George Martin Weiss was born on June 23, 1894, in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1914, he began his career in baseball promotion as the business manager for his high school’s team which he held together after graduation and successfully promoted as a semipro team. His promotional skills caught the eye of the Eastern League which offered him an opportunity to buy their New Haven franchise. He accepted and quickly turned around the team’s fortunes. From 1920-1928, New Haven won three Eastern League pennants.

In 1928 Weiss accepted an offer to run the International League’s Baltimore Orioles’ franchise. Under his leadership the Orioles won at least 90 games each season for the next four years. In February 1932, the Yankees chose Weiss to build their Minor League farm system which at the time included only one club. Over the next several years Weiss developed an excellent player procurement and development organization, frequently graduated players who would become mainstays for the Yankees, and expanded their farm system until in 1938, the Yankees possessed a 14-team system.

After the Yankees underwent management changes in 1948, Weiss was named the team’s general manager. He then hired Casey Stengel and together, the Weiss-Stengel team was close to unbeatable for a dozen years, winning 10 pennants and 7 world championships. Although they won the pennant in 1960, the Yankees lost the World Series that fall and in the aftermath, management eased both Stengel and Weiss out of their positions.

But Weiss still had one act remaining. In 1961 the expansion New York Mets made Weiss their team president and Stengel their manager. Again together, they built a baseball organization from scratch. After the 1966 season, Weiss retired. Although the Mets got off to a slow start Weiss, in his time running the franchise he assembled the infrastructure on which the Mets became 1969 World Series champions.

Weiss was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971. He passed away one year later, on August 13, 1972.