The Role of Ownership

The Role of Ownership

We’re less than two weeks away from pitchers and catchers reporting and the only thing we seem to all be reading about is the possibility of the Mets taking on a new minority owner.

 
I counted 147 posts on my twitter account yesterday about the Mets, and 101 were on the ownership topic.

 
As some of you know, I was a 20% minority owner in a company. I also was the President, until my “partners” wanted to expand on the company in the troublesome 1980’s and I voted against it due to our already large debt owed to the banks. They met without me (their right), voted me out as President, and told me to take a hike while still retaining a personal guarantee against the debt. A year later, they sold the company for seven figures less than we owed and I got stuck with my portion of the bill. Trust me, it ain’t that special.

 
Is ownership that important to you, the fan?

 
Ask yourself a few questions:

 
1. How many names do you know that own either a team in the MLB, NBA, NFL, or NHL?

 
2. How many of them meddle in the day-to-day operation of their teams?

 
3. And, regarding those that meddle, how many times have they won a championship in their respective league?

 
Companies run best when ownership hires an excellent leader, and then let’s that person build the company with excellent divisional managers, who then… you get the picture.

 
The best example I worked for in this category was The Hearst Corporation. William Randolph Hearst actually set up a Board of Directors that had no family members. Each division head reported to him and the board and that divisional head had 100% say in the day-to-day operation of that division. I worked one floor below the President of Hearst Broadcasting as the General Sales Manager of their Pittsburgh radio stations. I met the President on my interview, each year’s Christmas lunch, and a five-minute exit-interview a few years later. My boss, the General Manager of the radio stations, met with him daily. I met with the GM daily. That’s how it’s supposed to work.

 
Some businesses have family problems. The New York Giants were a perfect example of this. Fifty per cent of the team was owned by the late Wellington Mara, while the other half was owned by his nephew, Tim Mara. They hated each other. In fact, they didn’t even talk to each other. But, both were smart enough to hire a competent General Manager, George Young, and then let him do their job. Young hired Bill Parcells and the rest is history.

 
I really don’t care who owns the rest, I care who runs it.

 
The fans own the Green Bay Packers, but they don’t pick the players. A Japanese company owns the Seattle Mariners, but they don’t serve goiza in the dugout.

 
A company takes on a minority partner because they either need additional operating monies, or a competent operator that demands a piece of the action. The company that hired me was operating into the grave. I got my piece to run their company and they never told me how to that. We became highly profitable, sold part of the company off to retire all the old debt, and then began to buy new additions into the company. We were then hit with the recession, and went south. Their solution was to buy more and run up more debt, while, at the same time, refinance the debt we then had over our head. I didn’t like the idea. So goes my ownership days.

 

Let the Wilpons work out their own problems. None directly relate to field operations. New money will come in, old contracts will run out at the end of 2011, and 2012 will begin a new chapter in New York baseball.

 
Just root for the team. They need your support.

I May Be Wrong, But… Matt Cerrone, Jeff Wilpon, Matt Garrioch, Oliver Perez, R.A. Dickey, Kai Gronauer, Kirk Nieuwenhuis

1. Some posters may grow older, but never wiser. I paid a visit to one of my old stomping grounds, NYFS, and found a particular post interesting. It was about Matt Cerrone, of www.metsblog.com  and I couldn’t believe how many of the many loyal posters there think Matt doesn’t know what he is doing. I’ve always had trouble with haters online, but knock Matt Cerrone? Isn’t he the guy that gives most of you morning cup of Mets stuff?

2. Jeff Wilpon seems to be getting a little soft on the loss of Omar. He’s been quoted as saying he misses him and would welcome him back in some capacity. Listen, firing someone can bring you a lot of guilt. I fired people who thought they were my friend. One eventually hung himself in his mother’s bedroom. I haven’t held a job in the radio industry for over  ten years and I still have a minimum of three nightmares a week about that subject. Change is sometimes inevitable and people need to move on without each other. Stay away, Omar.

3. Matt Garrioch, over at www.mlbbonusbaby.com , listed the top 20 international kids signed in the off-season and none were Mets. I expected Elvis Sanchez to be on this list, but I guess Matt wasn’t high on him. There easily could have been a drop off in signings this past off-season, what with all the turnover of brass and scouts. Seven of my top ten Mets prospects came out of international signings, which speaks for its strengths, and the weakness of past Mets drafts.

4. the Mets looking for a minority partner means only one thing… they’re out of family moolah. My first minority ownership was with Specter Broadcasting. Why? Because the original owners came close to running the company in the ground. This is really good news for Mets fans and could be the first step in someday being returned to operating as a big-market team. Hats off to the Wilpons for recognizing the problem.

5.Oliver Perez will compete for a job in spring training as a starter, not a relief pitcher He’s coming off the Mexican League fully stretched, and he will go against Dillon Gee, Chris Young, and Pat Misch for the 4th/5th slot. Chris Capuano will begin ST out of the pen, per Terry Collins.

6. Congrats go out on the 2-year deal for SP R.A. Dickey. The best news about this is the fact it isn’t a 3-year deal. Dickey’s earned this, and even if he fails as a starter, would make a nice addition out of the pen. We all know that both Jenrry Mejia and Matt Harvey are slotted for 2014, but that’s a long way away and anything can happen. On paper, there is no better potential SP5 than Dickey.

7.  I see that Captain Kirk and Kai Gronauer have both been invited to be part of the Mets spring training roster. This will be Kai’s first entrance into the sacred clubhouse and I’m thrilled for him. I’ve contacted him for a response, which, if received, will be in my next posting.

8. changing web site is a real pain… I’ve contacted SportsSpyder and hopefully, they will include my new site soon. We continue to work on the new site, which will change to a real domain site sometime in the next 30 days. My name is owned by some other site, so we’re going to change it eventually to MackBaseball.com …  I’m sorry to put all of you through this, but it’s a necessity for me to accomplish my long term goals as a Mets writer.

9. Could the announcement by the Wilpons have worse timing? We’re less than 20 days away from pitchers and catchers reporting and the last thing Sandy Alderson and Company needs is this kind of media distraction. It must be really bad to throw a press conference about this now. I’m sure the players and coaches will all be a little testy if questions come their way about this crap.