New Royals owner John Sherman takes advantage of platform to aid ‘psyche’ of city
In the first days of his first spring training as the owner of the Royals, John Sherman was struck by so much.
Like the way new manager Mike Matheny’s speech mesmerized a room of 68 roster candidates and others that first day in Surprise, Arizona.
And the way he saw Matheny connect all the more as the days passed.
Like the feeling of emerging from the clubhouse that gorgeous inaugural day, thinking about how in that setting hope really does seem to spring eternal.
And how grateful he felt to be in this role on behalf of this team in a city that’s been his home for more than 40 years.
“That’s what makes it special,” he said in a phone interview. “That makes it different.”
That deep and abiding sense of civic responsibility has informed plenty of his thoughts and actions since the memory from Surprise that, alas, prevails now.
As he sat with other team leaders in his office in Surprise Stadium on a teleconference with Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred and 29 other owners on March 12, Sherman recalled looking out the window at fans entering, vendors setting up and a tarp being pulled from the infield just as baseball was being shut down.
The contrast was jarring.
“That’s probably a moment I’ll remember for a long time,” he said.
When we spoke last Wednesday, it was the eve of what would have been the team’s opener in Chicago against the White Sox.
This Wednesday was the day before the Royals’ originally scheduled home opener at Kauffman Stadium.
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, of course, that much-anticipated day is postponed indefinitely and many aspects of all baseball operations are at a standstill.
It’s a bizarre time to be trying to launch a fresh start for the franchise. Perhaps all the more so for an entrepreneur and philanthropist so enterprising and engaged in his business and this community.
But it’s also a time when the priorities are easily delineated.
“I think we play a game and we run our business where a bias for action and sense of urgency are the things that kind of drive us,” he said. “But (it’s more important to) do the right things.
“We hope that it will be sooner rather than later. But if we want it to be sooner rather than later, we kind of all need to be in this thing together in the interim.”
This has a certain built-in resonance from a man who is the current chairman of the board of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation — an echo to the local ownership of team founder Ewing Kauffman revived by Sherman since he bought the team from David Glass last fall.
Glass, who lived in Arkansas, died in January at age 84. His contributions here were vast.
But there is something particularly appealing about local ownership.
Per that Kauffman bio, Sherman also is immediate past chair of the Civic Council of Greater Kansas City and the Truman Presidential Library Institute. And he’s on the board of directors of Teach for America Kansas City, as well as a trustee of the National World War I Museum and Memorial.
And he and his wife, Marny, are founders of the Sherman Family Foundation focusing on supporting education in the Kansas City region.
And now?
So last week Royals Charities announced the Royals Response Fund, grants issued to aid Harvesters (The Community Food Network) and Don Bosco Center’s Meals on Wheels Program and Cross-Lines Community Outreach.
This week, the team announced a donation of more than 500,000 meals to Harvesters on behalf of Sherman and the broader 17-man ownership group with a contribution from outfielder Alex Gordon, the longest-tenured current Royal.
(Donations may be made directly to Harvesters at harvesters.org or through Royals Charities at royals.com/royalsrespond.)
Speaking more generally, Sherman also said trying to help those enrolled at inner-city schools has been a priority because of food insecurity.
“They go there to get an education, but a lot of the kids go there for their breakfast and lunch as well,” he said. “So not only do you have this incredibly disruptive thing going on right now, but for those folks who have the most need ... they’re probably the first ones hit economically and they also depend on those institutions for food.”
Who says sports aren’t part of the landscape right now?
Consider what happened a few minutes into our call:
When I told Sherman I wanted to be sure I respected his time, he said he was in no hurry and appreciated the opportunity to talk.
Because it was a way to stay in touch with the community and keep the team relevant and focus on how we all need to try to help the most vulnerable among us.
“I think sports is such an important part of kind of our psyche. And I think our sports teams need to make sure that they in particular are getting behind the efforts in the community,” he said, later adding, “I think that platform gives us some ability to get some other people involved.”
Naturally, Sherman can’t wait for baseball to start again. But only when the time is right and safe and appropriate.
Never mind that this isn’t what he might have envisioned.
“Any time you take on a new challenge, you don’t get to write the script, right?” he said.
As a case in point, he reflected on launching his company, Inergy L.P., in July 2001.
“Making investments, launching businesses, you evaluate risks,” he said. “I thought about a lot of risks when we were putting together the business.”
But not the one impending that Sept. 11. The attacks unleashed many forms of horror and chaos and a substantial blow to what Sherman said was a “young, fragile” endeavor.
Nevertheless, in 2013 Inergy merged with Crestwood to create a “combined enterprise value of $8 billion.”
“When we put together our plan to acquire the Royals, this certainly wasn’t one of the risks we thought about,” he said.
While he suggested this had some parallels with a labor stoppage in terms of financial challenges that could come with it, he added, “But it’s much different than that. You can end a strike by getting two people to agree. This is a little more complex than that.”
In the meantime, Sherman is trying to make sure he maintains his own health by practicing all recommended guidelines and getting exercise. He’s also reading a lot about this coronavirus, trying to “make myself smart about” it in terms of public health and what the true priorities should be.
This much, though, he knows.
“There are some people out there going through some really rough stuff right now,” he said. “So I think (we should be doing) anything that we can do in any way to help those less fortunate than we are.”
Albeit with an eye to a future when Matheny picks up where he left off and has the team ready to spring into summer. Or whenever it might be.
Finishing up a board meeting by phone the other day, Sherman said, someone had remarked no need to get out calendars for the next one sometime in June.
“‘Well, is the world going to be over in June?’” he interjected. “ ‘Let’s schedule another meeting.’ …
“This is hard, but it won’t last forever. I think it’s important that people are focused on the future at least to some extent. That’s helpful to me, at least.”
As he makes strong use of this platform, off-script as this time may be.