Wednesday, April 21, 1999
Big question: Will new regime pay for winning team?
BY JOHN FAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Barry Larkin, the Red who played 13 years of the 15-year Marge Schott Era, was wondering the same thing everyone else was after he heard Schott had sold her controlling interest to a group led by Carl Lindner:
Will the new owners put more money in the franchise?
“It's great if the people who take over the team are interested in restoring what once was here, such as getting some good players in here,” Larkin said. “If that happens, it would be absolutely awesome.”
The players pay little attention to ownership issues.
“I don't think anyone was too uptight about what was going to happen,” Larkin said. “This is a front office issue. What's important to us is what happens on the field.”
But Larkin and company can expect a very different relationship with the new ownership group. Lindner would become the team's controlling partner. Limited partners George Strike and William Reik also will be part of the new ownership arrangement.
Larkin has never met Lindner, even though Lindner has been a limited partner during Larkin's entire career with the Reds. Schott was a regular visitor before home games.
“Mrs. Schott and Mr. Lindner are the antithesis of one another,” Reds radio voice Marty Brennaman said. “Mrs. Schott loves the spotlight. In the time I've been in this city, Mr. Lindner has stayed behind the scenes.”
Of the three limiteds involved in the deal, Reik has been the most visible Reds' presence.
“I would say he's the biggest baseball fan of the three,” Reds managing executive John Allen. “He's really a fan of the sport. He's the one I've had the most discussion about players and things like that. He loves to come to the ballpark.”
Brennaman says the biggest change, for now, will be the national perception of the Reds. Schott's many controversies had made the team something of a joke to fans around the country.
“I think from a perception standpoint,” Brennaman said, “it's a good day.”
The new ownership structure will likely work like it did under the owners who preceded Schott. Louis Nippert, then the Williams brothers, were hardly visible in the days they owned the team.
“The Nipperts hired good baseball people and let them run the team,” Brennaman said. “They (Williamses) were the same way. I think that's the way it will be now. I think that's important. Because just because you're successful in business doesn't mean you'll be successful running a baseball team.”
The new owners, however visible, will control the purse strings. And Brennaman, like Larkin, wonders what this means in terms of payroll. In today's baseball economics, a team with a payroll in the Reds' range — $30 million or so — has almost no chance of the winning.
“Will anything change?” Brennaman said. “Will there be an infusion of money? It's hard for me to perceive Carl Lindner, George Strike and Bill Reik investing ($67) million and then operating at the status quo.”
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