Robert Castellini (born September 23, 1941) is an American businessman from

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. Since 2006, he has been Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Cincinnati Reds, leading a group that purchased a majority share of the

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) franchise from previous CEO Carl Lindner, Jr. Castellini is the chairman of Castellini Co., a fruit and vegetable

wholesaler Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. In ...

Background

Robert Castellini was born on September 23, 1941, in

. Castellini earned a degree in economics from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

in 1963. He went on to earn his MBA from

Wharton School The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in P ...

in 1967. After graduating from Wharton, Castellini became executive vice-president at the Castellini Group of Companies, and then in 1970 became president of the company until 1992. He had been a part of the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

' ownership group and had previously invested in the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. As one of the American League's eight charter ...

. In January 2006, Castellini was the head of a group who purchased the Cincinnati Reds baseball team. Castellini has been involved in baseball for over 30 years and once had a minor ownership stake in the Reds until it was sold in 1984. In 1989 he became a partner in the Texas Rangers and in 1993, the

. Castellini describes himself as a lifelong fan of the Cincinnati Reds.

Ownership of the Reds

After the 2005 season, the Reds had endured five consecutive losing seasons, the team's longest such streak in 50 years, under the ownership of Carl Lindner. Castellini led a group that purchased the Reds from Lindner for $270 million, and in January 2006, Castellini was named the CEO of the franchise. One of Castellini's first moves as CEO was replacing General Manager Dan O'Brien with Wayne Krivsky in February 2006. The Reds were more competitive in 2006, finishing in 3rd place in the National League (NL) Central division at 80–82. In the winter of 2006, Castellini introduced new uniforms for the Reds. Under Castellini's ownership in 2010, the Cincinnati Reds won their first National League Central division championship since the 1995 season. From 2014 to 2019 they finished no higher than 4th place in the Central division including 4 straight seasons in last place, losing more than 90 games each season. In 2020 they made the playoffs in the COVID-19-shortened season with an expanded playoff field but were beaten by the Atlanta Braves, 2–0. Despite promising Reds' fans "We're buying the Reds to win. Anything else is unacceptable, " the Reds have the 22nd most wins during his ownership (record: 1,193–1,297), five winning seasons (tied for 22nd in the league), and are one of only seven teams to fail to make their league's championship series. Following the end of the 2022 MLB lockout, the Reds went on an apparent

fire sale A fire sale is the sale of goods at extremely discounted prices. The term originated in reference to the sale of goods at a heavy discount due to fire damage. It may or may not be defined as a closeout, the final sale of goods to zero inventor ...

, leading to several fan protests over Castellini's ownership of the team and asking him to sell. The Reds season started badly as their record stood at 3-22 through their first 25 games of the 2022 season. Castellini's son, Phil, worked as the team's Senior Director of Business Operations. Following the 2007 season, he was named the team's

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the " C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if ...

. On Opening Day of the 2022 season Phil threatened to move the team out of Cincinnati if the fans didn't support him and his family's losing ways.

References

External links

Group buys Reds majority
{{DEFAULTSORT:Castellini, Bob Living people 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople American chief executives of food industry companies Businesspeople from Ohio Cincinnati Reds executives Cincinnati Reds owners Georgetown College (Georgetown University) alumni Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni Baltimore Orioles owners Texas Rangers owners St. Louis Cardinals owners 1941 births