Buddy LeRoux; was part owner of Sox, real estate baron; at 77
Buddy LeRoux, who rose from team trainer to part owner of the Boston Red Sox in the 1970s and 1980s, died of natural causes Monday night. He was 77.
Often a controversial figure in Boston sports - both with the Red Sox and later with his ownership of Suffolk Downs - Mr. LeRoux started as a trainer in the mid-1950s with a minor league affiliate of the Boston Bruins after serving in the US Marine Corps.
Even by then, Mr. LeRoux had begun to build a real estate empire in New England. By 1977, he reportedly had tens of millions of dollars in assets and, with partner Haywood Sullivan, led a group that sought control of the Red Sox, after owner Tom Yawkey died. When some questions arose about the group's financing, Yawkey's widow, Jean, joined the consortium and a sale was approved by Major League Baseball.
Mr. LeRoux served as vice president of the team in 1978 and 1979, responsible mainly for the business side of the operations, with Sullivan in charge of the team.
A decade earlier, Mr. LeRoux had more of a hands-on role with the club. As trainer from 1966 to 1974, he tended over some of the rising stars of a resurgent franchise. It was Mr. LeRoux who huddled over a fallen Tony Conigliaro when the hometown slugger was struck in the eye with a pitch on Aug. 18, 1967, the darkest night of the Impossible Dream season.
During his tenure as trainer, he developed a bond with the Yawkeys.
"I think it shows what a really bright guy he was, to be able to not only take care of professional athletes with regard to being a trainer, but he also had thoughts about providing for his family and sustaining the interests that he had outside the world of baseball," said Jim Lonborg, a pitcher whose time with the Red Sox overlapped with Mr. LeRoux's years as a trainer.
"The fact that he was astute enough to recognize what it would take to own the Boston Red Sox, to deal with the politics of owning the Red Sox, to surround himself with people who understood the business and would be able to provide the economic resources to buy the ball club, it takes a very bright and engaging person to be able to accomplish all that."
Mr. LeRoux sought to expand revenues for the team, building luxury boxes on the roof of the grandstand and shifting emphasis from game day ticket sales to advance purchases, trends that continue today.
The ownership group, however, became rife with divisions over the direction of the team and who would control what. And with the free agency era beginning, the team decided not to spend the money to retain some of the Sox's most prized players. Stars Rick Burleson, Fred Lynn, and Carlton Fisk were either traded or allowed to seek another team.
One of the most notorious moments involving Mr. LeRoux occurred on June 6, 1983. With the media assembled at Fenway Park for a night honoring Conigliaro - who was still in a coma after a stroke the previous year - Mr. LeRoux announced that enough of the team's partners had voted in his favor to give him control of the team over Sullivan and Yawkey. He staged "Le Coup LeRoux" just before the celebration, reducing Conigliaro to nearly an afterthought.
The outcry among many of the Fenway Faithful was immediate and harsh. Mr. LeRoux was taken to court by Yawkey and Sullivan and eventually lost the battle for control of the team. His piece of the Red Sox was bought by Yawkey in 1987.
Mr. LeRoux had bought Suffolk Downs in 1986. His tenure there was also marked by controversy, with the track closing in 1989.
A native of Woburn, Edward G. LeRoux started his entrepreneurial streak early. He said he made his first successful real estate sale when he was 9, buying a lot in Woburn for $25 he earned from working as a farmhand.
Yet, when he attended Northeastern University, he studied physical therapy instead of business. After working for the Bruins, he was hired by Red Auerbach and became the first trainer to travel with the team on the road.
Still, former teammates said that when the bus emptied, Mr. LeRoux would often rush to the phone to make business deals.
"He can look at land and see a value in it that I certainly can't see," former Celtic Frank Ramsey once said. "He's thorough, he's knowledgeable, and he's a workaholic."
By the late 1980s, Mr. LeRoux had filed assets of about $100 million including oil wells, greyhound racing dogs, and antique cars.
"You name it, I've probably owned it," Mr. LeRoux once told a reporter. "I've owned garbage trucks, gas stations, restaurants, Dunkin' Donuts franchises . . . but it's property I like best."
His real estate holdings spread along the entire East Coast, from a restaurant in Maine to housing for the elderly in Woburn, to an inn in Atlantic City, to holdings in Florida. Much of his investment was centered on Winter Haven, Fla., and Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire.
"I loved making deals," he said.
A downturn in the real estate market took a toll on his holdings and he had to significantly sell off properties in the early 1990s.
Mr. LeRoux also opened the New England Rehabilitation Hospital in Woburn, one of the first facilities that focused on treatment of sports-related injuries.
"It was very innovative at the time," Dr. Arthur Pappas said in 1992, when he was team doctor of the Red Sox. "There was nothing like it at the time."
In addition, Mr. LeRoux founded Champions for Children at Boston's Children's Hospital.
"He is the eternal optimist and is always very convincing," said Pappas, who also was a partner in some business deals with Mr. LeRoux. "He believes that the sun is always going to shine and shine on him."
Mr. LeRoux leaves his wife of almost 50 years, Adelaide of Tuftonboro, N.H.; his children, Lisa (Tranchita) of Tuftonboro, Denise (McCall) of Weston, Fla., and Scott of Tuftonboro; two sisters Judy McGue of Medfield and Dianne West of Nashua, N.H.; a brother, Roger of Tuftonboro; six grandchildren; and a great-grandson.
Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at the All Saints Church in Wolfeboro, N.H.
