President/CEO Emeritus
Red Sox Hall of Famer Larry Lucchino served as the club's President/CEO during an historic 14-year period, 2002 through 2015, in which the club won three World Series, saved and enhanced Fenway Park, established the Major League Baseball record for consecutive sellouts, and created the Red Sox Foundation, a philanthropic powerhouse.
Now also Chairman/Principal Owner of the Worcester Red Sox, Lucchino and the late Jim Skeffington assembled a group that in 2015 purchased the Pawtucket Red Sox, Boston's longtime Triple-A affiliate. After exhausting all options to keep the club in Rhode Island, Lucchino secured the franchise's New England future with a commitment on August 17, 2018, that keeps the team in the Blackstone Valley for more than 35 years. The agreement, made with the City of Worcester and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, led to his leading the creation of an innovative downtown ballpark in the city's resurgent Canal District. Opening to rave reviews on May 11, 2021, Polar Park is Lucchino's fifth ballpark project, following Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Petco Park in San Diego, Fenway Park in Boston, and JetBlue Park in Lee County, Florida. The Inaugural Season in Worcester was an unqualified success, with the WooSox leading all 120 teams in Minor League Baseball in many business categories and winning the highest awards for both community outreach and Latino outreach. In the second year, 2022, the WooSox led all 120 teams in tickets sold with more than a half million.
Lucchino is also Chairman of the Jimmy Fund, the philanthropic arm of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, which has helped to save his life three times: first from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1985, second from prostate cancer in 2000, and third from cancer in the kidney area starting in 2019.
After serving as the President of the Baltimore Orioles (1988-93) and the President and CEO of the San Diego Padres (1995-2001), Lucchino was instrumental in bringing together Principal Owner John W. Henry, Chairman Tom Werner, and their partners, who purchased the Red Sox, Fenway Park, and 80 percent of NESN in December 2001.
Committing to "field a team worthy of the fans' support," the Red Sox in Lucchino's tenure played October Baseball seven times in 14 years. Vanquishing the proverbial "Curse of the Bambino," the 2004 club did what had never been done before - overcoming a 3-0 deficit, against no less than the archrival New York Yankees, whom Lucchino famously dubbed "the Evil Empire" - to win the pennant. The Red Sox then swept the St. Louis Cardinals to win the club's first World Series since 1918, ending an agonizing 86-year wait. The World Champions of 2007 and 2013 also etched in stone this historic era, with the latter club helping to heal a wounded city after the Boston Marathon bombings to embody the strength and resilience that supported the new phrase, "Boston Strong." The World Champions of 2018 continued this legacy of championships won in the last 19 years.
After revolutionizing ballpark ambiance and architecture by creating Oriole Park at Camden Yards, which fulfilled his pioneering vision of a traditional, intimate, old-fashioned downtown ballpark with modern amenities, Lucchino then spearheaded the political and design efforts that created Petco Park in San Diego. More than a ballpark, Petco fulfilled its promise as a catalyst for massive redevelopment in downtown San Diego. With the experience of Camden Yards and Petco Park, he was instrumental in conceiving and executing 10 years of major improvements to Fenway Park that preserved, protected, and enhanced "America's Most Beloved Ballpark." Once again, a ballpark revitalized a now-vibrant neighborhood.
In Boston, with aggressive marketing throughout New England and the global fan base called "Red Sox Nation," the club connected with its fans, who sold out every game (820 straight) from May 15, 2003 through April 8, 2013. The club set franchise attendance records in eight of Lucchino's 14 seasons.
Lucchino served on several MLB committees, including the Commissioner's historic Blue Ribbon Task Force on Baseball Economics, which successfully re-engineered the sport's economic structure, and the International Committee, of which he was its chairman. Saying his franchises "had a foreign policy," Lucchino arranged for his Padres to play baseball's first regular season games in Mexico (1996) and Hawaii (1997) and pioneered a ground-breaking relationship in Japan with the Chiba Lotte Marines (1997). Returning to Mexico in 1999, he helped establish baseball's first "International Opener" in Monterrey. In 2008, he led the Red Sox' first trip to Japan, where they opened the season. Lucchino was also an early and active supporter of the World Baseball Classic.
Born in Pittsburgh, Lucchino was an All-City League basketball player and second baseman on the Pittsburgh city championship baseball team. He graduated with honors from Princeton University and then graduated from Yale Law School. At Princeton, he was a member of two Ivy League championship basketball teams. Lucchino holds nine honorary degrees from Suffolk University, Boston University, Bryant University, New England School of Law, Anna Maria College, Palomar College, the University of Massachusetts (Boston), Bentley University, and Assumption University.
In 1974, Lucchino joined Williams and Connolly, the law firm founded by his mentor, friend, legendary sportsman, and trial attorney Edward Bennett Williams. He became a partner in 1978 and specialized in sports law and litigation. He was general counsel to the Washington Redskins (now Commanders), of which Williams was president and part owner, and was a member of their Board of Directors from 1979 to 1985. When EBW bought the Orioles on August 2, 1979, Lucchino entered baseball and became the club's vice president/general counsel. EBW named him president on May 31, 1988, to rebuild the club's baseball and business operations. Lucchino was President (and co-owner) of the Orioles from 1989 until the club was sold at the end of the 1993 season. In December 1994, he partnered with John Moores to purchase the San Diego Padres, for whom he served as President/CEO through 2001.
The avid sportsman has the unique distinction of earning five World Series rings (Orioles, 1983; Red Sox, 2004, '07, '13, '18), a Super Bowl ring (Redskins, '83), and a Final Four watch (Princeton, '65). Lucchino has been active in numerous civic and charitable efforts, particularly in the research and treatment of cancer. He is a board member and served as the co-chair of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's $1 billion "Mission Possible" Capital Campaign, which reached its goal in 2009, and he also served as chairman of the Trustee Philanthropy Committee at DFCI for seven years.
With each of his major league clubs, Lucchino was instrumental in creating a charitable foundation (the Orioles Foundation, the Padres Foundation, and the Red Sox Foundation). He also expanded the depth and reach of the PawSox Foundation, and on January 28, 2020, he established the WooSox Foundation in Worcester.
In recognition for "long and meritorious service to baseball" over three decades in the game, Lucchino received the Judge Emil Fuchs Award from the Boston chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America at their 72nd annual awards dinner in January 2011. Lucchino was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in May 2012, the National Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame and the Taylor Allderdice High School Hall of Fame in November 2013, the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in May 2016, and the San Diego Padres Hall of Fame in July 2022.