Jim Dunn (baseball owner)
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James Christopher "Jim" Dunn (1865 – June 9, 1922), aka "Sunny Jim" Dunn, was a businessman and baseball team owner.
Biography
Dunn was born in Marshalltown, Iowa and became wealthy through his partnership in a railroad construction firm. In 1916 he was recruited by American League president Ban Johnson and his secretary, Bob McRoy, to head up a syndicate to buy the Cleveland Indians baseball team from Charles Somers for $500,000.[1] During his tenure the team's ballpark League Park was renamed "Dunn Field" and in 1920 the Indians won their first World Series. At his death at Chicago in 1922 at age 57,[2] control of the team passed to his surviving spouse, Edith Dunn, and his estate, thus making Mrs. Dunn one of the first women to own a major league baseball team.[3] In 1927 ownership of the Indians changed hands when Dunn’s widow Edith, by then known as Mrs. George Pross, sold the franchise for $1 million to a group headed by Alva Bradley.[4]
References
- ↑ Franklin Lewis (2006). The Cleveland Indians. The Kent State University Press, Kent OH, reprint originally G.P.Putnam & Sons, NY NY 1949. p. 76–79. ISBN 978-0-87338-885-6.
- ↑ "Owner of Indians Dead", Lowell Sun, Friday, June 09, 1922, Lowell, Massachusetts, United States Of America
- ↑ Lewis, op cit, p. 140
- ↑ Lewis, op cit, pp. 153-156