The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels have a new majority owner who is thrilled to have two fields of dreams: one for farming and the other to promote Minor League Baseball.
John Martin, 42, traded places with Andy Kauffman, who is retaining a piece of the team as a minority partner.
The Mighty Mussels are the low-Class A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins.
“I’m standing in the breezeway looking down at the empty field before me,” Martin told Gulfshore Business on the phone Monday. “First of all, I’m an absolute baseball fan at my core. I’m a kid who grew up in central Illinois surrounded by cornfields. I played whiffle ball with all the other kids. We played baseball. We knew the stats for every Chicago Cubs player in the mid-80s.
“We got to the point where nobody would pay a dollar to see me play baseball. So I got involved in agriculture. That’s our family business.”
Martin first became involved with the team in 2020, a season that never got played because of the COVID-19 pandemic. That also marked the team’s first full year named the Mighty Mussels following 29 seasons at Hammond Stadium as the Fort Myers Miracle.
Martin acknowledged that many fans still call the team by its old nickname. He joked that to confuse them even more, there will be “throwback Thursday” nights with the players wearing Miracle-branded jerseys and Miracle on the scoreboard again.
“That’s super cool, paying homage to the history of the team,” Martin said.
While previous owners and ownership groups made periodic visits to Fort Myers, Martin plans to be on hand and in town more often. He’ll split his time between his family’s soybean and corn farming operations in central Illinois and living in his Bonita Springs home.
“These guys were already running a well-oil machined when I got here,” Martin said. “I can be a very positive and energetic face of the team to the community. That’s one thing I’m going to be very active in. That will be a bit of a change. At my core, I’m a baseball fan.”
The ongoing Major League Baseball lockout means the fields in front of Martin’s new office are empty. Big-league spring training has been put on hold.
“It’s always a negative when the big leaguers aren’t going,” Martin said. “If we want to find a positive, the minor league is not going to be affected at all by the work stoppage. We’ll be playing regardless.”
The Mighty Mussels top executives will stay in place. Chris Peters will remain president, Judd Loveland as general manager and Dan Lauer as vice president of sales and marketing. The three of them have more than 50 years of combined experience in Minor League Baseball. Peters said having Martin as the new majority owner would provide a spark.
“He’s a diehard baseball guy,” Peters said. “He’s going to do a lot of great things.”
The Mighty Mussels play their home opener at 7 p.m. April 12 versus the Jupiter Hammerheads at Hammond Stadium.
The promotional calendar includes a concert with Joe Nichols and Parmelee on May 14, 17 post-game firework shows, five beer festivals and four celebrity guest appearances: Carol Baskin of “Tiger King” fame (April 15), “The Office” actor Brian Baumgartner (April 29), actor Jon Gries (June 3) and wrestling commentator Jerry Lawler (June 18).
