[Syd Thrift]

Has von der Ahe ever been seriously considered? He turned the area around Sportsman’s Park into an amusement park, which was definitely controversial at the time, but he lost his fortune and had to sell the team within a couple years of buying them. IIRC from his entry in the Baseball Hall of Shame series, he died broke. One should mention, too, that the Brown Stockings team he owned were the future Cardinals, not the team that relocated to Baltimore in the 1950s. Also, it was I believe his brother who founded the Von’s supermarket chain that is still owned by the von der Ahe family today.

For controversial figures around sports, let’s not forget:

Walter O’Malley
Clay Bennett, the Walter O’Malley of basketball
Jerry Krause, especially after this ESPN series
Steve Bartman
Marvin Miller
Peter Ueberroth

For athletes we should add:
Bill Laimbeer (I mean, less “controversial” and more “universally hated”, but still)
Charles Barkley (I love the guy but remember all the heat he took when he said he was not a role model?)
That ****ty white guy who is always on the Duke team and whose sole purpose seems to be to commit cheap fouls and flop around a lot (it’s a different player every couple of years but the role remains the same)