Ted Bonda, 88; Former Indians Owner Helped Keep Team in Cleveland

Ted Bonda, 88, the former owner of the Cleveland Indians baseball team who hired Frank Robinson as the first African American manager in the major leagues, died Saturday of complications from Alzheimer’s disease at an assisted living facility outside Cleveland.

Bonda hired Robinson, now manager of the Washington Nationals, in 1974, calling it “the right thing to do.”

Robinson, who managed the Indians until June 1977, said Sunday that he was indebted to Bonda for providing the opportunity to manage.

“He was a fair man. He was a listener,” Robinson said. “He was ... a very low-key man, a very honest man and a very compassionate person.”

A native of Cleveland, Bonda grew up in poverty during the Depression and couldn’t afford to go to college. He served in the Army during World War II. After the war, he joined boyhood friend Howard Metzenbaum, who later became a U.S. senator from Ohio, to build the successful Avis car rental franchise in Cleveland. They also built one of the nation’s largest parking lot companies.

When the Indians franchise was floundering in the early 1970s, Bonda led a group of more than 50 business owners in buying the team. The group lost money each year, but Bonda used his own money to keep the team in town. He sold the Indians in 1979 but remained a minority holder and continued to attend games.