The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-01-13
Owner Of Champion Yankees Dies Today
tContinued from Page I,

HI dPRCdKdAAC6, L0uppCIO WdS neatly tailored, compact little man. His plentiful hair was gray. He wore a closely-clipped mustache. His hands and feet were small. He was a stickler for neatness ip his personal appearance, his brewery, his home, his ball park or what ever he owned. He was his own housekeeper.
 He loved dogs, racehorses and monkeys. He once was leading breeder of St. Bernard's but sold his kennel when his dogs began to interfere with his brewery. He was collector of Chinese jade and porcelain. His collection of small monkeys, which he kept at his 135-acre estate at Garrison, N. r., was one of the worlds finest.
 An early riser, Ruppert always was at his office at the brewery at 8:30 every morning. He stayed at the brewery until when he usu- ally would go home to dress for dinner.
 He disliked to be alone, and nearly always had someone with him for company. For 30 years he was one of New York's most avid first nighters. He regarded Madame x" and :.Trilby' as two of the best shows he ever saw. A great respector of law and order, the last time he was arrested was in Washington in 1902. He and a fellow congressman were nabbed driving down Pennsylvania avenue IT miles an hour in an automobile. He sold his stable of racehorses because of one of Charles Evans Hughes speeches against racetrack gambling. During prohibition he never let drop of beer flow out of his brewery.
 Sought to Buy Giants
 Ruppert made his first offer to buy a baseball club in 1900 when he was in Congress. He offered $150,000 for the New York Giants and it was turned down. When he learned a short time afterwards that the club had been sold to John T. Brush for the very sum he lost interest in baseball for a while.
 In 1913 he went to see the world series between the Giants and Athletics. His seat was back of a post and he left bored at the end of the seventh. Until he bought the Tanks he had seen them play only two games. Walter Johnson and Ty Cobb were the attractions in these games, however.
 Ban Johnson, president of the American League, and Joe Lannin, Boston Red Sox owner, rekindled his interest to buy 8 club. The Tanks were in a bad plight but Johnson promised Ruppert that he would arrange for him to get Eddie Collins from Philadelphia for $50,000 if he bought the club. Rupert and Captain T. L. Huston formed partnership and pur- chased the Yankees in December, 1914, for $40O,000.
 As Ruppert later learned, all they bought was a franchise. After he realized New York would sup- port only winners. His first move to bring 8 championsip to the Tanks was to buy Babe Ruth from the Red Sox for $125,O0O cash and a loan of $325,ooo to pay of a mortgage.
 First Pennant in 1921
 In 1921 the Tanks won their first pennant and in 1923 they captured the worlds champion ship from the Giants. By winning the worlds series in 1888 from the Cubs the Tanks became the first team in history to win three con- secutive worlds championships. The Tanks dominated baseball as no team ever did.
 But it was no easy task building the Tanks or keeping them at the top. Ruppert had to buy out Illus ton for $1,250,000. He spent $2,- 100000 to build Yankee Stadium and spent several hundred thou sand dollars improving it. He paid Babe Ruth nearly $750,000 in salary.
 Yet Ruppert gladly sacrificed profit as long as his Tanks re- mained supreme. When the Tanks won their first world series in four straight in 1927, Ruppert was the happiest man in the land even though the sudden termination of the series cost him many thou sands of dollars. His world series motto after that was, Win in four straight" In 1928, 1892 and 1888 his team again gave him the worlds title with a clean sweep.
 Right down to the last, he want ed his Yankees to win every game if they could. To those who hint ed that the Tanks were a menace to baseball and should be broken up for the good of the game, he had one stock answer, "Let them build up to the Yankees. We'll never weaken the Yankees to make the others look good as long as I own them"
 December 19, 1888