Marlins fans can be forgiven for waking up every morning and thinking, "It can't possibly get any worse than this." The team has the worst record in baseball, the franchise is a rather un-hilarious joke and Loria is less popular than Castro. But oh, it can get worse. The consensus right now is that Jeffrey Loria is the worst current owner in sports. But is he the worst of all-time? Probably not.
While bamboozling the city into paying for his own personal shitty art gallery with a baseball diamond in the middle was a shady move, some past sports owners make Loria look like a saint in comparison.
Ken Richardson
Jeffrey Loria at least has this going for him: He's never been sent to jail for four years after police described him as "the type that would trample a two-year-old child to pick up a two-pence bit." That's Ken Richardson, who owned Doncaster Rovers FC, a lower tier British club in the mid-90s. In 1995, after being denied financing on a new stadium, Richardson hired two local thugs to burn down the team's home park, so he could collect the insurance money. The problem with local thugs is they aren't local geniuses, though, and one of the hired brainiacs dropped his cell phone at the scene -- blowing the entire plan directly the shit up. Doncaster was jailed for four years for the failed fraud attempt. Oh yeah, he also once also tried to sell the land the stadium sat on, only problem was, HE DIDN'T OWN IT.
James Dolan
The New York Knicks aren't too shitty this year, which is a nice change of pace for James Dolan, who's owned the team since 1999. In that time period Dolan has routinely fielded one of the most expensive teams in the league, yet has just one playoff win (last season versus the Heat) to show for it. Beyond his teams sucking something epic, his relationship and loyalty to Isiah Thomas -- widely considered the worst GM in modern NBA history -- was enough to make Knicks fans suicidal.
Marge Schott
Jeffrey Loria might put shit players on the field, but former Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott literally let her dogs shit all over the field. Schott notoriously refused to pay for outfielder Eric Davis's way back to Cincinnati after he was hospitalized with kidney lacerations attempting to catch a fly ball in the 1990 World Series. During her tenure the team did not post out of town scores, because the service would have set Schott back $350. Oh, and she notoriously supported "young Hitler," not the meanie he turned into in his old age, mind you.
So whaddya say? These guys worse than Loria or not?
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