After law school, Lucchino practiced law with the Washington, D. C., law firm of Williams & Connolly.[11] The founder, famed litigator Edward Bennett Williams, had ownership interest in both the Washington Redskins and the Baltimore Orioles.[9] Lucchino's law practice at Williams & Connolly included a substantial amount of work for those two sports teams. Through that work, Lucchino served on the Redskins' board of directors from 1979 to 1985.[11]
Lucchino became president of the Baltimore Orioles, serving from 1988 to 1993, and president and CEO of the San Diego Padres, serving from 1995 to 2001.[11] Lucchino subsequently joined the Boston Red Sox as president and CEO when John W. Henry purchased the team in December 2001.[12] Lucchino was known for having initiated the trend of building baseball-only facilities with an old-fashioned charm and smaller seating capacities. Under his watch, both the Orioles and Padres built new stadiums, pioneering Oriole Park at Camden Yards and Petco Park, respectively.[9][11]
He helped build Padres teams that made the playoffs in 1996 and 1998. They advanced to the 1998 World Series, which was instrumental in winning a city-wide vote in November 1998 to authorize the construction of Petco Park. Lucchino was named to the Padres Hall of Fame in 2022.[13]
Lucchino brought future general manager Theo Epstein with him to the Red Sox from the Orioles and the Padres,[14] having also encouraged Epstein to attend law school while he was working at the Padres.[15]
Following the 2002 season, Pedro Martinez called Lucchino asking him to sign David Ortiz, who had been released by the Twins.[16] Lucchino "always enjoyed a strong connection with Big Papi throughout his entire career".[17] Lucchino hired Jean Marie Smith to initiate a nearly $300 million renovation project of Fenway Park over the next ten years, including the Green Monster seats.[18]
Lucchino was a non-Hodgkin lymphoma survivor,[30][31] undergoing radiation treatment in 1986 after his diagnosis in September 1985. In October 1999, he had surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital to remove localized prostate cancer.[32] In December 2019, he underwent surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston to remove a cancerous blockage in the kidney area.[33] In August 2023, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute presented Lucchino with the Boston Red Sox Jimmy Fund Award for his help in raising $142 million over the years.[34]
He was married to Stacey Johnson,[35] and he adopted her two children, Davis and Blair.[36]
Lucchino, at right, with Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mark Ferguson in 2012
On April 2, 2024, Lucchino died from heart failure at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, at the age of 78.[34][37] In August 2024, Red Sox principal owner John W. Henry commented:[38]
Larry was the greatest baseball man I ever met. Usually when you call someone a baseball man, you are talking about his knowledge of the game on the field. In Larry’s case, baseball off the field was greater. He was unequivocally a Hall of Famer. The greatest baseball man.
Mnookin, Seth (July 9, 2006). "The Breakup". Sunday Globe Magazine. Retrieved November 14, 2020 – via Boston.com. In this exclusive excerpt from his new book, Feeding the Monster, Seth Mnookin explores the fascinating, curious, and combative relationship between Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino and the young man he hired to build a championship team, general manager Theo Epstein.
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