Twins owner Pohlad dead

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Carl Pohlad, a billionaire banker whose Minnesota Twins won two World Series titles during nearly his nearly quarter-century as owner, died Monday. He was 93.

The Twins and Major League Baseball issued statements confirming his death. Pohlad was a “true leader in our sport for the past 25 years,” commissioner Bud Selig said.

“Since the day Carl Pohlad entered Major League Baseball, he made significant contributions to our game,” Selig said. “His devotion to the Minnesota Twins, the Twin Cities and Major League Baseball was remarkable. In my long career, I have never met a more loyal and caring human being. We will miss Carl, and all of baseball joins me in sending our deepest condolences to the Pohlad family for the loss of our friend and partner.”

According to 2008 rankings by Forbes.com, Pohlad’s net worth of $3.6 billion is second among Minnesotans and 102nd in the nation.

When Pohlad bought the Twins from Calvin Griffith in 1984, he was widely credited for saving baseball in Minnesota. With the purchase, he inherited a promising group of young players including Gary Gaetti, Kent Hrbek and future Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett.

Minnesota won World Series championships in 1987 and 1991, triumphing in tense seven-game showdowns against the St. Louis Cardinals and the Atlanta Braves.

“I live and die by every pitch,” Pohlad once told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Funeral arrangements were pending as of Monday evening. Pohlad died at his home in Edina, a suburb of Minneapolis, with many family members and caregivers there with him in recent days.

Born poor in Iowa, Pohlad spent many years far from the celebrity culture of professional sports, building a fortune in banking, real estate and other ventures in the Upper Midwest.

Following World War II, he and his brother-in-law, Russell Stotesbury, assumed control of a small bank holding company in Minneapolis and slowly built his small empire from there.

A football player at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., who served in the Army during World War II, Pohlad remained active into his 80s before a variety of back, hip and leg ailments made it hard to get around and ultimately impossible to walk.

Even after turning 90, though, he continued to make regular trips to the Metrodome to watch his team play — often wearing his lucky red socks and stopping by manager Ron Gardenhire’s office before the game. Jim Pohlad eased into the lead role over the past few seasons.

Though the public largely perceived him as a hard-driving miser, Pohlad and his wife, Eloise, who died in 2003, together donated millions of dollars to charitable causes. They founded the Twins Community Fund, which gave $3.3 million to area charities in 2005.

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