10 Facts About Sam Breadon

Samuel Wilson Breadon was an American executive who served as the president and majority owner of the St Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball from 1920 through 1947.

Scottish and Irish descent, Sam Breadon was born in New York City and raised in a working-class family in Greenwich Village.

Sam Breadon moved to St Louis at the turn of the 20th century and entered the automobile industry by opening a repair garage.

Rickey served as manager of the Cardinals beginning in 1919; Sam Breadon, who had bought out most of his partners to become majority owner, succeeded him as club president in 1920.

In 1925, on May 31, Sam Breadon moved Rickey into the front office full-time as business manager — general manager in contemporary terms — and promoted star second baseman Rogers Hornsby to playing manager.

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Sam Breadon seriously explored selling the team in 1934; then, after his Cardinals had defeated the Detroit Tigers in that year's World Series, Sam Breadon, with his connections within the auto industry, openly pondered moving the Redbirds to Detroit.

In June 1946, Sam Breadon flew to Mexico City — without the permission of Commissioner of Baseball Happy Chandler and National League president Ford Frick — for a "fact-finding" meeting with Pasquel; the raids on the Cardinals stopped, but Sam Breadon was hit with a $5,000 fine and a 30-day suspension by Chandler, although both punishments were quickly rescinded.

Sam Breadon flew to New York, conferred with NL president Frick, and then met with his team, where he read a strongly worded message from Frick vowing to suspend all the strikers from baseball.

Sam Breadon set aside $5 million to build a new park, but was unable to find any land.

Satisfied, Sam Breadon sold the Cardinals to Saigh and Hannegan for $3 million–a handsome return on his original investment of 30 years earlier.