Larry Lucchino

Lawrence Lucchino (September 6, 1945 – April 2, 2024) was an American lawyer and Major League Baseball executive. He served as president of the Baltimore Orioles, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the San Diego Padres, and president and CEO of the Boston Red Sox. He was also chairman of the Worcester Red Sox, the Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox; chairman of The Jimmy Fund, the philanthropic arm of the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute; and president and CEO emeritus of Fenway Sports Group, the parent company of the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool F.C. Lucchino played college basketball for the Princeton Tigers.

Lawrence Lucchino was born on September 6, 1945, in Pittsburgh. He graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School, and attended Princeton University, where he played college basketball. He was a member of the Princeton Tigers men's basketball team for the 1964–65, 1965–66, and 1966–67 seasons. The 1964–65 Tigers, captained by Bill Bradley, advanced to the Final Four of the 1965 NCAA University Division basketball tournament.

Lucchino graduated from Princeton in 1967. He earned a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School, where he was a classmate of Hillary Clinton.

After law school, Lucchino practiced law with the Washington, D. C., law firm of Williams & Connolly. The founder, famed litigator Edward Bennett Williams, had ownership interest in both the Washington Redskins and the Baltimore Orioles. Lucchino's law practice at Williams & Connolly included a substantial amount of work for those two sports teams. Through that work, Lucchino served on the Redskins' board of directors from 1979 to 1985.

Lucchino became president of the Baltimore Orioles, serving from 1988 to 1993, and president and CEO of the San Diego Padres, serving from 1995 to 2001. Lucchino subsequently joined the Boston Red Sox as president and CEO when John W. Henry purchased the team in December 2001. Lucchino was known for having initiated the trend of building baseball-only facilities with an old-fashioned charm and smaller seating capacities. Under his watch, both the Orioles and Padres built new stadiums, pioneering Oriole Park at Camden Yards and Petco Park, respectively.

He helped build Padres teams that made the playoffs in 1996 and 1998. They advanced to the 1998 World Series, which was instrumental in winning a city-wide vote in November 1998 to authorize the construction of Petco Park. Lucchino was named to the Padres Hall of Fame in 2022.

Lucchino brought future general manager Theo Epstein with him to the Red Sox from the Orioles and the Padres, having also encouraged Epstein to attend law school while he was working at the Padres.

Following the 2002 season, Pedro Martinez called Lucchino asking him to sign David Ortiz, who had been released by the Twins. Lucchino "always enjoyed a strong connection with Big Papi throughout his entire career". Lucchino hired Janet Marie Smith to initiate a nearly $300 million renovation project of Fenway Park over the next ten years, including the Green Monster seats.