Emil Fuchs

Emil Edwin "Judge" Fuchs (April 17, 1878 – December 5, 1961) was a German-born American baseball owner and executive.

Life Fuchs was born in Hamburg, Germany to Jewish parents, Hermann and Henrietta, but grew up on the Lower East Side of New York. He received his LLB degree from New York University, and began practicing law in 1899. He was married to Oretta, and the couple had two sons (Job and Robert) and one daughter (Helen A. Meltzer). From 1902 to 1910 Fuchs was Deputy Attorney General for New York.

Career in baseball Fuchs was the attorney for John McGraw's New York Giants when he bought the Boston Braves with Christy Mathewson and James McDonough in 1922. Mathewson was originally intended to be the principal owner. However, Mathewson had never recovered from a severe case of tuberculosis shortly after World War I. He died in 1925, leaving Fuchs as president. After Jack Slattery quit as manager, Fuchs hired Rogers Hornsby to manage the rest of the 1928 season. However, Fuchs was already in financial trouble, and was forced to sell Hornsby to the Chicago Cubs after the season. He then took over as his own manager, finishing in last place.

Fuchs was in financial trouble as early as . That year, at a meeting to discuss the first Major League Baseball All-Star Game, the National League owners also discussed Fuchs' finances. In hopes of finding a way out, Fuchs borrowed money from minority owner and Boston Bruins founder Charles Adams, pledging his Braves stock as collateral. This effectively gave Adams controlling interest, though Fuchs remained team president. By the end of the season, a sharp drop in attendance left Fuchs in such dire straits that he could not afford the rent on Braves Field. Fuchs leased the park for $400,0000 per year from the estate of former Braves owner James E. Gaffney, who had built it in 1915. He thought he found a solution in evening greyhound racing, but was forced to drop the idea amid vehement opposition from the other National League owners, league president Ford Frick, and Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. While Landis had initially sounded receptive to the idea, he threatened to resign once the proposal went public. However, in January 1945, the Gaffney estate attempted to evict the Braves after Fuchs missed several rent payments and turn Braves Field into a dog racing track for the Boston Kennel Club. With the American League's Boston Red Sox unwilling to share Fenway Park, the Braves were potentially left without a place to play. Ultimately, the National League took over the lease and locked the Kennel Club out.

Ruth all but stopped hitting within a month. Realizing he was finished even as a part-time player, he asked Fuchs to let him retire as early as May 12.