Sports: Basketball, Baseball & Hockey
Born: February 1, 1952
Town: Lakewood, New Jersey
Stanley Kasten was born February 1, 1952 in Lakewood, NJ. He grew up in New York City and attended Yeshivas as a high-school student, graduating from Yeshiva University High School for Boys in Washington Heights. Stan enrolled at NYU in the fall of 1969 and graduated in 1973. He went on to earn a degree from Columbia Law School.
Stan had a keen interest in sports, and began working for Ted Turner in the late-1970s. Turner made Stan the GM of the Atlanta Hawks in 1979—at age 27 the youngest in the NBA. He became the team’s president in 1986, and was the first person to win the Executive of the Year Award twice in a row, in 1986 and 1987. The Hawks were a 50-win team each season from 1985–86 to 1988–89. Atlanta had three more 50-win campaigns during Stan’s reign in the 1990s.
Also in 1986, Turner made Stan the president of the Atlanta Braves. Working with GM John Scheurholz, Stan assembled one of the most consistent teams in baseball. The Braves were perennial postseason participants, and won the World Series in 1995. In 1999, Stan became the head of the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers. He held these positions until stepping down in 2003.
In 2006, Stan became president of baseball’s Washington Nationals. He served in this role through the 2010 season. In 2012, he was part of a group that included Magic Johnson that purchased the Los Angeles Dodgers. Naturally, Stan assumed the president’s role of that organization. After years of cost-cutting, the Dodgers assembled a powerhouse team and challenged for the pennant. From 2013 to 2020, they finished first in the NL West every year and, in 2020, after several years of playoff disappointment, the Dodgers won the World Series.