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Derek Jeter and Michael Jordan might be buying the Marlins
Tuesday’s Say Hey, Baseball looks at Derek Jeter’s new investment partner, Aaron Judge’s Home Run Derby win, and the rise of Jessica Mendoza.
Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images
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Derek Jeter and Jeb Bush had reportedly agreed to a $1.3 billion deal for the Miami Marlins back in April, but then it turned out the pair didn’t have that money and was having trouble getting investors to raise it.
Since then, Bush left Jeter’s buying group to join Tagg Romney’s, but Jeter might have upgraded: A new report from the New York Post says that not only has Jeter found the investors he needs to satisfy Marlins’ owner Jeffrey Loria, but that one of them is Michael Jordan.
Jeter, Jordan, and a whole bunch of other investors are the favorites to end up with the Marlins or, at least, to have Loria select them. New owners have to be approved by the rest of MLB, so it’s to be seen if the other owners agree with Loria’s decision. But if Jeter has the cash from investors, it’s hard to believe they’d reject the baseball legend.
Jordan, of course, is famous for the movie Space Jam, which detailed his transition from minor league baseball failure to savior of Earth against an alien invasion. Obviously, his experience on set playing baseball stuck with him, as he’s now using revenues from this important piece of cinema to help Jeter buy an actual baseball team.*
Jorge Mas is at the head of the third group, and there was a report on Monday that his bid was accepted but no decision has been made as of this writing. None of the three bidders reached the $1.3 billion mark Loria had been seeking, and Loria doesn’t necessarily have to pick the offer with the most money either. The expectation is that he’ll select the winning bid next week, so we won’t have to wait much longer to find out.
*OK, also maybe some of the money Jordan earned from his 15-year NBA career and all those endorsements and Hanes commercials and his time as an NBA owner, but mostly from Space Jam
- Aaron Judge, baseball’s biggest boy, didn’t just come out of nowhere. As Grant Brisbee points out, sluggers keep getting taller and heavier on average, and Judge is the prototype for our beefy baseball future.
- Judge hit 47 homers, finished two rounds early because he defeated his opponent with plenty of time to spare, and mashed 23 taters in the one round he played to completion. He’s your 2017 Home Run Derby champ after putting on an incredible display of power.
- Britni de la Cretaz profiled Jessica Mendoza for Teen Vogue, and you should take time on this All-Star Game day to read it.
- Rob Manfred would love to expand from 30 MLB teams and into Canada and Mexico, but he reminded everyone that the stadium situations in Oakland and St. Petersburg need to be resolved first.
- Did Joel Embiid actually catch a homer at the Derby, or is the NBA star covering for an embarrassing attempt at a catch?
- Judge hit the roof of Marlins Park during the Derby, and it didn’t count as a homer. That obviously didn’t stop him from advancing and winning the whole thing.
- Judge’s first round was visualized in a chart, and unlike many other competitors who were pulling the ball, Judge was hitting with power to everywhere.
- Bryce Harper and other MLB All-Stars do not have Smash Mouth’s “All Star” in their head in Miami, but some of them will tell us the lyrics anyway.
- The All-Star Game lineups and starting pitchers have already been revealed. Hey, they had to fill all those hours before the Derby with something.
- Bo Bichette skipped his freshman year of high school to hit big league dingers, and that strategy seems to have worked out for the Blue Jays prospect.
- Doug Melvin isn’t running the Brewers anymore, but his fingerprints are still all over that first-place team.
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