Author, Retired Attorney
Owner of the Salem –Keizer Volcanoes Minor League Baseball
Team
The Single A affiliate of the San Francisco
Giants
A Major League Lawyering Mentor
Major league shortstop Cody Ransom and pitchers Joe Nathan and Tim
Lincecum, along with many other major league baseball players all
got their start playing for William Tucker `62 owner of the San
Francisco Giant’s Minor League affiliate - the Salem Keizer
Volcanoes. This number is small compared to the number of
individuals who learned “big league” lawyering skills from now
retired attorney, William Tucker, who spent thirty-plus years with
the firm of Cullen and Dykman in Brooklyn and Garden City, New
York.
Mr. Tucker became involved in Minor League Baseball ownership after
meeting Jerry Walker of Everett, Washington at a Mickey Mantle
Fantasy Baseball Camp that he attended as a birthday present from
his wife, Dolores. Together, Tucker and Walker attended
several more Mantle Fantasy Camps. They then got an
opportunity to attend the Major League Baseball Winter Meetings
where they learned that a few minor league clubs were available for
sale. After a series of meetings, and due diligence on the
part of Minor League Baseball, with ownership approval in hand,
they successfully negotiated the purchase of the Franchise that
became the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes in Oregon. The
Tucker-Walker baseball enterprise has been going strong for twenty
one years since inception.
Tucker and Walker’s ownership exploits are documented in their
first book “DP – Or Billy and Jerry in the Promised Land”.
That book was followed by their second book, “Moving Home Plate –
The Miracle on I-5” which chronicles the relocation of a minor
league baseball franchise and constructing a stadium with no public
financing in an era prior to wide acceptance of governmental
economic development incentives. Those books are a “must
read” for baseball fans disenchanted with big salary
baseball.
Tucker has also written three mysteries, fiction novels about the
law “Kingsway – 37”, a tale of drugs, vigilantism, murder and the
law set in Brooklyn. The vigilantes being members of the
local church parish, a concept that lends itself to literary twists
and turns and makes for a good, quick read. As reviewed by
Writer’s Digest, “The author’s expertise in the field of law
practice is very evident in the amount of detail that this book has
concerning procedural intricacies of prosecution. The author
has a very good grip on the motivations and the desires of his
characters. I totally loved the surprise ending.”
Baseball has changed considerably since a young William Tucker
would hitchhike from Kingston, NY to Yankee Stadium because of
dissatisfaction with the poor local television reception and
limited coverage of the World Series. The same could be said
for the practice of law. Mr. Tucker reminisces about the
early years at Cullen and Dykman, where the closing rooms were
named for baseball greats and furnished with
memorabilia.
The father of three (one being an attorney) and grandfather of
seven, Mr. Tucker offers this advice to today’s legal students,
“Stay focused, and always put your client’s interest before your
own. In an era where the world wants everything now and
distractions surround the client – attorney relationship, you will
ultimately achieve more and better results by maintaining a
client-first focus.”