You are thinking of Albert Greenfield, and the funny thing is that before 1913 he had shown no interest in sports, at least in public.
Though not as well known, George Steinbrenner was also an important owner, and he was originally from Cleveland, not Philadelphia. It so happened that the deal to build the new stadium fell through in 1971, right when Steinbrenner had tried and failed to buy the Indians, and the Phillies were being shopped around instead. If nothing else, he was more willing to spend money on the team than typical of National League owners, and alot of the their championships came during his period of ownership.
Funny, as a baseball purist I just remember that - after 3-4 years of artificial turf - Steinbrenner's first action as owner was to order it ripped up nd replaced with natural grass again, like they did at Candlestick and Comiskey in the '70s. He famously said, "Dick Allen was right - if a cow won't eat it, a great team like the Phillies should not play on it!"
I suppose a good way to swap Philadelphia and New York sports records would be for Greenfield, as a Ukranian immigrant, to stay in New York, but were the Yankees for sale then?
Of course, even if they were, he might not have met a boy like he did who was so enthusiastic about the Great Alexander that he convinced Greenfield to come to the game with him. (Okay, the story is probably apocryphal, but I do like the notion of a young lad whose family was down on its luck, without a father, looking up to Greenfield and working in his office being part of it. It was one of the sweeter parts of "The Winning Team: The Grover Alexander Story." That 1923 World Series win after beating the Giants in a close pennant race was the first of several for Ruth.)
As for football, they say it traces back to Jackie Robinson, who as a publicity stunt for the Eagers played for them after the PHilllies' season was over 1-2 years before he concetrated fully on baseball. Boy, if the PHillies don't integrate in '39, Robinson's a man who would have been perfect to be the first to integrate the majors. He, Campanella, Gilliam(edit: No, he wasn't quite up yet), Newcombe, formed a great team in 1950 - what an incredible comeback by the Giants the next year, with Bobby Thomson's home run to win the pennant then! That and then Willie Mays leading the Giants' 1954 World Series winning team were the just about the high points of New York baseball.
Or, if you don't want to use Robinson as a positive force, you could always point to the Curse of Chuck Bednarik for football. Poor guy. It was normal hit on Frank Gifford, but just the wrong place at the wrong time...
