Jacob Ruppert

Early life

Jacob Ruppert Jr. came into the world in New York City, the second of six children born to brewer Jacob Ruppert Sr. and Anna Ruppert, whose father was also a prominent brewer. Despite being a second-generation American, he carried a distinct German accent his entire life. He was raised in the family’s Fifth Avenue mansion and educated at Columbia Grammar School.

Though admitted to Columbia College, he opted instead to join his father’s brewery in 1887, beginning as a barrel washer earning $10 for twelve-hour days. He eventually rose to vice president and general manager. In 1886, he enlisted as a private in the Seventh Regiment of the New York National Guard, later being promoted to colonel in 1890 and serving as aide-de-camp to Governors David B. Hill and Roswell P. Flower until 1895.

Career

In 1898, Ruppert was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives for New York's 15th district, defeating Republican incumbent Philip B. Low with support from Tammany Hall boss Richard Croker. He won reelection in 1900 over Elias Goodman and was renominated in 1902 for the 16th district. He did not seek reelection in 1906 and left office in 1907. He also served as president of the Astoria Silk Works and of the United States Brewers' Association from 1911 to 1914.

In January 1914, his father bought J&M Haffen Brewing Company for $700,000, intending to close it and develop the property near The Hub in The Bronx. Upon his father's death in 1915, Ruppert inherited the Jacob Ruppert Brewing Company and became its president. He owned real estate including Pass-a-Grille Key in Florida. Interested in baseball since childhood, he tried to buy the New York Giants and was offered the Chicago Cubs in 1912 but declined because Chicago was too far from New York.

In 1915, with Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston, he purchased the New York Yankees from Frank J. Farrell and William S. Devery for $480,000. The Yankees had been a perennial also-ran, with winning records in only 4 of their 12 seasons since moving to New York from Baltimore.

Death and legacy

Ruppert suffered from phlebitis in April 1938 and was confined to his Fifth Avenue apartment for most of the year. Too sick to attend the 1938 World Series, the Yankees' seventh title under his ownership, he listened on the radio. He entered Lenox Hill Hospital in November 1938 and died there on January 13, 1939. He was survived by his brother George and sister Amanda and was interred in the family mausoleum at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.

His father's estate of $6,382,758 in 1915 grew to $120 million by Ruppert's death. His brother George, the Yankees' vice president, declined the team presidency and recommended general manager Ed Barrow take control. Under Barrow, the Yankees won a fourth consecutive World Series in 1939 and three more AL titles and two World Series from 1941 to 1943. The heirs sold the Yankees to Dan Topping, Del Webb, and Larry MacPhail in 1945 after mismanaging the brewery.

The brewery sold its Knickerbocker beer to Rheingold and went out of business in 1965. On April 16, 1940, the Yankees dedicated a plaque in Ruppert's memory at Yankee Stadium, now in Monument Park at New Yankee Stadium. An apocryphal story credits Ruppert with introducing the Yankees' pinstriped uniforms in 1912 to make Babe Ruth appear less obese. A beer was named after him, as was Ruppert Stadium in Newark, New Jersey.

Ruppert Park in Manhattan is part of the Ruppert Yorkville Towers housing complex built on the site of the brewery in Yorkville.

National Baseball Hall of Fame

Ruppert entered the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013 after being chosen by the Pre-Integration Era Committee in December 2012. That panel reviews candidates from before 1947 every three years. His great-great-great-niece, Anne Vernon, spoke at the induction ceremony.

Did You Know?

• In 1894, Ruppert purchased South Brother Island in the East River and was the last person to live there, leaving in 1909 after his house burned down.
• He purchased Eagle's Rest, an estate in Garrison, New York, on January 30, 1919.