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DICK KING
GILBERT, AZ—Jan. 10, 2007—Prominent professional baseball and sports executive, Dick King (born Diogenes “Dick” G. Karabatsos) passed away in his sleep yesterday at his home in the Phoenix metropolitan area. He was 87. He is survived by his brothers Arthur G. Karabatsos of Lincoln, Nebraska and Pete G. Karabatsos, Ph.D. of Larkspur, Colorado, four nieces and three nephews and longtime friend and business partner Norbert E. Ecksl of Gilbert, Arizona. A native of Fairbury, Nebraska, King never really retired and kept going by being involved in a number of sports projects originated through his company, Big League Sports Productions, Inc. in Arizona. His latest, Pro Team Poker.com, has been three years in the making and combines his love of poker and baseball. An innovator and promotional wizard, Dick King has been batting 1.000 for over 60 years as a professional sports executive. His career experiences include working in all phases of our national pastime. He is the only man who worked at every baseball level from Class “D” through the Major Leagues. Bobby Bragan, the former President of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (NAPBL), labeled King “the Bill Veeck of the minor leagues.” He has served in every role imaginable in running a sports franchise from President and General Manager in the minor leagues to scouting and player development in the Major Leagues. As Chief Scout of the Southwestern States and Mexico for the Cincinnati Reds in the late 50s, he also handled the chores of troubleshooter for the Reds’ minor league system of eleven farm clubs. He has also held management and executive positions at the major league level with the Cleveland Indians as Marketing Director and the New York Yankees as Executive Director, where he was responsible for all business operations of the club under Gabe Paul. He has been involved with baseball clubs at the Triple-A level most of his career. He served as Vice President & General Manager of the Atlanta Crackers of the International League for three years before the Braves moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta. He was key in bringing professional baseball back to Wichita, Kansas in 1970 when the Indians placed their Triple-A club there and installed him as Executive Vice President & General Manager. Professional baseball returned to south central Kansas with resounding results under his guidance, as over 265,000 fans turned out that inaugural season...the best in the National Association. The following year he moved on to Oklahoma City as chief executive of the 89ers. As President & General Manager of the American Association club, he drew over 343,000 fans in his first of three very successful seasons. King is the founder of the NAPBL Marketing Corporation for the minor leagues and organized and developed the promotional and marketing programs for the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues. As Executive Director under NAPBL President Bobby Bragan, King also started the very popular annual Baseball Trade Show, recognized today as one of the premier sports trade shows in America. He introduced the clinics and the seminars that were particularly useful for people who were interested in breaking into the baseball business and learning his successful fundamentals and management techniques from the ground up. He created, published and edited, BASEBALL, the “original” National Association’s Yearbook. He was the founder and organizer of the Independent Mexican Center League, a development program for the Triple-A Mexican League. His baseball travels also included a stint at New Orleans, where he was Executive Vice President & General Manager of the Pelicans in 1977. He brought baseball back in record numbers as over 40,000 fans attended Opening Night at the Louisiana Superdome, one of the largest crowds in the history of Triple-A baseball. King turned his attention to professional soccer in the fall of 1977, serving the Washington Diplomats of the North American Soccer League as a front office executive consultant. He guided the efforts of the staff in their first “Indoor” season of play along with the upcoming outdoor season, the largest ever in the NASL up to that date. In Canada, King served as management consultant to the expansion Vancouver Canadians and Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League in 1978. He was responsible for the organization of the entire operation from the ground up, which included refurbishing the 40-year old ballpark in Vancouver. All of this was done in just 30 days! King was named Marketing Director for sports entertainment of Madison Square Garden Corp. in New York City by Jerry Saperstein, Executive Vice President in 1979. He was in charge of promoting their very successful road shows on the east coast. King went back to Wichita in 1981 as President & General Manager of the Wichita Aeros, then a Texas Ranger affiliate, reviving a club on both the attendance and business side that had floundered the previous two seasons. In 1983 when the three Triple-A leagues decided to revive the Triple-A World Series in Louisville, Kentucky, he was called upon again. As Executive Director, King guided the efforts of this huge project. All games were televised nationally by ESPN, the first professional baseball telecasts on the network. A record crowd of 75,000 attended the four-day series and they were entertained by the festive major league World Series atmosphere he created. In 1985 he was named President of the National Baseball Congress in Wichita, and increased attendance while helping to organize and starting an additional summer collegiate baseball league that gave more student athletes a chance to demonstrate their baseball skills for professional scouts. For the first time in over a decade, the NBC became profitable and drew more fans at the gate than ever before for their Annual Championship that takes place in August. Just a few of the many awards bestowed upon King for his outstanding marketing and promotional efforts included the “Larry MacPhail-Bill Veeck Award” (the only executive to win it in consecutive years). He won the “Executive of the Year” award on three different occasions; the “NAPBL President’s Award” and the much heralded Sporting News “Executive of the Year” award at the Triple-A level. From 1995-2001 King was heavily involved in the growth of independent baseball as the chief of the founding group for the Big South League in 1996 and the All American Association in 2001. He served as President of the Big South League in 1996 during the inaugural season and served as Chairman and Commissioner of the A.A.A. during the 2001 inaugural season. King is a native of Fairbury, Nebraska where his over fifty-year association with professional baseball began as a vendor in the concession department when his hometown was a member of the old Class “D” Nebraska State League. A high school graduate at the age of 15, he attended the University of Nebraska, Lincoln and received his degree from Hebron College. A veteran of World War II, he spent 42 months in wartime service, which included 30 months of overseas duty and received his honorable discharge as a Staff Sergeant. He is a member of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. For the past ten years King has operated a sports consultant firm that is based in Gilbert, Arizona, in the east valley of Phoenix.
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