Jacob Ruppert
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Jacob Ruppert (August 5, 1867-January 13, 1939), sometimes referred to as Jake Ruppert, was a National Guard colonel and brewery owner who went on to own the New York Yankees.
Ruppert's 24 years as a Yankee owner saw him build the team from near-moribund to a baseball powerhouse. His own strength as a baseball executive -- including his willingness to wheel and deal -- was aided by the business skills of GM Ed Barrow and the forceful field managing of Miller Huggins and Joe McCarthy. By the time of his death, the team was well on its way to becoming the most successful in the history of Major League Baseball, and eventually in North American professional sports.
Ruppert inherited the brewing company from his father, Jacob Ruppert, Sr. (1842-1915) and in 1915, upon his father's death and just before Prohibition, he became the company's president. Before that, he had been elected to Congress in 1898. He served in Congress four sequential terms.
Ruppert served in the National Guard as colonel only for a short period of time. Despite this, people commonly called him Colonel Ruppert instead of Congressman Ruppert, which may have been a more appropriate title for people to call him.
Ruppert and Captain (later Colonel) Tillinghast L’Hommedieu Huston acquired the Yankees in 1914 from the team's first owners, Frank Farrell and Bill Devery. Their first masterstroke as a manager was obtaining pitcher Carl Mays from the Boston Red Sox in 1918, followed by the purchase of Babe Ruth in late 1919 (announced early the following year).
The Yankees then dominated baseball throughout a good portion of the 1920s and 1930s, including the Murderers' Row team of 1927. During 1923, the year the colonels unveiled Yankee Stadium, Huston sold his share of the Yankees but remained a director of the club as vice president and treasurer. The faces of both colonels grace the cover of the 1923 Opening Day program, now a lucrative collectors' item.
A possibly apocryphal story holds that Ruppert is responsible for the Yankees' famous pinstriped uniforms; according to this account, Ruppert chose pinstripes in order to make the often-portly Ruth appear less obese. The truth is that the Yankees adopted pinstripes before Ruth came over for the 1920 season.
Ruppert and Ruth were famous for their public disagreements about Ruth's contracts. Nevertheless, they were personal friends. According to Ruth, Ruppert called him Babe only once, and that was the night before he died. Ruth was one of the last persons to see Ruppert alive.
On April 16, 1940, the Yankees dedicated a plaque in Ruppert's memory, to hang on the center field wall of Yankee Stadium, near the flagpole and the monument that had been dedicated to former manager Miller Huggins. The plaque called Ruppert "Gentleman, American, sportsman, through whose vision and courage this imposing edifice, destined to become the home of champions, was erected and dedicated to the American game of baseball." The plaque now rests in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium.
