The Best/Worst Sports Owners Of The Decade

Being an owner of a sports franchise is a tough business. You have to put together a winning program on a budget, make the right moves with the host city, all while appeasing your idiotic fanbase that is still wondering why you haven’t signed Albert Pujols yet (cause he’s going to be playing for my Cardinals for the rest of his natural life. Ha-ha!) Essentially, owning a team is a tough, thankless job. Do well, and spoil your fans. Do badly, and get run out of town with your tail betwixt your legs.

Below we’ve compiled what we believe to be the five best of the decade, the five worst, and The Great Anomaly.

The Five Best:

5) Lewis Wolff, Oakland Athletics. Though the A’s have had a rough go the last two or three years, they dominated the early part of the decade with one of the lowest payrolls in baseball. Wolff’s greatest move, however, was granting the astoundingly effective general manager Billy Beane part-ownership, essentially assuring that the subject of the fantastic book Moneyball would never leave the team.

4) The Rooney Family, Pittsburgh Steelers. It always helps when a team is run by a family that genuinely cares deeply about the team. The Rooneys have owned the Stellers since the 1930s, and have always maintained a level of class that is unparalleled in the NFL.

3) Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks. Okay, he’s pretty obnoxious. But the guy loves his Mavericks. He also took one of the worst franchises in basketball and turned them into a very respectable team. So say what you will, but you have to admit he’s getting the job done.

2) John W. Henry, Red Sox. Hired the best mind in baseball theory – Bill James – when no one else would touch him. That, coupled with a ton of money to play with, has made the Red Sox a consistently excellent team.

1) Robert Kraft, New England Patriots. Since acquiring the team in 1994, the man has put together one of the greatest dynasties in the history of the NFL. Say what you will about Tom Brady and his supermodel impregnating shenanigans, this team simply wins, consistently, and that is largely due to Kraft.

The Five Worst:

5) Georgia Frontier, Saint Louis Rams. Hate to piss on anyone’s grave (Frontier died this year) but precipitating her death she had one of the most spectacular crash and burns in this sports decade. After winning an improbable Super Bowl with the improbable Kurt Warner at the helm, the Rams have become one of the worst teams in the NFL. Saint Louis fans have likewise abandoned the team, and rumor has it that the Rams are likely candidates to be moved back to LA.

4) James Dolan, New York Knicks. Growing up in the Midwest and not liking the Bulls, I had a hard time picking a team to like. I immediately gravitated towards the Knicks. Patrick Ewing, John Starks: these guys were great! And the team won. A lot. But those days are long gone. With all the money that flows in from being a large-market team, there is absolutely no reason a New York team should ever suck. But the Knicks somehow do.

3) Sam Zell, Chicago Cubs. Zell sold the Cubbies to the Ricketts family this offseason after years of mismanagement. The Cubs have the third biggest payroll in baseball, and use it to give ludicrous contracts to Kosuke Fukudome, Alfonos Soriano and Milton Bradley, while retaining batshit insane coach Lou Piniella. As a Cardinals fan, this delights me to no end.

2) Peter Angelos, Baltimore Orioles. Say what you will about the city of Baltimore. They stick behind their teams. Angelos rewards the fans by consistently putting out a mediocre product. Last year the hapless Orioles put out one of the worst starting rotations in the history of baseball.

1) Donald Sterling, LA Clippers. Oh, you poor Clippers. Unlike other bad teams, you guys have never been good. It’s tradition at this point. Sterling, in an attempt to preserve that tradition, fired proven head coach Larry Brown. Good work!

The Anomaly:

George Steinbrenner. He represents everything wrong with sports owners. But he also wins. He is simultaneously the best and worst. And crazy to boot!