Sam Breadon

Samuel Wilson Breadon (; BRAY-din) (July 26, 1876 – May 8, 1949) was an American executive who served as the president and principal owner of the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1920 through 1947. During that time, the Cardinals rose from languishing as one of the National League's doormats to a premier power in baseball, winning nine NL pennants and six World Series championships. Breadon's teams also established the highest regular season winning percentage of any owner in franchise history at .570. His teams totaled 2,470 wins and 1,830 losses. Successful Pierce-Arrow dealer Of Scottish and Irish descent, Breadon was born in New York City and raised in a working-class family in Greenwich Village. He moved to St. Louis at the turn of the 20th century and entered the automobile industry by opening a repair garage. Transitioning into sales, he purchased the Western Automobile Company, prospered as the owner of Pierce-Arrow dealerships, and became a self-made millionaire. In 1917, he also became a minority investor – for $2,000 – in the Cardinals, then a struggling, second-division team chronically strapped for resources. But the club's enterprising young president, Branch Rickey, discovered that the team could compete successfully against richer opponents by developing its playing talent on an assembly line of minor league teams, from Class D to Class AA (then the highest-ranking minor league level), that it owned and controlled. This was the creation of the farm system, perfected by the Cardinals and — when the Redbirds came to dominate the National League — copied by the 15 other MLB teams. President/owner of the Cardinals Rickey also served as manager of the Cardinals beginning in 1919; Breadon succeeded him as club president in 1920. Later that year, he bought enough stock to become the largest shareholder. Though it took him until 1922 to acquire controlling interest, from 1920 onward he was the head of the franchise. In , on May 31, 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.