Arthur "Red" Patterson

Arthur Edward “Red” Patterson (February 1, 1909 – February 10, 1992) was an American professional baseball executive who spent more than 40 years in Major League Baseball and served as club president of the California Angels from February 22, 1975, through October 20, 1977. A former sportswriter, he gained prominence as the director of public relations and promotions for the New York Yankees (1946 through 1954) and Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers (1954 through 1974). In 1975, Patterson dubbed himself "the dean of sports promotions guys".

Innovative sports promoter In that role, Patterson supervised such innovations as the annual "Old-Timers' Day" at Yankee Stadium in 1947 (created to raise funds for the Babe Ruth Foundation, a charity formed that year by the gravely ill slugger to help under-privileged children), team yearbooks, and "Cap Day", one of the earliest examples of logo-bearing sports apparel merchandising—an idea initially scorned by his employers, the Yankees, themselves.

Later, in his role as assistant general manager and PR director of the Brooklyn Dodgers in October 1957, Patterson read to the assembled media the club's official announcement that it would abandon Brooklyn and relocate to Los Angeles. Accompanying the Dodgers to Southern California, Patterson helped establish the team as a local institution, making at one point an estimated 300 speeches a year on its behalf and staging such as promotions as "Straight-A Students Night" at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Dodger Stadium. By that time, he had been associated with 13 pennant-winning teams in his 40 years in baseball—seven with the Dodgers and six with the Yankees. He remained in the role for three full baseball seasons before stepping aside for Autry himself. He then served the Angels as assistant to the chairman of the board (Autry) and PR consultant until his death, a tenure interrupted only by a brief resignation in 1985.

Patterson died from cancer in Fullerton, California, at the age of 83 on February 10, 1992. He was interred in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Orange, California.