Major League Baseball Executive. In 1949, he began his baseball career as a minor-league pitcher for the New York Yankees. When a injury ended his playing in 1953, he remained in the Yankee system as a scout. From 1957 to 1967, he was scouting supervisor and training instructor for the Pittsburgh Pirates and was the director of the Kansas City Royals Baseball Academy from 1969 to 1972. He was chief scout executive for the Oakland A’s 1973 and 1974, then left baseball to sell real estate in Northern Virginia. He returned to baseball in 1985, when the Pirates hired him as General Manager. He hired then-unknown Jim Leyland as manager, made 20 trades in two years and increased attendance from 736,000 to 1.8 million. In 1989, he was general manager for the Yankees and assistant general manger of the Chicago Cubs from 1991 to 1994. Hired by the Orioles in 1994, he served as vice president for baseball operations until 2002. His last executive position was with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2003. He retired from baseball in 2004 and is the author of the book, “The Game According to Syd: The Theories and Teachings of Baseball’s Leading Innovator”.  (bio by: John “J-Cat” Griffith)