For those whining about the Red Sox ownership, I present Elon Musk
Are you frustrated with the direction of the Boston Red Sox? Want manager Alex Cora to get the boot out of town? Is Chaim Bloom now as harmful as Pinky Higgins or Joe Cronin in the front office? Red Sox Nation is divided, but assume the fish rots from the head down, then point the finger at the principal owner.
Red Sox owner John Henry is in the process of purchasing a $25 million estate on Nantucket, and I am sure Henry can commute via his yacht or his private jet. Henry also has several homes, and despite efforts to make Fenway Park “sustainable,” a pinch of hypocrisy has got my shiny key’s attention. So much for my daily dose of snarky.
Henry has done a remarkable job building the Red Sox and its virulent offspring, such as a well-known local fish wrapper, NASCAR, something to do with soccer, a hockey team, local real estate development, and a few other items that may have passed by me. The driver has always been the Red Sox.
With the Red Sox, I get a tinge of personal neglect as Henry’s operation seems to have less involvement than in the past. Is it time for Henry to cash in? Four championships are a complicated legacy to match. Should the Red Sox be on the market? The show is worth over $5 billion, including the entire Henry burgeoning empire.
The list of prospective buyers would be slim, and indeed, a very healthy dash of ego is part of owning any high-profile sports enterprise. As the late (and great) Howard Cosell often stated regarding such animals, they are “jock sniffers.” One person that comes to mind does not seem to have a penchant for sports visibility – Elon Musk.
Writing about Musk purchasing the Red Sox is a topic that screams out for sarcasm or the Babalyon Bee, but that is not the refrain from me. Henry is now in his early 70s, and Musk is two decades younger. An ownership youth movement?
As Henry has used the Red Sox as a cash cow, Musk has followed a similar approach with PayPal. He is branching out into other areas from Space X, Tesla, Star Link, and Twitter. Why not add a sports team to his bundle of goodies?
How involved would Musk be in the day-to-day operations of the Red Sox? Would he consider sports fluff with minimal value to advancing humanity? The Red Sox are certainly not Solar City, Hyperloop, or Open AI.
Musk is a demanding employer by all accounts, but one that does give autonomy to his employees. A hard driver who expects success, and do I sniff a tinge of the late George Steinbrenner in this mix? I doubt Musk would display the same often irrational behaviors, but that irrationality did bring some championships.
Musk is an innovator, and if there is anything that screams out for innovation in baseball. Musk has the potential to be a more sane version of Charlie Finley with a potential penchant for the PR of Bill Veeck.
The Red Sox have been in a cost management phase as they tap dance around the luxury tax and expand their payroll. The LT hovers around decision-making for the short and long term, but with Musk, I would anticipate that being a non-issue. Musk is not fearful of spending even if the immediate results are not promising, as with Space X.
Irrational spending does not necessarily translate to success. But that coin has heads and tails. Steinbrenner was relatively successful, and the Dodgers seem to be doing OK. Historically for your Boston Red Sox, former owner Tom Yawkey failed at his spending binges, but Henry and Company had remarkable success being on the fringes of the spending cap.
Money to Musk is just a tool to either repackage existing technology or create new ones. With the Red Sox, I am positive a Musk-led franchise would have management presenting him with options for improvement – choices with no fiscal strings attached.
Communication with the fan base is essential, and Henry is somewhat reclusive in that area. Good news, bad news, and baseball decisions are generally in the wheelhouse of Sam Kennedy or Chaim Bloom. Musk enjoys Twitter enough to buy it and certainly enjoys pointed Tweets – ask Elizabeth Warren. Musk has invited his severest critics to be on Twitter, and as Red Sox honcho, that would be a delight.
Baseball has internal politics since it is a clubhouse of the entitled and wealthy. Steve Cohen is the new owner of the New York Mets and is number one on the wealth parade at $15.9 billion. Examining the list; Musk has more wealth than all thirty owners combined. You could probably add in the NBA, NHL, and NFL. Yes – that rich. How would his playmates feel about Richy Rich in the game?
Owners hate those that go against the grain like the previously mentioned Charlie O. and Veeck. Musk is a noted iconoclast in a sport that looks at that as a shark would a bloody fish. The amusement factor with social media, the virulent Boston fans, and an ingrained jealousy factor from the press would probably keep the Red Sox in the mind’s eye 24/7 over 365 days.
The Red Sox has been a relatively stable organization on the ownership front. The Henry group has run the team for twenty years after the uncertainty of the Yawkey Trust and some well-profiled management issues. A Musk ownership would (hopefully) bring continued stabilization.
So for that faction of Red Sox Nation that is frustrated over team direction then percolate for a change. Far too many fans have been unnervingly critical of the current ownership and a change would suit them, Frank McCourt is still around but I’d go for Musk.
Musk would be the perfect choice for a seamless transition of the organization from one successful operation to possibly a second. And Henry can remain as part-owner, baseball confidant, and titular figurehead of the franchise while enjoying his other non-Red Sox items.