Power Ball

It's the bottom of the third inning at Charlotte Sports Park on a steamy June evening when Stone Crabs catcher Ian Paxton steps up to the plate before his home crowd of 3,300. With two batters out, Paxton cracks a homer over the left field wall, tying the score at 1 with the Dunedin Blue Jays. Fans cheer loudly, many rising to their feet, some pumping their giant foam fingers toward the dusk sky. The fuzzy blue mascot, Stoney, hams it up and Paxton lopes around the bases, eventually exchanging high-fives at the dugout with his teammates.

Minor league baseball is in full swing in Port Charlotte, providing a helping of summertime fun for fans during the Stone Crabs’ inaugural season. So far, the team has shown its winning ways. At press time, the team led the Florida State League in attendance and was in second place. That could translate into success on the business end and a boost for the local economy.

But this moment of celebration—and, for that matter, the arrival of the Single-A Stone Crabs in Charlotte County—might not have been possible if not for the efforts of another power team, including: Jay Baker, retired president and chairman of retail giant Kohl’s Corp.; Bruce Sherman, retired chairman and chief investment officer of Naples-based Private Capital Management; and Cal Ripken Jr., the legendary Baltimore Orioles shortstop and third baseman as well as president and CEO of Ripken Baseball.

There’s no doubt that the deal was an investment for these businessmen, but it also was driven by three guys’ love of the game and their desire to share it with others. “I’ve been a Yankees fan since I was 6 years old. I’ve always had an interest in baseball,” Baker says. “What’s so wonderful about minor league ball is it’s very affordable and you can take your family and have a good time. It’s an incredibly fun time.”

It’s not every day a minor league comes to town, so we took a closer look, on and off the field, to learn what’s behind the birth of a baseball team.

Team players
The Stone Crabs debuted at Charlotte Sports Park on April 9 to great fanfare, fueled by a capacity crowd of more than 7,100. Sherman took a ceremonial first pitch from Cal Ripken, and Baker caught one from Cal’s brother Billy Ripken, a retired American League infielder who also works at Ripken Baseball, which now owns three minor league teams and runs baseball-oriented youth camps and clinics. Each wore a Stone Crabs jersey.

“Cal said to me, ‘I guess my pitch was too fast for you, so you chose Billy.’ Cal has a great sense of humor,” Baker says with a laugh.

The Ripken brothers took time to sign autographs for anyone who asked, “and then Cal came up [to the suite] and signed autographs for our friends,” says Baker, who was accompanied by some 40 guests to the game.

The opening day arrived nearly four years after Baker and Sherman won a bid at a fundraising auction allowing them to play a golf game with Ripken. Baker wound up joining the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation, named for Cal Jr.’s father, which works throughout the country with disadvantaged youth through baseball- and softball-themed programs to help build their character and teach them life lessons.

Over the years, “I got to know Cal [Jr.] pretty well,” Baker says. Meanwhile, Baker and Sherman, whose friendship dates back 10 years, had been exploring the purchase of a professional baseball team. “Bruce and I once tried to look at [investing in] a major league team but it didn’t make sense for us at the time.”

Along the way, Baker broached the idea of finding a minor league team with Ripken. “Cal owned two minor league baseball teams. So I said to him, ‘If you ever have a team that could be in a place where I could go see games, I would have an interest,’” Baker says. “I talked to Bruce and he said he would have an interest, too.”

A tall order, perhaps, but about two years ago a unique opportunity presented itself.

In 2007, the Los Angeles Dodgers decided to establish a minor league team in Arizona and sell its Vero Beach franchise. Ripken Baseball and the Tampa Bay Rays initiated the purchase, knowing Baker and Sherman would join in, according to Chris Flannery, chief operating officer of Ripken Baseball.

Ripken welcomed the business relationship with Baker and Sherman. “There are some people you have good instincts about right away,” Ripken says of the two. “It’s been a wonderful partnership.” Also, the new affiliation offered Ripken the opportunity to establish an operation in the Florida State League, to which the Stones Crabs belong. He had played in the league’s Miami Orioles, one of Baltimore’s minor league teams, during his formative years. “That’s where I started to blossom.”

An added benefit was that Charlotte County decided to put $27 million into refurbishing the stadium, which for the most part had remained underused since the Texas Rangers stopped spring training there in 2002, taking their minor league affiliate with them. (Last year, the Charlotte County Redfish, of the independent and now-defunct South Coast League, played at the park.) The investment helped lure the Tampa Bay Ray’s spring training operation there from St. Petersburg.

The franchise cost more than $3 million, Baker says. “We’re all fairly equal partners. Bruce and I own slightly more than Cal’s group, and the Rays, a little more than half.” Revenue is generated by ticket sales, sponsorships, concessions and retail sales.

Moving the team to Charlotte County called for approval by Minor League Baseball and later by the Major League Baseball commissioner’s office, as well as an OK from the Fort Myers Miracle, the Minnesota Twins affiliate, because it had been awarded territorial rights to Charlotte County.