John W. Claiborne III (born 1939) is a former front-office executive in American Major League Baseball who also was an early president of the New England Sports Network (NESN), a regional cable television network primarily (80 percent) owned by the Boston Red Sox that telecasts Red Sox baseball and Boston Bruins National Hockey League games.
After starting out in New York's farm system, he was the Cards' administrative assistant for minor leagues and scouting in 1970–72, and the general manager and chief operating officer of the Redbirds in 1978–80.
Finley served as his own general manager and had a phenomenal degree of success at the major league level with a roster that he had signed and groomed through the player development system.
But by the mid-1970s, the talent pipeline began to dry up as Finley economised through slashing the number of scouts and minor league affiliates working on Oakland's behalf.
Claiborne eventually returned to Boston to serve as president of the fledgling NESN, which has grown to become a powerful regional sports network.