Larry Lucchino, a top executive for three Major League Baseball teams who helped launch the trend of cozy
downtown ballparks with the construction of Baltimore’s Oriole Park at Camden Yards and later was instrumental in
rebuilding the Boston Red Sox, which won three World Series championships under his leadership, died on April 2
at the age of 78.
The Red Sox and Major League Baseball issued a statement from his family announcing his passing. The reason and
location of his death were not revealed. He had been treated for at least three types of cancer, including kidney
cancer in 2019.
Mr. Lucchino (pronounced loo-KEE-no) was a Yale-educated lawyer who worked as an investigator for the House
Judiciary Committee in the Watergate investigation. Over four decades as an executive with the Orioles, San Diego
Padres, and Red Sox, he had a profound impact on how sports organizations function and interact with their
communities. He participated on committees overseeing baseball’s financial structure, league realignment, television
contracts, and foreign expansion.
“Larry Lucchino was one of the most accomplished executives that our industry has ever had,” baseball
commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.
Mr. Lucchino became a sports executive after working at Williams & Connolly, the Washington legal firm run by
Edward Bennett Williams, a part-owner and president of Washington’s National Football League franchise.
When Williams purchased the Baltimore Orioles in 1979, he named Mr. Lucchino as vice president and general
counsel. He previously held comparable positions with Washington’s NFL club, which was renamed the
Commanders in 2022.
Following Williams’ death in 1988, Mr. Lucchino purchased a modest part in the Orioles and, as president, oversaw
the team’s attempts to build a new stadium in downtown Baltimore. Drawing on memories of Forbes Field in
Pittsburgh, where he grew up, Mr. Lucchino collaborated with architects to design a compact ballpark that would
integrate into the city’s character. He insisted on using the term “ballpark” and threatened to punish any Orioles
employee who used the word “stadium.”
