Word: levying
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Haas Jr., 65, chairman of Levi Strauss & Co., rode to the rescue like a cowboy in copper-riveted jeans. Haas did not need a big hat: he had the cattle. Plopping down $12.7 million of the family fortune, he vowed, "We're going to do what we did with Levi's: quality product, concern for people, being part of the community and conducting business with integrity...
...great-grandnephew of the gold rush outfitter Levi Strauss, Haas built the jeans-making firm into a sportswear conglomerate that had $2.8 billion in sales last year. Haas, whose family is an anchor of Bay Area society, quietly serves on corporate and charity boards. In a limited partnership with Son Walter J., 30, and Son-in-Law Roy Eisenhardt, 42, he acquired a team that was a smouldering shambles. Finley lost or traded away its talent. The farm system had gone to seed. The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum had fallen into such disrepair that the scoreboard did not always work...
When the elder Haas retires from Levi Strauss next year to indulge his passion for fly-fishing on Oregon streams, Eisenhardt, a Berkeley law professor before he became the team's president, will continue to reflect the family philosophy. Says he: "You wouldn't go into this as a business investment. You do it because you can get a lot of satisfaction out of it." His relationship with Martin is refreshingly tension-free, at least so far. Says Eisenhardt: "Billy is in charge of everything on the field. I'm in charge of everything that...
...mercurial Martin, who has brawled, boozed and been fired regularly throughout his tempestuous career, Oakland's sizzling start is vindication of his techniques and his new owners' faith. Irascible Charlie Finley sold the A's last year to the Haas family, proprietors of Levi Strauss & Co., for $12.7 million. It looked like a rotten investment. But the A's, who drew a paltry total of 306,763 for 81 home games in 1979, happily watched 149,873 fans pack Oakland-Alameda Coliseum for the first six dates of the 1981 season...
There is a new owner around to take care of the players as well. Walter J. Haas from Levi Strauss & Co. bought the club for $12.7 million from the mercurial Charles O. Finley last summer. Already he has infused money into the moribund farm system, hired scouts and set about rebuilding the flimsy organization left behind by Finley. Martin is thriving in his role as paterfamilias to his young players: "These kids can be molded. It's a lot easier than taking a person set in his ways. I've had both, and I've won with...