Marge Schott

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Margaret Unnewehr Schott (August 18, 1928 – March 2, 2004) was the controversial former managing general partner, president and CEO of the National League's Cincinnati Reds franchise from 1984 to 1999. She was the first woman to buy a baseball team rather than inheriting it. [1]

[edit] Early life and career

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio Schott was the daughter of a Cincinnati native who grew wealthy in the lumber business. She married Charles Schott, a member of a wealthy Cincinnati family, in 1952, and inherited his automobile dealerships and interests in other industries when he died of a heart attack in 1968.

[edit] Owner of the Reds

Schott had long been an ardent Reds fan; from 1963 onward, she held an auction to raise money for the Cincinnati Children's Hospital, attended by several Reds players. In 1981, Schott bought a minority interest in the Reds as part of a group headed by insurance magnates William and James Williams. On December 21, 1984, she purchased controlling interest for a reported $11m, making her managing general partner. In 1985, she was named president and CEO of the club.

Schott quickly became one of baseball's most publicly visible owners. The Reds had long been a family-oriented franchise, and fans praised her efforts to keep ticket and concession prices low. For instance, she kept the price of the basic hot dog at a dollar, and kept box seats at $12--one of the cheapest in baseball. Unlike most owners, she sat in a regular box seat at Riverfront Stadium, and often signed autographs. She also loved children, and always allowed any child in attendance before a home game to come down to the playing field and run to deep center field and back.

She was not afraid to spend the money it took to build a contender; during her tenure, the Reds were very active in late-season trades. Once they came to Cincinnati, however, she expected players to earn their paychecks. For instance, she would publicly comment on occasion about having to pay players while they were on the disabled list, notably Mark Portugal, of whom she once said, "I'm paying that guy 4 million dollars to sit on his butt!"

On the debit side, Schott didn't invest much in the team's farm system during the 1990s.

[edit] Wire-to-wire

The 1990 Reds won 91 games and never fell out of first place in the division and stormed through the playoffs (beating the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League Championship Series 4 games to 2). The "wire-to-wire" 1990 Reds' opponent in the World Series were the heavily favored American League champions, the Oakland Athletics. Despite that team featuring a plethora of stars such as Hall of Fame closer Dennis Eckersley, 1990 American League Cy Young Award winner Bob Welch, future Hall of Fame outfielder Rickey Henderson, and sluggers Mark McGwire and José Canseco (nicknamed "The Bash Brothers"), the Reds swept the series for their fifth (and to date, last) World Series championship.

See also: 1990 Cincinnati Reds season, 1990 Oakland Athletics season, 1990 National League Championship Series, and 1990 World Series

[edit] Controversy

[edit] 1992

On November 13, 1992, Charles "Cal" Levy, a former marketing director for the Reds, stated in a deposition for Tim Sabo, a former employee who was suing the team that he'd heard Schott refer to then-Reds outfielders Eric Davis and Dave Parker as "million-dollar niggers." ^[1] Sabo, whose position was "team controller," alleged that his 1991 firing was due to testifying against her in another lawsuit brought against Schott by several limited partners and because he opposed the unwritten policy of not hiring blacks. Schott's countersuit alleged that Sabo wrote unauthorized checks to himself and paid health insurance premiums to retired front-office employees. She also asked for $25,000 in damages for defamation. Tim Sabo ultimately lost his suit.

Levy, a Jew, also alleged that Schott kept an old Nazi swastika armband at her home and claims he overheard her say "sneaky goddamn Jews are all alike."^[2] The next day, Schott issued a statement saying the claims of racism levied against her were overstated and that she didn't mean to offend anyone with her statement or her ownership of the armband. On November 29, Schott said the "million dollar niggers" comment was made in jest, but then stated that she felt that Adolf Hitler was initially good for Germany and didn't understand how the epithet "Jap" could be offensive.

During the same season, a former Oakland Athletics executive assistant, Sharon Jones, is quoted in the New York Times as having overheard Schott state: "I would never hire another nigger. I'd rather have a trained monkey working for me than a nigger," before the start of an owners' conference call.^[3]

[edit] 1993

A four-man committee was convened to investigate Schott. On February 3, 1993, she was fined $25,000 and banned from day-to-day operations of the Reds for the 1993 season. John Allen took over as managing partner. Schott returned to work on November 1.

[edit] 1994

On May 18, 1994, Schott was again caught up in controversy when she commented that she didn't want her players to wear earrings because "only fruits wear earrings." Up to 1999, the Reds had a long-standing rule prohibiting players from not only wearing earrings, but also having facial hair. The rule was rescinded after a discussion between Schott and newly-acquired outfielder Greg Vaughn.

[edit] 1995

In 1995, Schott famously announced in the middle of the season that manager Davey Johnson would not return, regardless of how well the Reds did. By all accounts, this was because of a personality clash between Johnson and Schott. Most notably, Schott didn't approve of Johnson living with his fiancée before they were married later in the year.^[4] The Reds won the division (before losing the National League Championship Series to the Atlanta Braves, 4 games to 0), and Johnson was fired anyway.

[edit] Other incidents

Schott was also the target of frequent criticism for allegedly allowing her infamous St. Bernard, Schottzie, near complete free rein of Riverfront Stadium. This also apparently was not limited to the dog defecating on the field.

Schott was also known for not wanting to hire scouts ("All they ever do is watch baseball games.") and wanting not to post scores of other games on the Riverfront Stadium scoreboard ("Why do they [the fans] care about one game when they're watching another?")Schott's refusal to post other teams' scores stemmed from a $200 monthly cost of doing so. {{cite book

[[Rick Reilly|Reilly, Rick]] (2000). The Life of Reilly. Kingston: Total Sports Publishing, 219. ISBN 1-892129-88-4. 

It is reported that on an airplane, Marge Schott was approached by a woman who introduced herself as Edd Roush's granddaughter. Schott then replied, "That's nice hon, what business is he in?" Roush is a Hall of Fame center fielder, who had many of his greatest years with the Reds, and is thought of as one of the greatest players to ever put on the Reds uniform.^[5]

[edit] The downfall

Schott's downfall began on April 1, 1996. The Reds, as linear descendants of Major League Baseball's oldest professional team, traditionally played the first game of the season at home. In 1996, they played the Montreal Expos. The weather was cold and blustery and it had snowed earlier in the day.

Shortly after the game started, home plate umpire John McSherry called a time out and motioned towards the Reds dugout, it was later presumed, for medical attention. After taking a few steps, McSherry collapsed and fell to the artificial turf face first. Attempts to resuscitate McSherry failed and he was pronounced dead at University Hospital about an hour later. The other umpires decided to postpone the game until the next day. Video showed Schott visibly upset that the game was to be postponed; reportedly she groused: "Snow this morning and now this. I don't believe it. I feel cheated. This isn't supposed to happen to us, not in Cincinnati. This is our history, our tradition, our team. Nobody feels worse than me."^[6]

Schott later insisted that she was standing up for the fans; critics saw her comments as insensitive. Schott reportedly offended major league umpires in general — and members of McSherry's crew specifically — by regifting a bouquet of flowers given to her by a local television station on the morning of the game. Schott scribbled a sympathy note and sent the gift bouquet to the funeral home.

During the team's next homestand, Schott attempted to smooth over the feud with the umpires by sending flowers to the crew working this series. They were returned.

On May 5, 1996, Schott once again made statements favorable towards Adolf Hitler, whom she believed "was good in the beginning, but went too far." In response, Major League Baseball again banned Schott from day-to-day operations through 1998. Later in the month, Schott was quoted in Sports Illustrated as speaking in a "cartoonish Japanese accent" while describing her meeting with the prime minister of Japan. She also said that she didn't like Asian-American kids "outdoing our kids" in high school.

[edit] Schott sells controlling interest of the Reds

On April 20, 1999, Schott agreed to sell her controlling interest in the Reds for $67 million to a group led by Cincinnati businessman Carl Lindner. At the time she was facing a third suspension from Major League Baseball, failing health and an expiring ownership agreement with her limited partners, who planned to oust her. Schott remained as a minority partner.

[edit] Death

In 2001, Schott, a long-time smoker, began to develop health problems. She was hospitalized twice for breathing problems and suffered from pneumonia in 2003. On February 9, 2004, Schott was hospitalized. Some reports claim she was hospitalized due to a cold while others said she complained of knee ailments. However, during her stay, she developed breathing problems and had to be put on life support. She died at age 75 in Cincinnati.

In addition to her interest in the Reds, Schott was also a major contributor to charitable organizations in Cincinnati, including Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the Cincinnati Zoo, as well as Saint Ursula Academy in East Walnut Hills. She is also recognized for her major donation to the local Dan Beard Council of the Boy Scouts of America that was used to create a lake at Camp Friedlander. The artificial lake was named Lake Marge Unnewehr Schott.

[edit] In popular culture

In the HBO TV series Arli$$, an episode entitled "The Changing of the Guard" revolved around a baseball team owner named Helga Krupp. Krupp was a thinly-veiled Marge Schott reference, from her old age and "battle axe" mannerisms to her free-roaming St. Bernard, racial insensitivities, and efforts to keep ballpark prices low. In the episode, agent Arliss Michaels is forced to spend some time in Krupp's home, and finds a compassionate person buried beneath the rough edges. At the end of the episode, Krupp passes away, and as a parody of Schott's devotion to her dog, Krupp bequeaths the ownership of the baseball team to her St. Bernard.

There is also a parody of Driving Miss Daisy in the Emmy winning show In Living Color called "Driving Miss Schott".

Howard Stern Show cast member, and noted voice actor, Billy West's impersonation of Schott, which highlighted her bigotted views and played upon her reputation as a cranky old woman, was a popular recurring bit on the show during the height of the Schott controversy

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Baseball Library - career events
• Marge Schott at the Internet Movie Database
• Marge Schott at Findagrave.com