His daughter, Pamela Corbett Murrin, confirmed the death.

Mr. Corbett, who made his fortune manufacturing plastic pipe, was just 36 when he and several other investors bought the Rangers early in 1974 for a reported $9.6 million and the assumption of $1 million in debt. The team — the erstwhile Washington Senators, who had moved to Arlington, Tex., two years earlier — had just suffered through consecutive 100-loss seasons. But, managed by Billy Martin, and led by pitcher Ferguson Jenkins and a young slugger, Jeff Burroughs, they finished 84-76, good enough for second place in the American League West division.

Over the next few seasons, particularly after the reserve clause in player contracts was struck down by a federal arbitrator, initiating the era of free agency in baseball, Mr. Corbett became a whirlwind wheeler-dealer. He spent freely to acquire free agents, if not always wisely.

He wrote big checks to aging stars like Bert Campaneris and players of questionable value like Richie Zisk, Jim Sundberg and Doc Medich. And he traded players with such abandon (he bartered away both Jenkins, whom he subsequently brought back, and Burroughs) — often against the advice of his general manager and occasionally, Sports Illustrated revealed, with the input of his teenage son — that a reporter for Texas Monthly wrote, "He ought to trade his three-piece suit for a giant eggplant and try to make it on 'Let's Make a Deal.' "

No one ever accused Mr. Corbett of lacking a competitive spirit. Like George Steinbrenner of the Yankees (and other team owners), he fired Martin; he also fired several other managers. The Rangers had six of them in six seasons under Mr. Corbett, including four in 1977.

And he was prone to venting his temper. One day after a loss in 1978, he stormed into the clubhouse and harangued the team. "We've got to start playing with some pride," he yelled. "We're going to have a winner here in Texas — if not this year, then next, though I haven't written off this year. It's certainly not because you guys aren't well paid. I'll go broke if I have to. I'll fire till I'm dry."

He did not quite go broke; he sold the team in 1980, reportedly because his other business was struggling, but in 1979 the Rangers had drawn more than 1.5 million fans, the highest total in the franchise's history to that point. During his six-year stewardship, the Rangers had four winning seasons and finished second three times, including 1977, when the team won 94 games, the most in franchise history until 1999.

Bradford Gary Corbett was born in the Bronx on Oct. 15, 1937, and grew up largely in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens. He never knew his father; he was reared by his mother and his grandmother. After graduating from Wagner College on Staten Island, he served for three years in the Marines. He worked for the Allied Chemical Corporation before founding Universal Pipe and Plastic, which became Robintech, a Fort Worth-based manufacturer of plastic pipe used in the oil industry and elsewhere. After he sold the Rangers, he started S&B Technical Products, which makes rubber gaskets for the waterworks industry.

Mr. Corbett's marriage to Gunhilde Grunde, who is known as Gunnie Corbett, ended in divorce, though they remained close until his death. In addition to their daughter, he is survived by two sons, Bradford Jr. and Todd, and four grandchildren.

Despite his long residence in Fort Worth and his substantial Texas ties, Mr. Corbett never stopped thinking of himself as a New Yorker, his daughter said. He held season tickets to the New York Giants — anathema in a city so close to Dallas, home of the Cowboys — and often wore pajamas with the team's logo on them. He was wearing the bottoms when he died, she said.