LOS ANGELES — Arturo "Arte" Moreno has always kept a low profile.
The new owner of the Anaheim Angels sometimes meets with associates while coaching his Little League team. Friends say he sits in the cheap seats at games at the University of Arizona, his alma mater.
It doesn't look like he'll change, even though the businessman from Tucson, Ariz., became the first minority owner of a major league team when his $184 million purchase of the Angels from The Walt Disney Co. was approved Thursday by baseball owners in New York. The deal is expected to close next week.
Moreno, 56, doesn't plan any major changes in the team — at least not yet.
"It's a learning process," he said. "I'm going to sit back and listen. I've been very successful by surrounding myself with good people and keeping those people in place."
A fourth-generation Mexican-American, Moreno grew up the oldest of 11 children in a blue-collar neighborhood. He worked for the family print shop in Tucson, graduated with a marketing degree from the University of Arizona and is a Vietnam veteran.
In the mid-1980s, he took over Phoenix-based Outdoor Systems, transforming it into an advertising industry giant before he and a partner sold it for $8.3 billion in 1999 to Infinity Broadcasting Co. Now worth an estimated $940 million, he ranks No. 246 on the Forbes list of 400 richest Americans.
Moreno is a private man who doesn't flaunt his wealth. He has no secretary, coaches Little League and spends a lot of time with his two sons and daughter at his homes in Phoenix and La Jolla, Calif.
He rarely grants interviews and did not speak publicly about his deal for the Angels until after Thursday's vote.
Despite that silence, friends say he has long loved baseball.
"Every bit about baseball intrigues him," Jack Donovan, his longtime friend and current director of spring training for the Arizona Diamondbacks told the Los Angeles Times. "You can tell when someone has a passion for the game. It just oozes out of him."
Back in 1986, when Moreno was an up-and-coming businessman, he and 17 other investors scraped together $150,000 and bought the Class A Salt Lake City Trappers, then did everything from collecting tickets to shagging fly balls during practice.
Under his watch, the team won 29 straight games and three championships.
Moreno has since owned a small interest in the Arizona Diamondbacks and currently has a part interest in the NBA's Phoenix Suns. He played down the significance of becoming the first minority owner with a controlling stake in a major league baseball team.
"I'm proud to be a Mexican-American," he said, "but as far as being the first minority, I think most of us are immigrants from some place, and I think we always try to do our best to be Americans."