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Donald Trump's 1983 failed deal to buy the Cleveland Indians was likely a bid to move the team out of Cleveland, writes Brent Larkin.

(Charlie Neibergall, Associated Press)

Donald Trump wants America to believe he's the best deal maker on the planet.

But it was the deal Trump couldn't seal that probably saved Cleveland its baseball team.

In a Feb. 15, 1983 letter to Indians President Gabe Paul, Trump's lawyer offered to buy the team for $13 million.

Had the deal gone through, many believed at the time -- and still do -- that the front-runner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination would have wasted little or no time moving the team to another city, most likely Tampa.

Longtime Plain Dealer sportswriter Russ Schneider, whose 30-year career at the newspaper included 14 as the Indians beat writer, discovered the letter among some files left him by the late Ted Bonda, the team's principal owner from 1975-78 and a shareholder both before and after.

Kenneth Molloy, a prominent New York attorney and later a judge, wrote to Gabe Paul:

"My client, Donald J. Trump, is interested in purchasing the Cleveland Indians Baseball team.

"I am authorized to offer Thirteen Million dollars for same free from debt and subject to usual review and acceptance of all contracts in effect.

"Your early advice would be appreciated. I am certain a two-day visit to Cleveland will provide adequate time to make our examinations and finalize this matter."

(See below for a copy of the letter.)

Despite rumors later that year that Trump had bought the team, the deal was never done -- in large part because Trump stopped short of making an ironclad commitment to Cleveland.

Plain Dealer reporter Tony Grossi wrote in late 1983 that Trump's offer had increased to about $34 million, but that he would promise only to keep the Indians here a minimum of three years.

Trump's original offer came at a time when the Indians' principal owner was Francis "Steve" O'Neill, a lifelong Clevelander whose family made its fortune in the trucking business. O'Neill bought the team from a large group of shareholders, headed by Bonda, in 1978.

Like Bonda, Steve O'Neill opposed any sale of the Indians that would threaten its future here. After O'Neill died in August 1983, primary ownership of the Indians passed to his estate. O'Neill's nephew, Patrick, was appointed to run the baseball team.

It was then that efforts to sell the Indians escalated. Patrick O'Neill is now deceased and family members who still live here have indicated they would prefer not to discuss events about which they have only second-hand knowledge.

However, part of the family lore has long included stories that Trump and his wife at the time, Ivana, made several trips to Cleveland as part of his pursuit of the Indians.

Attempts to contact Trump's spokeswoman were unsuccessful.

Tom Bonda, Ted's son and now a professor of entrepreneurship at John Carroll University, remembered that his father "was concerned about where the team would end up" under a Trump ownership, adding, "The O'Neill family felt the same way."

Schneider has similar recollections, saying, "It was highly unlikely Trump would have kept the team in Cleveland."

By 1986, competition to buy the Indians had narrowed to either Cleveland-area developers Richard and David Jacobs or New York attorney David LeFevre, a Cleveland native and the grandson of industrialist Cyrus Eaton. LeFevre told me he knew at the time Trump had pursued the team, but always viewed his main competition as Dick and David Jacobs.

He was right. On Nov. 13, 1986, the team was sold to the Jacobs brothers for a reported $35 million, about $18 million of which was cash.

In many ways, Dick Jacobs would become the most successful owner in Indians history.

Even if Trump had equaled or surpassed that success with the Indians, it almost certainly wouldn't have been in Cleveland.

Around the same time he was pursuing the Indians, Trump purchased the New Jersey Generals team in the United States Football League (USFL). As ESPN reported in July, Trump was widely blamed for the league's demise because he pressured owners into moving the USFL's games to the fall, when they would compete directly against the NFL.

The league failed prior to the 1986 season. A jury later found that the NFL's attempts to destroy the USFL violated anti-trust laws, but awarded the USFL owners only a token $1 in damages.

In the aftermath of the USFL's collapse, most of the blame went to Trump. An Aug. 6 column in an online news site in Boston referred to Trump as "one of the worst sports owners ever."

Given Trump's dreadful track record in professional sports, it was ironically amusing when, during an August appearance on the Hugh Hewitt radio show, Hewitt suggested that buying the Indians might allow Trump to carry Ohio in next year's presidential election.

"Good, then I'll buy them," replied Trump. "We'll work out a deal."

No thanks!

Brent Larkin was The Plain Dealer's editorial director from 1991 until his retirement in 2009.

To reach Brent Larkin: blarkin@cleveland.com