[3] As owner and team president of the Indians in 1947, Veeck signed Larry Doby, thus beginning the integration of the American League, and the following year won a World Series title.

Unable to compete in the new era of salary escalation ignited by arbitration and free agency, Veeck sold his ownership interest in the White Sox after the 1980 season.

Veeck Sr. was a local sports writer who wrote numerous columns about how he would run the Cubs differently, and the team's owner, William Wrigley Jr., took him up on the implied offer.

While growing up, the younger Veeck worked as a popcorn vendor for the Cubs and also as a part-time concession salesman for the crosstown Chicago White Sox.

[5] In 1940, Veeck left Chicago and, in a syndicate with former Cubs star and manager Charlie Grimm, purchased the then-struggling Triple-A Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association.

Saperstein saved Veeck from financial disaster early on in Milwaukee by giving him the right to promote the Globetrotters in the upper Midwest in the winter of 1941–42.

In the fall of 1942, Veeck met with Gerry Nugent, president of the Philadelphia Phillies, to discuss the possibility of buying the struggling National League team.

We still lack any solid evidence that confirms that Veeck had not only conceptualized this action, but made a firm offer to buy the Phillies and met a rebuff by Landis and (then-National League president Ford) Frick.

"[10] In 1946, having sold his interest in the Class AAA Milwaukee Brewers, Veeck became the owner of a major league team, the Cleveland Indians.

[13] The following year Veeck signed Satchel Paige to a contract, making him the oldest rookie ever in Major League Baseball history.

[14][15] To take advantage of the large size of Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Veeck had a portable center field fence installed in 1947, which he could move in or out depending on how the distance favored the Indians against their opponents in a given series.

[22] Shortly afterwards "Grandstand Manager's Day" – involving Veeck, Connie Mack, and thousands of regular fans, enabled the crowd to vote on various in-game strategic decisions (i.e., steal, bunt, change pitchers) by holding up placards: the Browns won, 5–3, snapping a four-game losing streak.

The Braves wanted another team with the same talent if the Brewers were shut down, and an agreement was not made in time for the start of the 1953 season.

Realizing the other owners simply wanted him out of the picture (indeed, he was facing threats of having his franchise canceled), Veeck agreed to sell his entire stake to Miles' group, who then moved the Browns to Baltimore, where they were renamed as the Orioles, which has been their name ever since.

[29] Taking advantage of inter-familial friction within the Comiskey family, in 1959, Veeck became head of a group that purchased a controlling interest in the Chicago White Sox.

The next year the team broke the same record with 1.6 million visitors to Comiskey Park with the addition of the first "exploding scoreboard" in the major leagues – producing electrical and sound effects, and shooting fireworks whenever the White Sox hit a home run.

One year later in 1960, Veeck and former Detroit Tigers great Hank Greenberg, his partner with the Indians and White Sox, reportedly made a strong bid for the American League expansion franchise in Los Angeles.

When his health improved, Veeck made an unsuccessful attempt to buy the Washington Senators, then operated the Suffolk Downs race track in Boston in 1969–70.

Veeck was not heard from again in baseball ownership circles until 1975, when he repurchased the White Sox from John Allyn (sole owner since 1969).

He and general manager Roland Hemond conducted four trades in a hotel lobby, in full view of the public; other owners considered this undignified.

Two weeks later, however, arbitrator Peter Seitz's ruling struck down the reserve clause and ushered in the era of free agency, leading to dramatic increases in player salaries.

[3] Veeck had proposed a gradual transition to a free-agent system in which players would gain free agency rights after a certain amount of service time.

On the field, Veeck presented a Bicentennial-themed "Spirit of '76" parade on Opening Day in 1976, casting himself as the peg-legged fifer bringing up the rear.

[37] He also unveiled radically altered uniforms for the players, including clamdigger pants and even shorts, which the Sox wore for the first time against the Kansas City Royals on August 8, 1976.

In an attempt to adapt to free agency, he developed a "rent-a-player" model, centering on the acquisition of other clubs' stars in their option years.

The gambit was moderately successful: in 1977 the White Sox won 90 games and finished in third place with additions such as Oscar Gamble and Richie Zisk.

[38] During this last run, Veeck decided to have announcer Harry Caray sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh inning stretch.

On July 12, Veeck, with assistance from son Mike and radio personality Steve Dahl, held one of his most infamous promotions, Disco Demolition Night, between games of a scheduled doubleheader, which resulted in a riot at Comiskey Park and a forfeit to the visiting Detroit Tigers.

[40] Finding himself no longer able to financially compete in the free agent era, Veeck sold the White Sox in January 1981, albeit not without controversy, as his first choice in Edward J. DeBartolo Sr. (owner of the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins and the NFL's San Francisco 49ers) was rejected by a league vote (eight votes in favor with ten required to pass).

[41] When Einhorn stated his desire to make the White Sox a "high-class operation", Veeck publicly transferred his allegiance back to the Chicago Cubs, the team his father had operated in his youth (at any rate, when the White Sox won the 2005 World Series, the Veeck family received championship rings from the organization).