Peter Angelos, renowned as the owner of the Baltimore Orioles during both triumphant and challenging seasons, as well as a prominent figure in the legal arena, passed away on Saturday at the age of 94.
His family, acknowledging his prolonged illness, conveyed his demise in a statement expressing gratitude to the caregivers who provided comfort during his final years.
Angelos’s passing coincides with plans by his son, John, to sell the Orioles to a consortium led by David Rubenstein, co-founder of Carlyle Group Inc. In recent years, Peter Angelos had withdrawn from the public eye, a transition partly attributed to health concerns. Reports mention that he underwent surgery in 2017 following complications with his aortic valve.
Commissioner of Baseball, Robert D. Manfred, Jr., commemorated Angelos’s legacy in a statement, highlighting his deep appreciation for owning the Orioles and his pride in his Baltimore roots. He extended heartfelt condolences to Peter’s wife, Georgia, their sons John and Louis, and the entire Angelos family on behalf of Major League Baseball.
Peter Angelos, born on the Fourth of July in 1929 and raised by Greek immigrants in Maryland, defied his blue-collar origins to establish a firm under his name after earning his law degree from the University of Baltimore in 1961.
In August 1993, Angelos spearheaded a consortium of investors in the acquisition of the Orioles. Notable figures in this group included writer Tom Clancy, filmmaker Barry Levinson, and tennis star Pam Shriver. The purchase price of $173 million, marking a record at the time for a sports franchise, arose from a sale compelled by the bankruptcy of the previous owner, Eli Jacobs.
While actively engaged in his law firm, which specialized in personal injury cases, Angelos maintained a hands-on role in overseeing his hometown team. His stringent oversight ensured that significant player acquisitions received his personal approval, despite his reputation for reluctance to spend extravagantly on high-profile free agents. This apparent frugality contradicted his substantial net worth, estimated at $2.1 billion in 2017.
In 1996, Angelos’s law firm filed a lawsuit on behalf of Maryland against tobacco giant Philip Morris, resulting in a groundbreaking $4.5 billion settlement. Moreover, the Law Offices of Peter Angelos earned substantial sums from settling asbestos cases, including a notable class-action suit representing steel, shipyard, and manufacturing workers.
Angelos also left his mark on baseball. In 1995, during a union strike that began in the 1994 season, he made headlines by being the only owner out of 28 who refused to adopt a plan to use replacement players.
“We have a duty to offer Major League Baseball to our fans, and that cannot be accomplished with replacement players,” he insisted.
This stance was particularly significant as Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. was nearing the breaking of Lou Gehrig’s record of 2,130 consecutive games played, with just 122 games to go. The potential disruption to Ripken’s historic streak was avoided when the owners and players reached an agreement before the season began. As a result, Ripken went on to extend his record run to an astonishing 2,632 games.