Glass agrees to sell Royals to Sherman: ‘We have found everything we were looking for’
There were days when David Glass would walk into Royals manager Ned Yost’s office, without a particular topic in mind. Sometimes he vented about recent results. Wanted to know the path toward improvement. Asked about the plan moving forward. They would often laugh by meeting’s end, Yost recalls, but somewhere during the conversation, the point had been made.
“He would tell me all the time at the beginning of the year he fully expects us to go 162-0,” Yost said of the team’s owner. “It’s what he expected out of us, you know?”
Glass was a “dogged competitor,” he added, but mostly, Yost believes, he simply wanted to talk baseball. At one point during those meetings, Glass described himself as a fan of the game first and an owner second.
On Friday, he’s handing off the franchise to a man he believes fits the same illustration.
Glass has agreed to sell the Royals to a group led by Kansas City resident John Sherman, the team announced Friday afternoon.
The agreement cannot become official until approval by Major League Baseball owners, likely to come in November.
“Our goal, which I firmly believe we’ve achieved, was to have someone local who truly loved the game of baseball and who would be a great steward for this franchise going forward,” Glass said in a release announcing the sale agreement. “John Sherman and his group far exceeded our hope for the next caretaker of Royals baseball. His love for Kansas City and the game of baseball is well documented as are his philanthropic endeavors in the surrounding communities. A native of this area, John has made a huge impact in our business community and is so passionate about baseball that he purchased an ownership stake in the Cleveland Indians three years ago to begin his relationship with this great game.”
The purchase price was not announced, but the team is valued about $1 billion, according to Forbes. The league’s owners’ annual meetings are scheduled for Nov. 20-21 in Dallas.
League rules require Sherman to relinquish his minority ownership stake in the Indians, which he has held since August 2016.
“I am enormously grateful to David and the Glass family for this extraordinary opportunity, and am humbled by the chance to team up with a distinguished group of local investors to carry forward and build on this rich Kansas City Royals legacy,” Sherman said in the release, which did not disclose the other members of his ownership group.
“Our goal will be threefold: to compete for a championship on behalf of our fans; to honor their passion, their experience and their unwavering commitment; and to carry their hopes and dreams forward in this great Kansas City region we all love — for decades to come.”
Glass acquired the Royals in 2000, his $96 million purchase finally concluding a nearly seven-year saga of a transition after the death of original owner Ewing Kauffman.
The second transition in franchise history could be a much smoother passing of the torch. And that’s indicative of Sherman’s history, per those who know him best. They describe him as someone who prefers to preserve a low profile. Quiet, even. But they say he’s thoughtful, smart, unafraid to assume risk.
Even while holding a minority stake in the Indians, for whom he’s also a vice chairman, Sherman hasn’t lost his connections to Kansas City. He started and built companies LGP Services Group and Inergy LP here. He’s routinely given back to the community through philanthropic donations to schools, museums and the like. He is part of a civic group designed to bolster Kansas City’s status.
Much of that objective will now come through sports ownership. Fitting, friends say. He loved baseball as a kid. He long held season tickets. He will “pour his heart into it,” said Cliff Illig, the principal owner of Sporting Kansas City and a friend of Sherman’s.
Sherman, 64, has some ties to Kauffman, too. In 2014, he led a search committee to find the Kauffman Foundation’s CEO.
“There’s no way Mr. Glass or the Glass family would even entertain selling this team unless they could find what they believe would be the perfect owner that represents everything that they stand for and (who) would represent what baseball means in Kansas City and this community and this unbelievable fan base,” Royals general manager Dayton Moore said before Friday’s game against Baltimore at Kauffman Stadium. “I think that kind of speaks for itself.”
The looming beginning of one era will spark the conclusion of another. Glass became the owner after a drawn-out process that included baseball rejecting New York lawyer Miles Prentice’s sizable bid. Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt made a bid. George Brett emerged as a possibility.
It finally settled on Glass, a man Kauffman envisioned as a potential successor when he hired him as the club’s chairman of the board.
Twenty seasons later, two days before Glass is set to turn 84 years old, the ride is over.
“As for my family, it has been an amazing run since we gained control of the franchise in 2000. I will miss this more than anyone realizes because I grew up loving this great game and was awarded a fantastic opportunity to own one of the 30 major-league clubs,” Glass said in the news release. “We watched this club painfully come up 90 feet short in 2014 and then ultimately win that coveted World Series trophy in 2015. I will never forget the thrill of seeing over 800,000 people of this community come together on one sunny November day to salute the newly-crowned world champions.
“It’s been a fantastic ride and I want to thank our great fans for supporting us through the years but now it’s time for someone else to oversee this franchise into its next championship and in John Sherman, we’ve found the perfect individual.”
The legacy will be determined in time. The Royals enjoyed only five winning seasons in Glass’ two decades of ownership.
But more tangibly, the legacy is seen in left field at Kauffman Stadium, flying above the Hall of Fame building. A 2015 World Series flag. A 2014 American League championship pennant.
Moore guided the team to both. Glass put more investment into his franchise after Moore’s hire in 2006, most notably in the farm system.
“He owned a baseball team for all the right reasons,” Moore said. “He cared deeply about the fans. He’s an unbelievable competitor, somebody that’s taught me a lot and meant a lot to me and my family. It’s been special to journey with him through this process. My greatest memory in his team is watching him hoist that American League champions trophy right on this field and then a year later be able to raise that trophy in Citi Field in New York.”
“I wanted to win a World Series for him more than I did anything else — more than I did for myself,” Yost said. “I wanted to win a World Series for him because I knew what it would mean to him.
Yost added, “He’s meant a lot. He’s been a tremendous owner for me. He’s always backed us 100 percent. Always been willing to do whatever it takes to make us better and help us be better.”
This story was originally published August 30, 2019 at 4:23 PM.