Joe Burke (baseball)

Joseph Roy Burke (December 8, 1923 – May 12, 1992) was an American front office executive in Major League Baseball who served as general manager or club president of the Kansas City Royals for almost 18 years during the most successful period in that expansion team's early history.

Burke was executive vice president and general manager of the Royals from the middle of the 1974 season through October 1981. He then served as club president until his death on May 12, 1992. During his tenure, Burke was general manager of the Royals' first American League championship team, the 1980 edition, then was president of the 1985 Royals, which won the franchise's first World Series title. In addition to those two pennant-winners, the Royals won American League West Division championships in 1976, 1977, 1978, 1981 (second half of a split season) and 1984. In 1976, he was named Major League Executive of the Year by The Sporting News after his first division title.

Before coming to Kansas City, Burke had been a member of the front office of the Texas Rangers and its predecessor, the second Washington Senators franchise. He had begun his baseball career in 1948 with the Louisville Colonels of the Triple-A American Association, where he worked under general manager Ed Doherty. After rising to the post of GM of the Colonels in 1960, Burke joined the expansion Senators in their debut 1961 season as business manager, again working for Doherty, the team's first general manager. He later was named the Senators' vice president and treasurer, and was retained when Bob Short purchased the Senators in 1968. He accompanied the franchise to Dallas-Fort Worth when it relocated after the 1971 season and became the Rangers' general manager in their first season in North Texas.

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