DEREK’S TEST
OWNING MARLINS WON’T BE EASY
DeDerek Jeter has won the auction for the Marlins for $1.2 billion and will serserve as the franchise’s CEO, a sosource with direct knowledge of the sisituation said. The former Yankees captain and fufuture Hall of Famer will oversee both baseball and business operations,i sources said. He also will hhave a large voting stake in team affafairs, roughly 20 percent. Billionaiaire money manager Bruce Shermman will be the controlling owner. “It’s a deal,” the source said. “The inink is dry.” AAs principal owner, Sherman is invesvesting several hundred million in the acquisition and Jeter less than $30 million, sources said. ShSherman, who lives in Naples, Fla., did nnot know Jeter until he found out the reretired Yankee was bidding for the MarlinMarlins and inquired months ago about joining his group, sources said. In the past, Sherman had unsuccessfully bid for a minor league baseball team. In the following months, Sherman outlastedlasted otother billionaire Jeter backers such as RichardRicha Chaifetz and Quogue Capital FounderFounder Wayne Rothbaum, who eventually left Jeter and formed his own rival Marlins bidding group with Tagg Romney, the source sasaid. Sherman then became the lead of Jeter’s bidding group. Like hihis friend and mentor, basketball greatgreat MicMichael Jordan, Jeter is first becoming a top sposports team executive with the goal of learning the business, then buying a franchise,chise, a sosource who knows Jeter said. Jordan, a Marlins co-investor in the Sherman/Jeter bidding ggroup, first ran the NBA’s Wizards, then becamebeca owner of the Bobcats (now the Hornets)Hornets). Jeter, wwho retired from the Yankees followinglowing tthe 2014 season, does not have any baseball managementment expexperience and previously had teamteamed with former Florida governor Jeb Bush in an attempt to purchapurchase the Marlins, but that pairing fefell apart in May. When it appeared Jeter and Bush werwere on their way to winningning the bid at Jeter’s jersey-retirementtirement ceremony in The Bronx earlier ththat month, Jeter downplayedplayed anany potential role in the sale of the team.
“There’s nothing to report on that,” Jeter said. “Absolutely nothing. I think sometimes [with] stories, people get ahead of themselves. And there was a story people got way ahead of themselves a few weeks back. There’s nothing to report. If there’s something to report, I’ll let you know.”
At the time, though, his friend and former teammate Jorge Posada said he believed it would be a good move.
“People are asking, ‘Is it going to happen?’ That would be great,” Posada said. “He brings that winning mentality. The people in Miami want it. They want change.”
During his on-field speech May 14, Jeter repeatedly mentioned the importance of the Yankees franchise to him.
“I’m eternally grateful to be part of the Yankee family,” Jeter said.
The 69-year-old Sherman plans to maintain his Marlins ownership for years to come, then eventually turn the team over to his children, sources said.
He made much of his fortune when Legg Mason bought his Private Capital Management money management firm, based in Naples, Fla., for $1.4 billion in 2001.
Sherman became best known for being a big investor in newspapers.
Sherman’s Private Capital Management fell in size by the time he retired in 2009 from its $30 billion peak to $2.4 billion in assets.
When Sherman was riding high, he said he liked investing in cash-rich companies because they could buy back shares or make investments to improve their share prices, according to the 1999 book “Investment Gurus: A Road Map to Wealth from the World’s Best Money Managers.”
The Marlins do not fit the typical Sherman criteria, as they are expected to lose $70 million this year.
Sherman did not grow up wealthy, being raised in middle-class Douglaston, Queens.
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