Valleycats owner Gladstone dies
Lifelong baseball fan succumbs after battle against COVID-19
Tri-city Valleycats principal owner and chairman Bill Gladstone fell in love with baseball growing up in Brooklyn in the 1930s and 1940s. His beloved Dodgers were accessible heroes with players like Hall of Famer Duke Snider living right in the neighborhood.
One of his first dates with his future wife, Millie, was at a Dodgers game at Ebbets Field. They would be married for more than 60 years.
“It was such a part of life and it was the thing that brought the borough together,” his son, Doug, said on Friday. “It was Brooklyn against New York and the Giants and the Yankees and it became this tribal piece of your life, and if you think about Bill’s embrace of minor league baseball, the Single-a
level, it’s a lot about the same thing. It was the community. And he loved that part.”
Gladstone, who died on Thursday at age 88 from complications due to COVID-19, was remembered as the man who brought affiliated baseball back to the Capital Region community in 2002, when he and his partners relocated the New York-penn League franchise from Pittsfield, Mass., to brandnew Joseph L. Bruno Stadium in Troy.
The Valleycats won three New York-penn League championships in 18 seasons under Gladstone’s leadership, the most recent one coming in 2018.
“I’m glad I could be a part of his last championship as I will never forget the amount of joy that brought him,” former Tri-city manager Jason Bell tweeted.
For years, the Gladstones were at practically every home game, sitting behind home plate, until Millie died two years ago at age 85. Bill was seen far less at games last season. He died at Wellesley (Mass.) Hospital, not far from the Boston-area home of Doug Gladstone, a Valleycats vice-chairman.
“That section 100 will never be the same, nor will the Joe or the rest of us, to be honest,” Doug Gladstone said.
Bill Gladstone made his mark in accounting before entering the world of professional baseball. A graduate of Lehigh and Brooklyn Law, he joined the firm Arthur Young and Company and later became a co-chief executive of Ernst and Young after the merger with Ernst and Whinney.
Under Gladstone and Valleycats president Rick Murphy, who’s also a partner, the Valleycats became a popular summer attraction. They drew more than 4,000 fans for 11 straight seasons, a streak that ended last year.
“He was an accountant by profession, but he had this sense of humor you didn’t expect from him because he came out with some great one-liners over the years,” Murphy said. “He pretty much laid out the way he wanted the franchise and the direction he wanted it to be taken.”
That philosophy, Murphy said, boiled down to the Valleycats motto: “Fans for Life.”
“I can remember him telling me that a lot of businesses, the way they structure their compensation, they reward those that go out and get new business,” Murphy said. “I can remember like it’s yesterday. He said to me, Rick, what about those who retain existing customers? That’s just as hard, to keep existing customers, and over a long period of time.”
Gladstone decided to buy a minor-league team at the urging of Peter O’malley, an Ernst and Young client and thenowner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Gladstone purchased the Pittsfield Mets, where Murphy was general manager, in 1992.
They switched affiliation to the Houston Astros in 2001 and then moved from antiquated Wahconah Park to the new ballpark in Troy a year later.
“To me, it was always a privilege to work for Bill Gladstone and to see the career he had professionally and within the game of baseball as well,” Valleycats general manager Matt Callahan said. “He meant so much, I think, to the Valleycats organization, but also to the region as somebody who helped bring affiliated baseball back to the Capital Region.”
The Astros paid their respects to Gladstone on their Twitter account.
“Bill Gladstone was an outstanding leader as chairman and principal owner of the Tri-city Valleycats,” the Astros said. “The Valleycats have consistently been one of the top franchises in minor league baseball and we are grateful to have been a part of their family for many years. More importantly, Bill was a class act with great passion for the game.”
Gladstone also served on the board of directors for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
“Bill Gladstone’s efforts in support of our National Pastime enriched the baseball community within Central New York and well beyond,” Hall of Fame chairman Jane Forbes Clark said.
He is survived by Doug, his daughter, Susan, and five grandchildren.
“Over his incredible successes and careers, he loved, loved, all of it,” Doug said. “He loved being at that stadium, The Joe, the loved being with the fans, and he loved being at the games and winning.”