J. Frank Cashen

J. Frank Cashen of Easton, MD, died on Monday, June 30, 2014, at University of Maryland Shore Medical Center in Easton. He was 88. J. Frank Cashen, one of Major League Baseball’s most successful executives, was also an award-winning sports journalist, race track operator, and brewery official. Cashen was, at various times, Executive Vice President, COO, and General Manager of the Baltimore Orioles American League franchise and the National League’s New York Mets. His teams won three world championships in five World Series and were runner-up in three other league championship playoffs. A native of Baltimore, he spent ten years, 1966 through 1975, with the Orioles, and during that span participated in four World Series (1966, 1969, 1970 and 1971) and won World Series titles in 1966 and 1970. The Orioles also captured American League Eastern Division titles in 1973 and 1974. After going to New York in 1979 to serve as the Administrator of Major League Baseball under Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, he was tapped by Nelson Doubleday and Fred Wilpon, who had recently purchased the New York franchise, to rebuild a then-floundering baseball club. After four years of reconstructing, Cashen became the most successful GM in Mets history, averaging 98 wins a season over the next five years, winning the World Series in 1986 and the National Leagues Eastern Division in 1988. Prior to baseball, Cashen started his career as a sports writer for the Baltimore News-American, winning national honors with his story on Navel Academy Football: “A Football Team Named Desire.” He then became General Manager of Standard Breed Baltimore Raceway and Bel Air Thoroughbred Racetrack. He was Director of Advertising for the National Brewing Company and subsequently was Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the Carling National Breweries. Having secured all of his extensive education within the confines of the City of Baltimore, Frank Cashen was a graduate Mount St. Joseph High School, Loyola College, and the University of Maryland Law School from which he held a Doctor of Laws Degree. In 1970, he received the “Outstanding Alumnae Award” from Loyola and has been similarly honored by Mount St. Joseph. A former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Mount St. Mary’s University, he twice served as Chairman of Loyola Colleges Evergreen Fund. He received the prestigious Andrew White Medal from Loyola for “Outstanding Civic Contributions” and held Honorary Doctor Degrees from Mount St. Mary’s (Doctor of Humane Letters) and St. Francis Brooklyn (Doctor of Commercial Science). Cashen was inducted into the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame on 1999 and the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 2010. Just before his death, Cashen completed his autobiography, “Winning in Both Leagues; Reflections From Baseballs Front Office,” which will be published by the University of Nebraska Press in September 2014. In his book, Cashen looks back over 25 years of baseball and his career of producing winning ball clubs. He remains one of the only two General Managers to win a World Series in both the American and National Leagues. Cashen is survived by his wife, Jean, of 64 years; and children, Gregory (Beverly) of Gillette, NJ; Terrence of Timonium, MD; Timothy (Ann) and daughter Keely of Towson, MD; Brian (Karen) of Lutherville, MD, and their children Daniel (Rachel) with daughter Caitlin and sons Brady & Colby; Sean (Karen) also of Lutherville and their children Carly and Seamus; Stacey Cashen Effinger (Scott) and their sons Lucas & Connor of Easton, MD; and Blaise Cashen of New York, NY. He was predeceased in death by his parents, Cornelius and Bridget Ryan Cashen, and four siblings.

J. Frank Cashen

September 13, 1925 - June 30, 2014