Gum tycoon and Philly native William Wrigley Jr. bought a Pa. team on this week in Philly history
The Germantown native bought into the AA Reading Baseball Club on May 17, 1927, hoping his Pennsylvania roots could help him develop a winning recipe for the Cubs.
Philly’s fingerprints are all over the Chicago Cubs.
William Wrigley Jr., namesake of the iconic, ivy-covered ballpark, was born and raised in Germantown.
Joe McCarthy, who was from the same neighborhood, managed the Cubbies to their lone National League pennant under Wrigley’s ownership.
Then it was the Philadelphia A’s that beat the pinstripes out of the Cubs in the 1929 World Series, and crushed Wrigley’s championship dreams.
And a few years before that, Wrigley bought controlling interest in an independent minor league club in Reading, hoping his Pennsylvania roots could help him develop a recipe for his Cubs to win.
The vision
The minors were causing a major problem.
Deep-pocketed clubs in the early 1900s would bid against each other for top talent sprouting on the minor league circuit.
By the end of the 1910s, cash-strapped clubs that couldn’t afford superstar-loaded rosters decided to cut out the middleman and buy into those minor league teams. Moving forward, they would grow their own superstars — their very own farm system.
And Wrigley quickly grasped the vision.
The Keystones
Fueled by a flood-the-zone marketing philosophy, Wrigley built an empire on chewing gum. Juicy Fruit, Spearmint, and Doublemint transformed an industrious Philly soap salesman into a captain of American industry.
Wrigley bought into the Cubs during World War I, and took full control by the roaring twenties. In his zeal to rebuild the Cubbies, the businessman saw potential in the feeder-system blueprint.
He started in 1920 with a team from Wichita Falls, which moved up from level B to A-ball during the three years he owned the team. His second was the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League, for which he famously built the original Wrigley Field. The Angels would remain attached to the Cubs until 1956.
His third was the Reading Baseball Club, a AA team that he bought into on May 17, 1927. He paid more than $50,000 (or about $940,000 today) for 55% and controlling interest in the International League team nicknamed the Keystones.
While the team only had one winning year in the three full seasons under Wrigley’s tenure, the Cubs netted a few gems, including shortstop Billy Jurges and starting pitcher Lon Warneke.
And despite his dedication and investment, Wrigley’s championship dreams were ultimately left unfulfilled. He died at age 70 in 1932.
In 2016, 84 years after Wrigley’s death, the Cubs finally captured the World Series — closing out Game 7 on the field that still carries Wrigley’s Philly-made name.
