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Blockbuster was brought to Huizenga’s atten- Known for pitching inside, he hit 68 batters in
tion by a former Waste Management colleague 15 big league seasons. He was said to have once
who had invested in a franchise store. Although hit seven batters in a minor league game. Kison
Huizenga had no interest in movies himself, he threw a one-hitter at home against San Diego on
again saw the value in a one-product concept June 3, 1979, giving up Barry Evans’ two-out dou-
that could be copied across the nation.knew her ble in the eighth. He pitched another one-hitter
best... the following April 23, leading 17-0 at Minnesota in memoriam
With two partners, Huizenga bought 35 percent when he allowed Ken Landreaux’s one-out dou-
of Blockbuster for $18.5 million in 1987. The ble in the ninth.
company then owned eight stores and fran- After retiring as a player in 1985, he was a minor
chised 11. As he did with Waste Management, league pitching instructor for Pittsburgh, bullpen
Huizenga expanded and bought out competitors. coach for Kansas City from 1992-93, the Royals
By 1992, there were 2,000 stores, and videotape pitching coach from 1994-98 and Baltimore’s
pitching coach in 1999. He later worked as a
rental company Blockbuster was No. 1 in its in-
dustry. scout for Baltimore until his retirement.
Five years later, he sold his shares in the company Kison was honored as a Legend in Scouting by
to Viacom for $8.4 billion. the Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation. He
married the former Anna Marie Orlando in 1971,
In May 1995, Huizenga paid $27 million for an leaving Game 7 of the World Series at Baltimore’s
18 percent stake in Republic Industries, an Atlan- Memorial Stadium by helicopter for a private
ta-based garbage collector that soon became the flight to Pittsburgh, where he was met by a police
vehicle that would carry him to his next consoli- escort to get to the wedding.
dation enterprise: the car business.
Born in 1996, AutoNation was the brainchild of PETER MAGOWAN, the dynamic
Huizenga and another South Florida entrepre- former Safeway CEO and an own-
neur, Jim Moran, who built the auto empire of er of the San Francisco Giants,
JM Family Enterprises in Deerfield Beach. who saved the team from relo-
cating by spearheading a charge
Under Huizenga’s direction, AutoNation became to build a new South of Market
a nationwide network of new- and used-car out- waterfront ballpark, died January
lets. Over one six-month period, he bought 65 27. He was 76.
auto dealerships with 109 outlets, opened 11
used-car superstores called AutoNation USA, and A longtime resident of San Fran-
purchased three rental-car agencies, including cisco and a lifetime baseball fan, Magowan, with
Alamo and National. a group of fellow civic-minded San Francisco in-
vestors, led an eleventh-hour, $100 million pri-
The second owner of the Dolphins and the stadi- vately-funded bid in 1992 to rescue the Giants
um Joe Robbie built, Huizenga obtained expan- from relocating to Tampa Bay, FL.
sion franchises that became the Florida Panthers
and the Florida Marlins. The successful mission had special meaning for
the New York native who faithfully attended
Under his stewardship, the Marlins won the Giants games as a boy at the old Polo Grounds
World Series in their fifth season (1997), and the in New York. His family moved to San Francisco
Panthers reached the Stanley Cup Final in their about the same time the Giants moved west in
third season (1995-96). 1958. Having seen the team abandon New York
for the West Coast, he was determined to pre-
vent a similar exodus from San Francisco 35 years
BRUCE KISON, former Angel and later.
a veteran of 15 Major League sea- Born April 5, 1942 in Manhattan, NY, Magowan
son, passed away last June 2. He was the son of Robert Anderson Magowan,
was 68. chairman and CEO of Safeway. His mother, Doris
Kison helped the Pittsburgh Pi- Merrill Magowan, was a prominent San Francisco
rates win the World Series in philanthropist. His maternal grandfather, Charles
1971 and 1979 and spent three Merrill, was a co-founder of Merrill Lynch broker-
decades in player development age firm who also orchestrated the 1926 merger
that created Safeway, one of nation’s largest su-
and scouting roles. Kison won
Game 4 of the 1971 World Series — the first permarket chains. His maternal uncle was Pulit-
night game in World Series history — when he zer Prize-winning poet James Ingram Merrill.
threw 6.1 scoreless innings of one-hit relief Following high school in Massachusetts at Gro-
against Baltimore as a rookie, allowing only a ton, he graduated Stanford University in 1964
bloop double to Paul Blair. He started and lost the with a degree in American literature. In 1966,
1979 opener against the Orioles, getting just one he received his master’s degree in Politics, Phi-
out and giving up five runs. He had a 5-1 record losophy and Economics from Oxford University in
and 1.98 ERA (36.1 IP – 8 ER) in 10 postseason England, and later completed his post-graduate
appearances, including four starts. studies at John Hopkins School of Advanced In-
He was selected by Pittsburgh in the 14th round ternational Studies in Washington, D.C.
of the 1968 amateur draft, making his big league After two summers in Washington, D.C. working
debut on July 4, 1971, and went 115-88 with at the State Department, Magowan joined Safe-
a 3.66 ERA (1809.2 IP – 736 ER), 12 saves and way in the Washington area as a checker, shelf
1,073 strikeouts for the Pirates (1971-79), Angels stocker and produce clerk prior to working his
(1980-84) and Red Sox (1985). way up the corporate ranks. In 1979 at age 37, he
was appointed Safeway chairman and CEO.
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