred Saigh

Frederick Michael Saigh Jr. (pronounced "sigh") (1905 – 1999) was the part-owner, then sole owner, of the St. Louis Cardinals of American Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1948 through 1953.

Pre-Cardinals years

Saigh, the son of Lebanese immigrants who owned a chain of grocery stores, was the oldest of five children. He was born in Springfield, Illinois, and grew up in Kewanee, Illinois. He attended Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois and graduated from Northwestern University with a law degree in 1926, at age 21.^[1] and became a highly successful tax and corporate lawyer and investor in St. Louis. In the 1940s, he owned prime office buildings in downtown St. Louis.^[2]

St. Louis Cardinals

At the end of the 1947 baseball season, Saigh and Robert Hannegan, a prominent St. Louis businessman, former Postmaster General, and confidante of President Harry Truman, purchased the Cardinals from longtime owner Sam Breadon, who was ill with prostate cancer. The Cardinals, though then just one year removed from their ninth National League pennant and sixth World Series championship since 1926, had begun to decay as an organization -- finally feeling the effects of the loss, five years before, of legendary general manager Branch Rickey, who had moved on to run their arch-rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers.

In January 1949, Hannegan, suffering from poor health,^[1], sold his share of the team to Saigh (Hannegan died in October of heart disease). As sole owner, Saigh's notable actions included leading other baseball owners to oust (by not renewing his contract) Commissioner of Baseball Happy Chandler in December 1950^[3] and proposing revenue-sharing of local television revenues.^[4]

In April 1952, Saigh was indicted on federal charges of evading $49,260 in income taxes between 1946 and 1949. In January 1953, he pleaded no contest to two counts involving more than $19,000 in tax underpayments, and was sentenced to 15 months in prison.^[2]

Saigh had no children.^[5] He left $70 million to charity in his will, establishing the Fred Saigh Foundation. ^[6]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "The School of Engineering salutes its newest endowed professors ... and the donors who made the professorships possible" (pdf), Engineering News, School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis, Spring 2005
2. ^ ^{a b} Richard Goldstein, "Fred Saigh, Who Helped Cardinals Stay Put, Dies at 94", New York Times, January 2, 2000
3. ^ "Surprise!", Time Magazine, December 25, 1950
4. ^ May 16, 1951 Sporting News
5. ^ Opinion, Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District, "Michael Saigh and Andrew Saigh, Appellants v. William K. Saigh, et al., Respondent", February 6, 2007
6. ^ "Buffett donation puts spotlight on philanthropy". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. July 2, 2006.

Donate to Wikimedia