Inside The Shadowy Empire Of Eli Jacobs

For fans of the Baltimore Orioles, the 1991 season was a big disappointment. But for Eli S. Jacobs, the American League team's mysterious owner, it was the business equivalent of a World Series victory. His triumph came in the form of an appraiser's report that valued the Orioles at $255 million. While other experts consider this figure excessive, unquestionably the Orioles are worth much more than the $70 million Jacobs paid not three years ago.

As Jacobs tells it, his Orioles bonanza is a fitting culmination to a lucrative 27-year career as a Wall Street venture capitalist. "I get an awful lot of pride out of building businesses," Jacobs once told The Washington Post. Of which is he proudest? Oddly, the question seems to incense him. "I was not brought up to talk about my successes," Jacobs snaps now, refusing to disclose so much as the names of the various operating companies he controls through E. S. Jacobs & Co., a small investment firm with offices on New York's Park Avenue.