On Thursday we asked you to vote for the least lovable team owner in sports history, and you responded in droves — mostly for one man that some commenters said put their team into a tailspin that they have yet to recover from.

As of 9:30 a.m. ET on Friday, the question garnered 4,771 votes. Here's a breakdown of the numbers:

• Donald Sterling, L.A. Clippers — 66 votes (1.38 per cent)

• Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys — 140 votes (2.93 per cent)

• George Steinbrenner, New York Yankees — 468 votes (9.81 per cent)

• Marge Schott, Cincinnati Reds — 588 votes (12.32 per cent)

The runaway winner, holding the dubious distinction as the worst owner in sports history:

Harold Ballard — 3,032 votes (63.55 per cent)

Top responses:

gxs271: "Harold Ballard ruined the Toronto Maple Leafs and they still haven't recovered."

5thdimention: "Harold Ballard probably set the Leafs back at least 2 generations."

KeonFan: "Leafs haven't won since I was 2; Ballard was representative of typical neo-con 'me first' businessman…Awful man."

Mr.Grinch: "Ballard and Steinbrenner both thought they were the experts in their sports. Ballard's refusal to negotiate with Keon after he'd had his best year was business, but his refusal to trade Keon was inexcusable."

vikingman: "Ballard sold his team's Stanley Cup banners?!! Yikes. Nothin' screams curse - more than that."

hpaabr: "Like most I voted for Ballard. With a moment of thought it occured to me that maybe he was the most honest owner. There was no BS in his approach. If people are stupid enough to give him money he'd take it. If he could raise prices and fill the Gardens anyway, why waste money on building a decent team."

tango29: "You only needed two options on your "Most Despised Owner" list: Harold Ballard...and 'The Rest.'"

SkyBlue1: Harold Ballard sounds like a malicious, destructive, mean so and so and deserves his label as most despised owner in sports history. Congratulations Harold!

As always, we encouraged your ideas on owners that weren't included in our short list (Other garnered 10 per cent of the vote), and a couple of names grabbed plenty of (negative) attention and votes:

blackwater204: "Peter Pocklington? How is he not there. He let down a team, franchise, city, and country."

MOzart77: "Peter "Puck" Pocklington has my vote. Dismantled the greatest team in NHL history, that could have won another 2-3 Cups, piece-by-sorry-piece. Broke a city's heart..."

diamond22: "Good list, but the first person to came to my mind was Michael Heisley who bought the Vancouver Grizzlies then moved them to Memphis."

James Mo: "Hello? Jeffrey Loria anyone?"

donblievedahype: "Jeffrey Loria, absolutely. He ran the Expos out of town with his greed."

OrigCdn: "Malcolm Glazer and his sons. They bought Manchester United when it was one of the most valuable sports teams in the world, they financed their purchase by borrowiing money on future earnings. This took United from being worth a billion plus to being about a billion in debt."

dutch_blitz: "How about Malcolm Glazer and the Glazer famliy's ownership of Manchester United Football Club. I think the Man U supporters probably outnumber all of the NHL's support worldwide and they seem to collectively give two big thumbs down to the US based Glazer."