Jeffrey Loria

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Jeffrey H. Loria is an art dealer and an owner of professional baseball teams.

A 1957 graduate of New York City's Stuyvesant High School, and 1962 graduate of Yale University, Loria spent many years as an art dealer, first for Sears and then for his own firm. He also authored two books: 1965's Collecting Original Art and 1969's What's It All About, Charlie Brown? (co-written with Pat K. Lynch).

His first baseball venture came in 1989, when he purchased the minor league Oklahoma City 89ers. During the 1990s he attempted to purchase several Major League teams, notably the Baltimore Orioles. He finally succeeded by purchasing 24% of the Montreal Expos in 1999 for 12 million dollars and became their Managing Partner. This would set the total value of the Expos at 50 million dollars in 1999. Loria orchestrated a series of controversial cash calls that diluted the share of the other owners and increased his own to 94%. Loria was instrumental in the firing of manager Felipe Alou, but chose to be unavailable during the news conference.

Then, in an orchestrated move with Bud Selig and John W. Henry (owner of the Florida Marlins at the time), Henry bid for the Boston Red Sox, sold the Florida Marlins to Loria for 158.5 million dollars, (including a 38.5 million dollar no interest loan from MLB), who promptly sold the Expos to MLB for 120 million dollars. Loria's first move as owner of the Marlins was to fire 60 employees. This transaction prompted a RICO lawsuit by minority shareholders of the Expos. The suit accused Loria and his staff of conduct "that effectively destroyed the economic viability of baseball in Montreal (that) included removing the Expos from local television, subverting well-developed plans for a new baseball stadium in downtown Montreal, purposefully alienating Expos' sponsors and investors, abandoning agreed-upon financial plans for the franchise, and undermining a planned recapitalization of the franchise that would have added new Canadian partners." The case eventually went to arbitration and was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

The Expos were ultimately transferred to Washington and became the Washington Nationals. Marlins team president David Samson, Loria's step son, mentioned during the 2005 offseason that the Marlins were exploring attempts to relocate.

In 2006, Loria was a central figure in the firing of the Florida Marlins Manager Joe Girardi. He originally fired Girardi after Girardi asked him to stop alienating the umpires from his front row seat next to the Marlins' dugout, but was talked out of doing so until the end of the season. As with the Felipe Alou firing four years before, he chose to be unavailable during the news conference or the actual firing. Girardi, despite the loss of his job won the 2006 National League Manager of the Year.