Charles Stoneham "Chub" Feeney spent 40 years in Major League Baseball, most notably as president of the National League from 1970 to ’86. He began his baseball career as a front office executive with the New York Giants in 1946 at the tender age of 24. His grandfather, Charles Stoneham, owned the Giants from 1919 to ‘36 before passing the torch to Chub’s uncle, who owed the team through 1976. Chub served as the team’s head of baseball operations until 1970, essentially functioning as the GM. After a successful run under his grandpa during the Mel Ott era that yielded three World Series titles, Chub was instrumental in rebuilding a winner in the early 1950s by bringing up African-American stars Willie Mays, Monte Irvin and Hank Thompson. And when his uncle moved the Giants from the Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan to San Francisco in the late ‘50s, Feeney was the first to bring in Latin American stars such as Orlando Cepeda, Juan Marichal and the Alou brothers.
Feeney’s tenure as NL President was relatively stable and may be best remembered for the league’s dominating All-Star Game record of 14-3. As president for 17 seasons, he built himself quite a collection of World Series and NLCS rings. Presented here is Chub’s 1970 Cincinnati Reds National League Championship ring. The “Big Red Machine” was just getting started in their decade of prominence. Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez and company laid the groundwork for four pennants and two World Series titles in the ‘70s. After a three-game sweep of the Pirates in the NLCS, the Reds fell to the Orioles in the Fall Classic, 4-games-to-1.
The face features a large red stone with “CINCINNATI REDS N.L. CHAMPIONS 1970” in raised relief around the perimeter. The right shank has a banner with “FEENEY” above the Reds logo and mascot, “THE BIG RED MACHINE”, two bats and a baseball. The left shank has a depiction of Riverfront Stadium above a “CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES” banner and the scores of the three victories over Pittsburgh. Crafted of 14-karat white gold by Balfour, the ring is stamped with the maker and “14K” inside the band. It measures size 8 and weighs 34 grams, with hardly any wear visible. It is our understanding that players were issued the same version, sans diamond on the face. The only exception we could find was a re-sized 1970 Pete Rose example (sold in 2015) with a large diamond on the face that appears to have been added by a previous owner other than Rose. Includes LOA from Feeney family.