Ex-Altoona Curve owner DeWeese dies on birthday

Minor league baseball owner J. Taylor "Tate" DeWeese III died of a heart attack at 58.
BEDFORD, Pa. (AP) -- J. Taylor "Tate" DeWeese III, a co-founder and former owner of the minor league Altoona Curve baseball team, died of a heart attack on his birthday Monday at age 58, his friends said.
He was at his Sarasota, Fla., home, said Rudolph L. Massa, a Pittsburgh attorney who represented DeWeese. DeWeese, a real estate developer, considered Bedford his primary home, though he also kept homes in three other states.
In 1997, a partnership made up of DeWeese, Mark Thomas and Bob Lozinak won the right to start a Class AA team in Altoona. The next year, the Pittsburgh Pirates chose Altoona to be its Class AA Eastern League affiliate. The Curve started playing in the Blair County Ballpark in 1999.
Lozinak and DeWeese sold the team in April 2002 to a group led by Chuck Greenberg and that included hockey great Mario Lemieux and Steelers running back Jerome Bettis.
DeWeese is survived by a daughter, Jill, 23; and a son, Jamie, 26.
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