Meet the Royals season-ticket holder who owns a piece of the Cleveland Indians

John Sherman is a 61-year-old Royals season-ticket holder, a baseball fan who came to Kansas City in the mid-1970s and made the town his home. He was there for the epic duels with the New York Yankees in the late 70s, there for the world championship in 1985, there for the renaissance under general manager Dayton Moore.

“Certainly,” Sherman said, “the last couple years in Kansas City have obviously been fantastic.”

Sherman is what you might call a baseball guy. His father, Jack, was a diehard fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Jack Sherman passed the devotion onto his son. And for most of the last three decades, Sherman has sunk most of his emotional capital into the Royals, even through the lost years.

Which makes the following all the more interesting: John Sherman, Kansas Citian and baseball fan, is also now a minority owner of the Cleveland Indians, a franchise on the cusp of their first World Series championship since 1948.

Sherman, one of Kansas City’s leading businessmen and entrepreneurs, purchased an undisclosed stake in the team earlier this year. The deal, announced in August by the Dolan family, the Indians’ owner since 2000, went official just as the club was putting the clamps on the American League Central race.

“Baseball has always been a passion for me, and this is an exciting time to join the Indians’ organization, which has so much promise and potential,” Sherman said then.

These days, Sherman is tied up following the club through its postseason run. His official title is Indians vice chairman. But in an interview with The Star this week, he laughed off a question about dual loyalties and his Kansas City roots. This is baseball, and Kansas City is still home. But yes, Sherman is fully invested in the Indians, the Royals’ division rival.

“It’s a storied franchise, good organization and cultural fit for me,” Sherman said. “And, of course, I did think the team had promise and potential as they’re demonstrating now.”

In Kansas City, Sherman is best known for starting and building two energy companies — LPG Services Group and Inergy LP. As the years went on, Inergy, an American propane supplier, kept growing, and in 2013, the company merged with Crestwoods Holdings.

Sherman continued to serve on the board of the company. He has also served as a trustee of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and been an active member of Kansas City’s philanthropy scene, putting a specific focus on education. But Sherman said the merger sparked an interest in pursuing opportunities in sports ownership.

“If the right situation came available,” Sherman said this week. “I had a preference for baseball. And of course, the Indians — the Dolan family — was looking for a partner. And it just was a situation that worked. It was a win-win for me.”

You could say that Sherman hopped aboard at the perfect time. The Indians clinched the American League Central title after winning 94 games. In the postseason, they have overcome a rash of pitching injuries and advanced to the Fall Classic with series victories over the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays. On Tuesday, they opened the World Series with a 6-0 victory over the Chicago Cubs as a raucous crowd filled Progressive Field on a chilly October night.

Sherman was here, too, and as you might expect, his allegiances have shifted a bit. Still, his Kansas City credentials are clear. He believes the 2012 All-Star Game helped rekindle a love for baseball in the city. Like most in town, he was drawn in by the last two postseason runs. And as he watched batting practice earlier this week, he saw the Cubs’ Ben Zobrist and remembered his starring role last October.

“The run last year was phenomenal,” Sherman said.

This year, of course, the Royals are back home during the World Series. For the first time in three years, the series did not begin at Kauffman Stadium. But in a small way, Kansas City is still represented here in Cleveland.

“You really have to be a fan,” Sherman said, as he finished a conversation about his new role in ownership. “It starts with baseball. It’s a business, and it’s an interesting business. But if you’re not a fan, I don’t think you’ll enjoy the business.

“It starts with being a fan.”

This story was originally published October 26, 2016 at 12:29 PM with the headline "Meet the Royals season-ticket holder who owns a piece of the Cleveland Indians."