David Samson

UM executive vice president of the formally Montreal exposed. Um, and you just done everything right and then now you're working as a baseball analyst. I just want to say, welcome to the Cut to a Podcast. David SAMs. I appreciate that. I'm only fifty four, so I would say I'm only on the sixth hole, so I have not done everything at all. I'm that perspective. I like that I'm just getting started. I like, I'm not gonna argue with you. I'm sorry. Yeah, Well, um, are you ready

for this? Oh? I am ready? Give me all you got? Well, that's all you're gonna get there, all right, here we go, all right, hey if you want aloud? Oh would you

keep working in your current position or profession? Yeah. So I love what I do, and I do it because I love it, So I have I've been lucky, and that after law school, I started a company over in Europe delivering newspapers and I was twenty five years old, and that I loved every moment I was there, even when the Internet started and all of a sudden nobody would buy regular papers anymore. I said, all right, let me try something else. So I went to Wall Street.

And when I was on Wall Street, I loved it. I was so proud to be at Morgan Stanley and enjoyed the work I was doing. And then I moved into baseball, and I loved it. I had a great time running the Expos, and then I had a great time for sixteen years with the Marlins Wonder World Series and built the ballpark and helped the owners sell the team to Jeter, who just got fired. And I love

doing that baseball. I was super excited to see what the next chapter was, and I got an agent, and then I got a job at CBS, and I have my own show called Nothing Personal with David Sampson, where I can talk about whatever I want. David, Um, this is my show. Slow down like this just the icebreaker, bro I don't I don't like we was done like he don't let me at all. That's a record a part as right now. We just everything right listen, I'm driving.

Get your ass in the back seat. Okay, you ain't tall. I looked you up, so you were you gonna you got a little little car seat. Just buckle up, all right, we got your crustable, Well, get your apple sauce. Just hey, we'll get there. I'll tell you when we get there. Okay, all right, Paul's all right, here we go. What kind of dog never bites a full one? No hot dog? Bro. See, we're just in an icebreaker section right there. We're just trying to loosen you up. Okay, you're you're trying to

care cancer. Were just trying to we just I mean, I asked what you going a lot of He's like no, And here's why, man, I just I was gonna say I would still doing my job because I think I've already hit the lotto. But you didn't even give me a chance to because you went off way yonder. Yeah, I mean it was I got I was like, damn, I can't ask him about about when he founded his Companye Travels Fast, but he already went into it. We was gonna use in London. Damn it can you can

you get on the plane first? All right? What have you given up on something? When I stopped growing, I gave up on being able to dunk on a regulation hoop. I'm right there with you. Hey, I'm right there with you. How tall are you? Actually? Five five? I'm five nine three four? I'm five four and three quarters. Now there the podcast perfect because you always got a round up. You got around up. He did. He got convicted. He

was Actually it's one of the eight, he said. But then when I said, he was like, damn, I'm convicted? All right? Hey, where are you from in a place you call your hometown? I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and New York is my home? Do tail? What? Why are you claiming New York? Well? I moved there when I was five and I lived there really the entire my entire life, except Florida for eighteen years when I

was running the Marlins. Well, I mean you kind of stumped me on now because I was really gonna say, like, how was it in Wisconsin? I've been in Wisconsin a few times. Yeah, how's your upbringing in Wisconsin? How that's why they moved to New York? Hey, what you remember? Well? My upbringing Wisconsin was fraught with parents who were fighting so much they finally divorced. And then I moved to New York with my mom. But I went back to Wisconsin for summer camp. I went back for college. I'm

a badger, so I happened to love Wisconsin. Oh. You you guys just got a new office coordinator who used uh Bobby Ingram. He used to be my wife receiver's coach. He's a good dude. So in New York, how was your upbringing? Lucky? I need some texture on that. Oh, I just I don't want to talk too much, So I'm I'm going now to now you can Now you can talk. Now you can go the ice breakers. You you can't tell me your life story after the first question.

I was born on third base, but knew I didn't hit a triple, and I've spent my whole life trying to make sure that I earned my way home. Wow, that was all that was, like the very poetic tupac esc I's trying to figure out what was I born on first or second? I was born in seven? N God, this is about to be hilarious. I like David. He

is spunky. You got so fire too. You've caused a lot of trouble your life average, Yeah, but you know what, I've never been punched and I've never thrown a punch in my whole life because I've been able to talk my way out of every pickle I've been in, and there been a lot of them. Really, when's the last time you've been in a pickle? The coast? Is the last time you at the grocery store three days ago? Know what what happened? Was it in the produce section

trying to get those melons? So listen, if you're gonna feel every goddamn apocado, then you're gonna have to buy them all. And I'm saying, is that pre COVID or post covid? What is it? What is it? What is this anchor? I love your heads at pre COVID. For me, I've been the hand sanitizer guy. People are just catching up to me now. So I've been a hand sandy guy. In my entire life, I'm not a big germ guy. And I was in a job where I had to

shake hands with people every day all day. So I was doing Howie Mandel before he was, I was a major fist guy. All right, let's go back to these avocados. Why so you I'm telling you this dude is a firecracker. Why are you with people in the produce? What happened? Because I'm trying to get It's simple. I'm trying to get produced. I'm trying to get avocados and onions, and I'm trying to get in and out right. I don't want to ditherer. I've got shipped to do right. And

so there's people touching every bit of produce. Hold on, hold on, Davis, do you understand if you just grabbed the first one avocado, you can have avocado that is not usable all And if you plan on using that tonight and it is not right, you're disappointed. I can choose an avocado with my eye. You can tell which ones are softer and which ones aren't. That is incorrect, and I disagree. Being a guy who cooks, you cannot tell.

Because I've I was like oh, I think that's a good when I was like, wait a week till that was ready. Or you get one that looks great and you touching him and your damn hen and it almost sinks into it. So how you know? I'm not lying? Though?

I know? But aren't you a courteous avocado picker? Do you take up the entire section of the hassa avocados, sort of covering it like batman as you try to find the one you want, or do you stand a one side and let a little five ft five guy just get in a little bit on the right and

choose his own avocados? Which guy are you? Actually? I'm the guy who does not want any confrontation and I don't want you to hover over me, so I tried to I try to give you the same courtesy that you're giving me, which is I don't want to talk to you, and I don't really care what you want to talk about. I'm just in here to get my I'm just trying to make tableside go out. No, No, here's what I'm trying to do. I'm just I just trying to do my hunty. I'm just trying to get

some honey. So I gotta do the honey dude list, right, I'm not interested in what you got going on. I'm not trying to invade in your privacy. I don't want your assistance. Don't ask me where something is because I don't work there. I don't have the outfit that looks like I worked there. I don't. I don't, So I'm the guy that sits over to the side. I actually sometimes will put my card over there and walk over so I could just grab what I need to grabbing them back because I got a list of stuff I

need to get in get out. So okay, So you know, you list on your phone or do you write it on paper? If my wife texted, I'll have them on my phone, but I prefer paper because I can check it off, because you know, because you know, sometimes you can't find everything at that one, you know, with with food shortages and all that. You know, I don't understand. But so you gotta go here and then go there, and um, but I get a lot of a D D in them in the grocery store, like I'm a ooh,

and I got like what's that? Oh that looks good. Yeah, I definitely can't go there when you're hungry. That's man, I didn't shot. Is there any worse feeling than getting home thinking that you really did something good, that you took care of the entire honeydoo list, and you missed the most important thing you got you got the wrong thing, Like, don't get that you're supposed to get the ten minute quick. Oh it's not the thirty guy I've got, So I'll

just FaceTime listen. Is this the one that you want? Or you know it's not making sure? Here's the worst. It's like when there's like one little word that's off but they say a particular brand, You're like, they don't have that brand, and now you gotta pivot and you gotta figure. You gotta make an executive decision. But then you know the executive decision you mess up, then they then you're gonna get mad. Then they you get mad at them, Like I don't had to go. I got

the number one. I came home one day thinking I was doing something so nice, buying some Starbucks Pikes Place coffee from the grocery store, and so I see it and there's not a lot of supply, so I buy like the remaining four packages that are about the eight inches high packages come back and show them. And then I'm totally summarily dismissed, not like a huge thank you and like, hey, do you want to go upstairs or something? You realize that that's the caffeinated you got the decaf

And I said, where does it say that? See that? And she's like, it's right there, you idiot. Well maybe I went to Goodwill. Maybe you didn't clap nothing at night at the time, My man, what do you say? I said, yes I did. I was just alone at the time. I didn't catch that last Here's why he missed the decaf because it was probably on the top shelf and he just grabbed it. Cut to it, un Blue, what'd you stay up all night thinking of short chokes? H I'm short too, so I communal space. I'm speaking

from experience. How do we get here? Hey? That's a few Hey, that's a few times. I look around, like, yeah, ain't boy catching me trying to jump up for this ship? I saw Steve trying to get on. It's a boomerang, bo you ain't catching me slipping. I'll be like favre three words in the grocery store are excuse me? I try to ask them to reach for something that I can't reach this. Hey, I've been right there. Hey, my man, your help. He's like, what do you need? I said,

man up there? A few times it's kind of like, you know, a few times you think they think they're gonna say something, and then they know it's me and they're like, yeah, I'm not rolling this dice. But I know I'm short. I'm okay with it, doesn't bother me. But you gonna catch me trying to jump up there for that ship. I got time for that shot. But in your own home, do you do that? Oh? Absolutely, so I actually had something. I actually do have a step stool in my closet because I my shoes up top.

But sometimes when I'm feeling good, I'll spring up there. But here's the one time I did. I did. I did it the other day. I springing up there and got one the top box and otherwise came hit me in the face. I said, that's what I need to use the damn stool. I've had That exact thing happened to me. Or what's worse is you jump up, one of them comes down, but by accident you push one of them further back. You have that I have step

stools in every closet and upstairs, downstairs, everywhere. But sometimes it's just a game because I'm too lazy to get the steps stool, so I jump up to get something and then I end up getting the steps stool. See, these are the intangibles that I'm sure you had running an MLB franchise. Right here, this is where it came into play. You should have seen me talking to Gean Carlos Stanton. We had some fun times the two of us. Man. Listen, I just let's just go right into your crazy career.

Like you know you said, first Company delivered an New York Times Berry and also Wall Street Journal um to Europe on the same day. Basis what why is what is so unique about that? Because of people today, you know, kids today, people today, technologists. It's just it's there. So that doesn't sound like anything unique. Can have those three tabs open seconds, I mean, you get you you can

have it on. You know, you can get Wall Street Journal for free, you know, for for for a week or thirty days and cancel it before they charge you. So you know that I've done that several times. Man, you are the target market. Are a million other people who cancel stuff like the old Columbia House when you get a few c ds and then cancel it ten for one ninety nine. Yeah yeah, I remember. And then if you try to steal get me. I canceled my debit card and get a new one, so I know

all the tricks of the trade. Lost that one. You can charge that new credit, can charge that old crack to getting a new one. I'm talking. I want a whole new number number moth yea. I will no cross over. Remember when Netflix first started, and it was you got you put movies in your queue and they would send you DVDs. I get a new one, right, but you could get a new one only when you returned one

that you watched. And sometimes you'd move stuff up the queue because you really wanted to see that he had to return something. People, it's just far and so thirty years ago. I hate to say it to the audience, but I do this on nothing personal all the time.

It's thirty years ago. The only way to get sports scores in Europe with something called the International Herald Tribune, which was a newspaper that was owned by both the Washington Post in the New York Times, and the sports part of that paper gave you scores of games that were a day old. And so if you wanted scores of your favorite team, who were only getting them a day late, a day late from the state, or a day late from Europe, because technically that would be two

days late. Oh I love for your heads at so Sunday night scores would be in the Tuesday Herald Tribune correct two days late. So in nineties seven, you you did Morgan Stanley. However, in that four year spend, what what did you learn and how did the business go? And why you know? Did you sell? It? Just disappear? Like tell me, tell me about it, like you start

sell company like that? And what I did is I I went to a different city, just say Paris or London or Geneva or Brussels, and I would go and try to find Americans who are living there, like go to chambers of commerce, and I would go to all the hotels and I would deliver papers and have them sold to their customers. And I even did home delivery to ex pats who are living overseas. But think about

the business. All my inventory was either sold or thrown away every week because when you're doing the Sunday Times, once the papers are delivered, you're onto the next newspaper. And when I started doing daily deliveries, I never had excess inventory because you buy the papers that you know

you're gonna sell and then you're done. And what happened is in that period, the Internet really got going, and I summarily dismissed it because I made so much money from people who loved getting the New York Times inc on their fingers when they were reading the paper. And I said, no one's gonna read the newspaper on a screen. It's just not gonna happen. And I was in Asia starting to deliver papers there, and I flew on a plane.

Talk about being gregarious. I flew on a plane and started talking with the guy who worked at Morgan Stanley and I told him what I was doing, and I was, you know, twenty eight years old, and he said, listen, if you ever want to come to Wall Street, just call me. So when I saw that this business was gonna end, literally gonna disappear, I gave him a call and he hired me. So I was the only non NBA to work on that side of Morgan Stanley and

had a great, great time. I love cut to It and I love it even more when you download us and subscribe, and you can follow us on social media too, Smithie, where where at? That's at? Cut to It on Instagram? What about Twitter? At? Cut to It? Facebook? Cut to It featuring Steve Smith singr? What about online? And you can follow us at cut to It podcast dot com where you can buy merch and you can subscribe to

us wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all my answers questions, Um, yeah, I got all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for, a brother, cut to a podcast dot Com. What led you to hop on an airplane to go to Asia when you were doing so well in in Brussels and London, all those all those different places that were transient through um they do the year old um train and through through the different avenues. It's kind of like living in the South where you

know live. We live here in Charlotte and you go, you know, growing up in l A, I go five hours, I've been twenty miles outside, you know, with traffic, I've been twenty miles outside of my house. But here in Charlotte. You go, you know, you go two or three hours. You're depending on which route you go to South Carolina. You can hit Virginia, you can hit Tennessee, you can hit Atlanta, I mean Georgia. So there's so many different places.

What what led you to jump on a plane to go to Asia when you have so many different people? You still have Italy, um, all these different places. What why Asia? Because someone approached me and said, can you help with home delivery of newspapers in Asia? You seem to know how to get this done, and so I was hired to go there and build up a company in Asia. So did you eventually sell your company or just it went away? It just disappears. So when you

stop think about it, I was I was. I was by myself, and I had newspapers that I would buy from the New York Times and then have them delivered to Kennedy, put on a cargo plane and fly to Europe and then from Paris they fly all over the country in the world. And one day I stopped putting the papers on the plane. So it's crazy. The way that technology is advanced. You were physically delivering, so you were so you were in London. Okay, I'm a visual guy. So you were in London, you had a contact in

New York. Yes, it's a it's a great story which we may or may not have time for. But yes, I had a contact with the New York Times circulation department that got the papers delivered from on Saturday nights from the printing press right to Kennedy Airport and then Kenny Airport. I mean there are pieces of paper they

how did they get on the plane. They were putting palettes and they were put on Air France flight double O nine which left at nine p m. S Saturday night and landed at eight thirty a m. Sunday morning. And then they get picked up by a newspaper delivery truck and delivered to hotels and houses and apartments in Parish. And some of the papers would connect to other cities because Air France would fly from Paris as their hub like FedEx Uses Memphis to all the other different places

in Europe. And so obviously were with pairs. You you had some people in Um and some of the some of the French colonies as well. Um one of that paper as well. So on what was that so Um logos, you know, different different African nations. Now we're uh French colonies as well. So I never expanded to Africa, but I did. I did Europe and Asia. Only what I did I expanded into I went from the Sunday Times,

then I started doing the Daily Times. And you have to think about it when you're in a mayor reckon living abroad and you can wake up in the morning or in some places it didn't get there U till the afternoon. But even if you come back for your CS to and there's Today's New York Times at your door, you have to realize that was pretty cool for people because they couldn't just go open a pagage on the Internet and it wasn't there. There was big time out there.

You're talking about two and a half hours, nobody doing nothing. I don't have emergency CS to you in trouble and here we are two and you're about to read the news and the main a verse. That's how fast things have changed. It's amazing. It makes me think about what will be thirty years from now, because they'll look at this the way we look at thirty years ago. It's how they'll look at us in thirty years bringing up

on a website is about to be obsolete. Really, yeah, just getting a hangar, you know, but it's think about He's talking about just delivering papers and his company went away could put because technology advances. Yeah, so you go to Morgan Stanley, Um, what year? I mean? I mean, I know, ye one more. What month? Are you asking me something twenty five years ago? I'm trying. Yeah, I don't know. I just say that question. I've never been asked that question. I'm pretty I am a detailed interviewer.

So I just wanted to know, well, so cool I was. I wore a black pinstripe suit to my first day with a a white shirt and a red tie. And I wore that because I thought that that would be like the proper Wall Street thing, and it had like elephants on it, because I wanted them to know that I'd be going after elephants and trying to make a

ton of money for myself and for everyone else. I'm not sure that that detail was appreciated at the time, but it ended up being like the movie Walsh Um Wolf of Wall Street, except I never met Margot Robbie and I never did Coke. Rather than that. It was exactly like that. I'm glad you said all that because I was like, that's what I thought about. So here's here's another textual thing you probably don't What kind of shoes did you have? A Ferragamos, the ones with the

buckles on the top. How old were they? Though? Great? I love for your heads? At uh, they were brand new. And the reason I know that is I didn't realize that you should scuff shoes before wearing them. YEA little as chicken run around office like this, Look how his dress and he got some damn new shoes. Oh no, don't play. And he's still till you make it. That's why I asked, because you seem like the dude you're

gonna go all out. He's like, look, I may not know what I'm doing on the first day, but damn, and I'm look like like that's awesome. All right. So nineteen seven, I'm fresh, I'm fresh heading into my senior year or coming out of my senior year community college

and you over there investing people's money. Yes, okay. What was the biggest challenge, and Morgan Stanley, for you, it was navigating around the compliance department because I had clients who wanted to do aggressive trades, and we were doing collateral swaps and all sorts of ways to diversify because at that time, people were getting concentrated equity positions, meaning they were selling their company and getting a huge amount of stock in the company that acquired them, and they'd

be rich, but only with one stock. And I would say, hey, And the way I got clients is by reading the paper ironically, and you read about deals that are happening, and you cold call. I would make over a hundred calls a day. David Sampson with Morgan Stanley. Oh, because that's the best way. I'm a numbers guy. I need to get knows. And that's why I never got offended.

The reason I was more successful than most people is when they would get knows, they'd be despondent and they spend forever trying to convince the nose to be a yes. And my greatest skill is that I was able to say to the person who said no to me, thank you. You're giving me now more time to move on to the next call, and on one call closer to a yes. So just out you just told him no, they said, and he was like you know what, you gotta play

your strengths, so speaking, to play your strengths. So how do you then transition from Morgan Stanley to walking into the Montreal and the Montreal Exposed front office? Um in such a high ranking position? What was that? Like? Brother? Like me? I had to go into ad to work for NBA franchise. But I gotta go in as an unpaid turn. I'm going in at C suite. You gotta keep up? Whoa being born? That? Okay? Well, so in nineteen uh in maybe if you're gonna ask, I'm gonna

say it was January of nine. Jeffrey Loria, who at that time was married to my mother, so he was my stepfather. He called me at Morgan Stanley and he said, I want to buy the Montreal expos Can you help me do it? And I said to him, I'd I'd be happy to help you. Here's my rate. This is what I make per day, and this is what you'll have to pay me because there's only X number of hours in the day and if you're taking me away from my job at Morgan Stanley, you have to replace

that income for me. So we made a real you could yes and so I said to him, you'd have to pay the rate, and he did, and so I worked, and so it was that I you nailed it. It was it was under the minimum that Major League Baseball players get in the new collective bargaining agreement daily. So no, I would keep you know what I would do it? Morgan said, this is sort of funny. Actually, I had

a piece of paper. I would keep track of the amount of money I was making two columns, and one column was the amount of money I was making, and the other column was the amount of money my clients were making. Because I always knew that for me to make money, it was important not every time, but the majority of the time the clients had to make money. I could still make money with losing money, but you're not going to keep clients forlong that way, sure not.

So I would keep tracks so at the end of every day, I would know exactly how much money I made that particular day. So that was you had a lot going on to manage your clients, so you could not be able to do all of that, keep on it dayly and help your stepfather acquire a professional professional baseball team. That's exactly why I needed to get paid. You're exactly right. You didn't give him no discount, Huh.

The opposite. I charged a premium because I knew he wanted it badly, and I knew he couldn't do it without me, because he trusted me to be helpful to him. And so I was taught by my grandfather that you're

worth what you're paid. That's true, mhm. So I I did the deal and on December the deal closed, and he had asked me, uh, through my mother, with some nice Jewish guilt, to help him run the team for thirty days after he bought it, and I agreed to do that, and we cut a deal for a month of work, and that was a higher premium, yes, because that was now a full time job. Got I got fired the first day. It's a story I've not really

told before the first day, yes, December nine. On December the deal was announced in Montreal, and I gave an interview because I speak French and in Montreal Fance. So I gave an interview my first time ever having an i FB, which is the thing you put in your ear. I'm saying that for your listeners, not you. Of course, you know that I'm trying to pretend that listeners don't

know what that is, right you speaking French. Of all our viewers are visually impaired, whether it be visually by their eyes or they may be doing something else and not watching it. So I love that. My my, my coach always tells me explain to why give detail? So I love it. I agree with you, that is great. That's why your show is so successful. Actually, so I did interview and f and uh he did not like

that I was doing media. And he called me when I was back in my hotel and he had already flown back to New York and I was in a hotel Montreal, ready to go to work the next morning, and he said to me, you know, I don't think this is gonna work because I need to be the public face of this franchise, not you, and I can't

have you doing any interviews or anything like that. And I said, Jeffrey, there's no way to run the team or to be the president of this team without being the public face, because I'm the one who's going to be here every day, not you. And he said, I think you should pack your bags. It's not gonna work out. And I said no problem. Hung up the phone. So I'm packing my bags. I get a phone call. Hold. A couple of hours later, how are you packing you bags?

Because I'm kin I'm seeing a Davis Samson right now. He's packing pissed. No, No, here's why because he I had no idea that I have an eighteen year career in front of me. I had no I I had no idea of anything other than I loved Morgan Stanley. It was actually a couple of hours later my mother called me and said, you can't leave. I said, he fired me. I'm leaving. She said, you got to just spend the night and see what happens in the morning, because he's really he needs you to run the team.

And I said, well, I'm doing it for thirty days. They you better find someone else, And sure enough, the next morning I did. I stayed. I got a call and he apologized. He said, going to the office. And I went into the office as a thirty one year old sort of president of a team. And it was such eyewash in the beginning I look back on that was such regret that I tried to prove from the minute I got there, not through my action, but through my words that I belonged there, and it was stupid

of me. So I was calling meetings for six thirty am every day with all the executives, and I was working twenty hour days and trying to show them that even though I was the step step son of the owner, that I was going to outwork everybody and that I

deserved to be there, that it wasn't nepotism. And it took me a while to realize that being good at my job was going to be the ultimate way to prove to people that I belong there, that other than there's no other way, there's no shortcut, and I knew that in my regular life, but it took me a minute to get there running a team, But I got there and it kept me there for I ran a team for eighteen years and five years in four years in he and my mother got divorced, and so for

the last fourteen years of my career, he was just the owner of the team that I worked for. And the big difference from him being my stepfather to him not be my stepfather is that we each lawyered up during contract negotiations is a lot to impact. There were certain times during my career when I said to him, if you don't do this, I'm going to leave. And there were certain times when he said, if you don't except what I'm doing, I'm going to have you leave.

Because I had some issues with some of his managers. Uh he had we hired and fire it I think seventy nine managers in eighteen years. And uh, he just whenever there was a loss. Basically, he was the type of owner, which is really like every owner, where when there's a loss on the field, there is someone to blame. Period. There's got to be someone to blame, and and that's really not accurate. Sometimes you just lose to a better team.

Sometimes you just lose because that's how sports goes. And he owners have a hard time getting into that rhythm. And that is one of the big problems with impestuous owners, right they make decisions with emotion and they expect to win every game, and then you don't stick to your plan and then you lose more So that was part of the biggest issue I had. Good do it good, do it, get down to do it good. Hey youre are Why did you get that T shirt? You mean this thing? Oh? Yes, I got it from cut to

a podcast dot com where we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys seven O four a shot. But yeah, you can go on, buy you a T shirt, subscribe to as wherever you listen to podcasts. How do you compare corporate sports compared to corporate America? How does it vary? So the public side is the biggest difference. So I I do my job, whether it was at Morgan Stanley or News Travels fast, and I didn't have people criticizing me. I didn't have everybody in the world thinking they could

do the job better than I could. I didn't have to deal with the media. I didn't have to deal with people thinking it was a public company when it was a private company. And I think that often people forget that that sports teams are private and it's not your right as a fan to know everything because you're a fan. And that's tough to say to people sometimes

because they assume that it is their right. And you've seen a lot of that now with with people upset with payrolls for various teams, people thinking that billionaire owners are not losing money, they're making money, and there's a big disconnect between owners think that you should know, and what you think you should know? What is a fan

a customer? It's a great point. What is a fan legally right, let's just legally legally obligated because fans really believe that they deserve an explanation on why the team didn't get that final out, didn't get that first down. Why haven't they publicly spoken and told their customer what the plan is. I couldn't agree with you more. And it was the cause of great consternation in my dealings with the media, and ironic now that I'm on the

media side, so it's funny that way. But I I really understood what the purpose of PR was, and I would fight with my PR people often because they wanted more information out there than I wanted out there, and I would spin information the way I wanted to spend it because I was trying to manipulate the customers into them believing what I wanted them to believe, which is it depends what the situation was. Give us a situation, because I just I find this intriguing, right, And and

here's why. Here in Carolina we had an owner who you know, sold the team. There was some success. He brought the team he brought the franchise just like he brought the franchise here. They loved him. He actually, him and his son Mark created the PSL format. They created the format of what every organization now has PSL. Right, Mark Rederson created that him and him and his team. And then I had to convince the league, and the league was like, if you can make it work, sure,

and everybody's been doing it, so you have that. So you have an owner who brought something, and then now a new owner where the previous owner didn't talk to the media either, right, he didn't feel that he had to. He he deserved to explain why his team sucked. I mean it was very It's very clear if you watch any football you know I was on that one and fifteen team. It was very clear why we sucked. We sucked, right.

We weren't very good. We had some clear deficiencies, didn't have a franchise quarterback, offensive line wasn't very good, our defense was pretty good, but it was aging. Right. We had some young talent, but you know, are are starting running back. Uh Tim Biakatuga, who was fantastic in college, was pretty good in the prose, sustained some some injuries, and they felt that the owners should tell them what

they obviously already see. For the for the for the two and a half hours in the stadium are on television, right, and so they want they feel like they should they deserve an explanation. Again, what was the customer legally? What should they legally get right, because they do believe that

they have every right to know everything. Yeah, Legally, when you buy a ticket, you are promised to get entrance into a facility if you follow the rules of that facility, if you wear what they tell you to wear, if you don't say what they tell you not to say. It is a private area where you are gaining access by paying money to gain access to that area. But but the area reserves the right to eliminate you any second. They want. All of that, it's all the back of

the ticket man. Those lawyers are paid for a reason, and so legally nothing, that's the bottom line. You're not guaranteed victories. Don't be ridiculous. Can you imagine if we guaranteed fans, hey, we're gonna win ninety games this year, and if not, we'll give your money backs. Mac After doing all that was, what was next? What what did you do when I ended up after you're saying after my career? No, no, no, just you know you got

through obviously the unfortunate divorce. What's your what's your? Folks? You're working there. Uh, you're showing people that you're the hardest worker, burning people on both fans of the of the candle, right, and just sitting there, you in corporate America. You're telling you're telling the fans what they don't want to hear. You're trying to manipulate them, you know, I mean, what do you do next? I mean, and that's in the first you know, that's in the first eight five years. Yeah,

that was. And we won the World Series in those first four years. We wanted in two thousand three, and then I spent the rest of my career chasing and amy because it felt so good. All I ever wanted was to win one ring, and after I won one ring, all I ever wanted was to win two. And I will never forget the feeling after winning. And I was struck by how quickly I wanted to win again. And I thought, when you climb the mountain and you get to the summit, that I would stand there and take

pictures and I would revel in the accomplishment. What I was doing was looking forward to the next summit already, And that was a terrible moment for me. Actually. And on October three, after we beat the Yankees and Yankee Stadium, I walked onto the field after we had celebrated the clubhouse and the stadium was empty. ESPN was doing its post game and left field bleachers, and I looked around and I said, I just want this feeling again. It was like an addiction, and it made me so angry

that I didn't allow myself to enjoy it. So during the World Series parade, I missed half the parade negotiating to get a new ballpark in Miami. Instead of telling the public officials, I'm busy, we'll meet tomorrow and enjoy a parade, I said, no, I'm gonna still be the hardest worker. I'm not going to take a minute to enjoy this. And I worked through the World Series parade in Fort Lauderdale terrible. And you work through to get

a new stadium, yes, to make more money. Because when we started in Florida, we were playing where the Dolphins play. You should know, right, you played on the dirt. That was me terrible and we hated it. We hated as much as you did. We hated it because after every football game the field was torn up by the cleats and and you guys didn't want to be tackled on the dirt. Nope, I mean the whole thing was bad. I mean it was you got tackled on the dirt.

It was you know, guys were getting infections and all that kind of stuff. It was bad. So Wayne Heyzinga, who owned the Dolphins, told us we needed to get out of there. He wouldn't lease us the ballpark anymore, the stadium. Then he sold the team to Stephen Ross, the current owner of the Dolphins, who said get out of here. And so we went to the public and said, listen, if you don't help us finance and new stadium, the team's gonna leave. We'll go to Texas, or we'll go

to San Antonio or Vegas or Portland. We're going somewhere, but we're not saying here. And we ended up negotiating a public deal, not as good as the one the Buffalo Bills just got, but not bad. And we then started construction of Marlin's Park, which opened in two thousand twelve. So you get that they switched teams. What happens? You help, You helped negotiate all of this stuff and then what So in two thousand and sixteen, we really thought that

we had a team that could win. And uh we had a great outfield with Jean Carlos Stanton and Christian Yelloch and Marcelo Zuna, and we had a great young pitcher named Jose Fernandez, who unfortunately died in a tragic boating accident on September two thousand and sixteen. And not long after that, the owner, Jeffrey walked into my office and said, I don't want to do this anymore, sell

the team. And I said okay, and so I then for the next year worked on drumming up bids from Derek Jeter and a Rod and Tag Romney and anyone else I could find to get someone to completely overpay for the Marlins, which Derek Jeter did by like five million dollars. Uh, it closed, which was hard to believe. I was like Jesse Eisenberg who played Mark Zuckerberg in the movie The Social Network. Did you ever see that movie?

So at the end of the movie, did any of you see that movie not about Facebook, it's the one about Facebook anyway. The end of the movie is hitting refresh because he wants to get a girl to to be his friend on Facebook. So he's hitting refreshed trying to see if she accepted his friend request. That was me in October one of two thousand seventeen, hitting refreshed to see if the money got transferred into the bank

account from the sale. Because the minute it hit I walked out of the stadium, Derek Jeter walked past me. He walked in because he was taking my office, and I never turned back. So you knew sooner? Is that happy? You're out? Oh? It was clear that I was going to be let go, although I was let go semi famously through a text alert. Is how I found out. I got an ESPN text alert on my phone that that I was fired as the president of Miami Marlins. So I called up Jeter and I said, hey, am

I fired? And he said, oh yeah, I meant to call you. I'm sorry. I said, all right, no worries, man, thank you, see bye. So that he was hogging all of damn avocados U full circle. I like it. Yeah, well, hey, I know, you gotta go listen. We gotta have you back on here. Boy. You look he's spunky. I like this. I like I can talk Sparky. It looks like Sparky is the nickname given to me by Jack McKeon, our manager, because he said I was the spark plug of the organization.

Because this is me, this is what I'm like. I have high energy, and I have a lot of fun. I work really hard, I party really hard, and life is short, so don't waste it. What people sometimes look at me, and the biggest mistake they make is they think that I've always been successful. And I explained to them, and I tell them in very great detail all the

times I failed, and I have failed so much. And it sounds trite, but my failures are the greatest things that ever happened to me, because I was able to always get off the mat and and and the reason I did is because I always had something to prove. Maybe it's been short and being cut by my freshman basketball coach. Maybe it's not getting the job I wanted out of law school. Maybe it's not accomplishing things I

wanted to accomplish, both often on the field. But I've always wanted more, and there's a reward for wanting more, but only if you work to get it. Favorite failure. You mentioned all the failures you have. What's your favorite one? The most important one is when I got rejected by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. That's all what I wanted to do out of law school, and I made it through three rounds of interviews. I was a sure fire

to get the job I had interned there. It was a slam dunk, and I never really had major adversity because I would work to get what i'd want and then i'd get it. And I thought i'd get the job. And when I got the back, then it was an envelope a letter, and the letter said, we are sorry to say that you have been eliminated from consideration to be an assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

And it stunned me, absolutely stunned me in my tracks, and I reveled in the failure for a week, and then I started the business in Europe who got a who got the job? You know who got the job? There? They that's the joke of it, right, They hire fifty assistant district attorneys and my best friend from law school got a job there and I didn't. And it never occurred to me that he would succeed and I would fail. MS. We had to bring it back, bro, all right, let

you go appreciate it. I'd love to Hey, thank you guys so much. Thank you. You are a unique person. You are well worth it, you are competent, and most of all, your lovable. I'm Steve Smith Singer, I'm Gerard Little John and this is cut to It. Cut to It with Steve Smith singor That Is Me is a production of Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media, The

Black Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows from Cut to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, Singer, co host Gerard Little John, talent and booking manager Joe Fusci, Social media team Wesley Robinson and John Show from Balto Creative Media. Cut to It is produced by Ryan Falka Chevic and Meredith Carter, with production assistance by Alex Lebrec. Production coordinator

Taylor Robinson. Theme music by Alex Johnson. Lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You ain't heard about it, then we're about to let you know. It's all