Dreyfuss, Barney

Dreyfuss, Barney

(1865–1932) baseball executive; born in Freiburg, Germany. Son of an American citizen residing in Germany, he came to the U.S.A. in 1881. Working as a bookkeeper in a distillery in Paducah, Ky., he bought an interest in the Louisville baseball team, eventually prospering and moving on to acquire the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1900. He helped to establish the modern World Series by letting his Pirates play the new American League champions, the Boston Red Sox, in 1903. He owned the Pirates until his death.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.