Background
Benswanger became involved in baseball through his marriage to Eleanor Fanny Dreyfuss, a daughter of longtime Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss.
Benswanger became involved in baseball through his marriage to Eleanor Fanny Dreyfuss, a daughter of longtime Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss.
Born in New York City, Benswanger moved with his family to Pittsburgh when he was five years of age. The following year, Barney Dreyfuss died as well. He would lead the team from 1932 through the 1946 season.
During that time, the Pirates boasted a number of star players, including Baseball Hall of Fame members Paul Waner, Lloyd Waner, Pie Traynor and Arky Vaughan.
On the plus side, Benswanger kept the team going through the Great Depression and brought back all-time great Honus Wagner to serve as a coach. Benswanger"s last year as president, 1946, was especially tumultuous.
Robert Murphy, a Boston labor lawyer, organized the American Baseball Guild, a players" union and predecessor of the Major League Baseball Players Association. Early demands included a minimum salary, standardization of player contracts, and an increase in per-diem expense reimbursements (amending or abolishing the reserve clause was not yet on the table).
The majority of the Pirates joined the Guild, with the notable exception of veteran pitcher Rip Sewell.
Benswanger, as point man for the Major League owners, would not negotiate with the Guild, and Murphy threatened a strike for the Pirates" June 7 game with the New York Giants. In a pre-game players-only meeting, a majority voted in favor of striking, but the Guild failed to procure a two-thirds consensus (thanks to Sewell"s strong opposition) and the threat evaporated. The failure of the strike vote fatally wounded the Guild.
The owners made minor concessions to players, and staved off the effective creation of a union until the MLBPA was formed in 1966.
At the same time Benswanger was fending off the American Baseball Guild, the Dreyfuss family"s 46-year ownership of the team was coming to a close. In August 1946, the Pirates were purchased by an ownership group headed by Indianapolis businessman Frank East. McKinney, and which included entertainer Bing Crosby, Pittsburgh attorney Thomas Johnson, and Columbus, Ohio-based real estate magnate John West. Galbreath.
Benswanger stepped down as club president upon completion of the sale. He died in Pittsburgh at age 79.
Prior to Branch Rickey"s efforts with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Benswanger was one of the few owners and executives who vocally challenged Major League Baseball"s color barrier and its major proponent, Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.
Murphy targeted the Pirates as the testing ground for signing members of the Guild because of Pittsburgh"s reputation as a union stronghold.