Charles Somers

Charles W. Somers (October 13, 1868 – June 29, 1934) was an American executive in the coal industry in Cleveland, Ohio, who also achieved prominence in professional baseball.

In the early years of the American League, Somers owned the teams now known as the Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Guardians.

Somers was also the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox, a team which had no official nickname until 1908, but was initially sometimes called the "Somersets" in his honor.

[3] Somers' money helped keep some American League teams afloat in their first years, including the St. Louis Browns, Charles Comiskey's Chicago White Sox and Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics.

This, combined with poor attendance at League Park, along with other investments that did not work out, put Somers in a precarious financial position.

He went broke with debts exceeding assets of $1.75 million, and at the insistence of his bank creditors, sold the Indians for $500,000 to a syndicate headed by Jim Dunn.