Larry Lucchino

Red Sox Hall of Famer Larry Lucchino served as President/CEO during an historic 14-year period 2002 through 2015, in which the club won three World Series, saved and enhanced Fenway Park, established the Major League Baseball record for consecutive sellouts, and created the Red Sox Foundation, a philanthropic powerhouse. Now also Chairman/Principal Owner of the Pawtucket Red Sox, Lucchino and the late Jim Skeffington assembled a group that in 2015 purchased Boston's longtime Triple-A affiliate. Seeking to secure the club's future in New England, Lucchino made a commitment on August 17, 2018, to keep the team in this region for more than 30 more years by negotiating an agreement with the City of Worcester and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that will create an innovative downtown ballpark in the resurgent Canal District of the second-largest city in New England. The ballpark, to be called "Polar Park," is being designed in 2019 and is projected to open in April, 2021. The park is the fifth he has been responsible for designing and/or renovating, following Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Petco Park in San Diego, Fenway Park in Boston, and JetBlue Park in Lee County, Florida. Lucchino is also Chairman of the Jimmy Fund, the philanthropic arm of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, which helped to save his life from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. After serving as the President of the Baltimore Orioles (1988-93) and the President and CEO of the San Diego Padres (1995-01), Lucchino was instrumental in bringing together Principal Owner John W. Henry, Chairman Tom Werner, and their partners, who purchased the Red Sox, Fenway Park, and 80 percent of NESN in December, 2001. After revolutionizing ballpark ambiance and architecture by creating Oriole Park at Camden Yards, which fulfilled his pioneering vision of a traditional, intimate, old-fashioned downtown ballpark with modern amenities, Lucchino then spearheaded the political and design efforts that created Petco Park in San Diego. More than a ballpark, Petco fulfilled its promise as a catalyst for redevelopment in downtown San Diego. With the experience of Camden Yards and Petco Park, he was instrumental in conceiving and executing ten years of major improvements to Fenway Park that preserved, protected, and enhanced "America's Most Beloved Ballpark." Once again, a ballpark revitalized a now-vibrant neighborhood. Lucchino has served on several MLB committees, including the Commissioner's historic Blue Ribbon Task Force on Baseball Economics, which successfully re-engineered the sport's economic structure, and the International Committee, of which he was one of its most active members. Born in Pittsburgh, Lucchino was an All-City League basketball player and second baseman on the Pittsburgh city championship baseball team. He graduated with honors from Princeton University and then graduated from Yale Law School. In 1974, he joined Williams and Connolly, the law firm founded by his mentor, friend, legendary sportsman, and trial attorney Edward Bennett Williams. He became a partner in 1978 and specialized in sports law and litigation. He was general counsel to the Washington Redskins, of which Williams was president and part owner, and was a member of their Board of Directors from 1979 to 1985. When EBW bought the Orioles on August 2, 1979, Lucchino entered baseball and became the club's vice president/general counsel. EBW named him president in May 1988, to rebuild the club's baseball and business operations. Lucchino was President (and co-owner) of the Orioles from 1989 until the club was sold at the end of the 1993 season. In December, 1994, he partnered with John Moores to purchase the San Diego Padres, for whom he served as President/CEO through 2001.