Grudge match: PGE Park battle reveals new layers of families’ feud

By Andy Giegerich

The Portland Tribune, Dec 19, 2003, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Two legendary baseball team executives may have sown the seeds some 60 years ago for this week’s battle over who will own the Portland Beavers and operate PGE Park.

Mike Veeck said this week that Branch Rickey III, president of the Pacific Coast League and grandson of pioneering Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branch Rickey, effectively killed Veeck’s ownership and operational proposals to assume control of the Beavers.

Veeck, the son of legendary baseball team owner Bill Veeck, said a proposal he made last August would have settled the massive debts owed by the current team owner, Portland Family Entertainment.

The Rickey and Veeck families’ issues re-emerged this week when the city terminated a contract held by PFE Ñ which has ties to Veeck Ñ to operate PGE Park and own the minor league Beavers as well as the Portland Timbers soccer team.

In the 1940s and 1950s, the elder Rickey and Veeck carried on a spirited rivalry when Rickey ran the St. Louis Cardinals, Brooklyn Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates; Veeck owned the St. Louis Browns, Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox.

The animosity stemmed mostly from their contrasting styles.

Bill Veeck was a flamboyant, high-living promoter famous for attracting large crowds with stunts. Among them was staging a disastrous “Disco Demolition” night during a Chicago White Sox game in 1979 and sending 3-foot, 7-inch Eddie Gaedel to bat in a St. Louis Browns game in 1951.

Rickey, who introduced Jackie Robinson to big-league baseball as its first black player, was known as a buttoned-down businessman with an acumen for developing good teams. He is credited with inventing the minor league baseball system while he operated the Cardinals. His signing of Robinson was considered testament to his keen eye for scouting.

The two often battled from opposite ends of baseball’s establishment. In his 1962 memoir “Veeck as in Wreck,” Bill Veeck recounted a conversation in which he accused Rickey of consorting with “thieves.” Rickey later accused Veeck of untoward practices regarding ways that Veeck devised his teams’ rosters.

Today, the younger Veeck and Rickey have taken on some of the same characteristics.

Like his father, Mike Veeck Ñ whose company, the Goldklang Group, nearly became the Beavers’ owner-operator in early 2002 Ñ freely speaks his mind and has become known for his minor league baseball promotions. Branch Rickey III, on the other hand, generally works behind the scenes, and chooses his words and his battles carefully.

“It looks like Branch Rickey would rather go broke than let a Veeck run a Pacific Coast League team,” Mike Veeck said this week.

In response, Rickey said: “I had not known Mike to be involved in it. If he’s been involved with any offers, he’s been deeply disguised behind other people who’ve never mentioned his name before. I actually hold him in high regard for his promotional skills.”

Council will have a yes or no

City officials have confirmed that Branch Rickey III introduced them to Andrew Rayburn, who on Dec. 15 won tentative approval to assume PGE Park’s operations. The Pacific Coast League told the city it would squelch any potential new owners for the Beavers that were linked to PFE.

The city issued an order that terminates the PFE contract by Dec. 25. In so doing, it gave a contingent thumbs-up to Rayburn’s company, Big Game Capital LLC of Chagrin Falls, Ohio. The Portland City Council still must approve the deal, which includes ownership of the Timbers soccer team.

The termination angered Veeck and PFE President Mark Schuster, who made the August offer to modify the stadium operating agreement PFE holds with the city.

Veeck and Schuster said that while their bid would have repaid the $1.7 million PFE owes the park’s general creditors such as vendors, the Rayburn offer would not repay the general creditors.

“Our plan, which we feel is the best on the table, does not leave these creditors unpaid,” Schuster said.

John Acker, the city’s spectator facilities manager, said the city and Rayburn are negotiating whether Big Game Capital will repay the stadium’s back rent. PFE has not paid $1.7 million in rent since April.

If the deal wins approval, after the city completes a due diligence investigation into Rayburn and his proposal, Big Game Capital would pay $1 for PFE’s assets and settle PFE’s debt with TIAA-CREF, the New York-based teachers pension fund that PFE owes $26 million.

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