Lawyer Larry MacPhail got into baseball by buying a share of a minor league team. As general manager for the Cincinnati Reds in 1934, his team was the first to fly to a road game; the next year, the Reds were the first team to host a night name. In 1946, as president of the New York Yankees, MacPhail chaired an owners committee that gave players a minimum salary for the first time.
Attribution: Los Angeles Daily News via Wikimedia Commons