Latest news with #PatrickZalupski
New York Times
16 hours ago
- Business
- New York Times
The knuckleball's return? Plus: Sorry for the jinx, Aaron Judge
The Windup Newsletter ⚾ | This is The Athletic's MLB newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Windup directly in your inbox. How much does a 'small market' team go for these days? We're about to find out. Plus: New hope for knuckleballers in the Tigers system, a reminder on something catchers can't do, and Ken (… sigh …) Ken jinxed Aaron Judge, you guys. I'm Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal — welcome to the Windup! Yesterday was a big day for buying sports teams. First, the Rays announced that ownership was in 'exclusive negotiations' with a group headed by Jacksonville-based real estate developer Patrick Zalupski, likely signaling the end of a somewhat tumultuous last year for current owner Stu Sternberg. Last summer, things were looking up, with the team and the city of St. Petersburg in agreement on a $1.3 billion stadium deal. But that was before Hurricane Milton tore the roof off Tropicana Field, forcing the team to temporarily move to George Steinbrenner Field — the Yankees' spring training facility — for 2025. Advertisement It also set back the funding process; the city was, understandably, preoccupied with more urgent matters. But the Rays contended that the delays would increase the cost (since the timeline would be shorter) and the city should pay for the overage. No go. Ultimately, the Rays scuttled the agreement, city officials called for Sternberg to sell, and other owners and commissioner Rob Manfred also pressured him to sell. By then, it was not exactly a surprise. The reported value of the team is $1.7 billion. Meanwhile … if you think Dodgers owner Mark Walter has spent a ton on free agency recently, get a load of this: He just went out and got LeBron James and Luka Dončić, too. Well, sorta. He has agreed in principle to purchase the Los Angeles Lakers for somewhere between $10 billion and $12 billion. Either would be a global record for a sports franchise. And lastly: BIG NEWS! John Fisher is selling the team!! … The soccer team. Not the A's. Nuts. Two Saturdays ago, while covering Red Sox-Yankees for Fox, I learned something interesting about Aaron Judge's offensive approach. Nothing earth-shattering, nothing that would earn me my long-awaited Pulitzer, but a decent angle I felt was worth pursuing. I couldn't talk to Judge that day, but I did some other interviews for the story during the week. We had Red Sox-Yankees again last Saturday, so I knew I would get another crack at Judge. I was on a mission. And I spoke with him before the game, completing my reporting. What could go wrong? At the time, Judge was the hottest hitter on the planet, batting .390 with 26 home runs. Any angle on him was a good angle, right? I wrote the story Sunday and planned to publish it Monday, excited to get it out there. Faithful readers will notice the story still has not appeared. Advertisement After the Yankees were swept by the Red Sox last weekend, we decided to hold off, thinking the timing was not appropriate. If we had published, our readers would have lit me up in the comments, saying, 'Not now, idiot!' and other such niceties. Mind you, I'm quite accustomed to readers lighting me up in the comments. But publishing the Judge story after the Yankees were swept would have been the journalistic equivalent of robbing a grocery store with two dozen cops standing outside. We figured we'd delay the story a day or two, then publish as soon as Judge got hot again. Well, we've waited. And waited. And waited some more. And now, I'm starting to wonder whether this sucker will ever see the light of day. Since I interviewed Judge, the day after he hit a dramatic, game-tying shot off Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet, he is 1-for-19 with 11 strikeouts. His batting average has dropped from .390 to .366. And the Yankees have lost six straight games, getting swept by the Red Sox and dropping the first three games of four against the Los Angeles Angels. Their lead in the AL East is down to 1 1/2 games. I know what you're thinking: I jinxed Judge. Fair analysis. I also jinxed the Atlanta Braves and Texas Rangers, whom I predicted would meet in the World Series. Both will be lucky to make the playoffs. Jinxing, I guess, is what I do. But enough about my victims. What about me? I've got 1,700 glorious words waiting to be filed. What you eventually will read, if Judge ever snaps out of it, will be a different version. Revisions will be necessary. Words like 'historic' and 'Superman' and 'godlike' will need to be deleted. At this point, I'm just hoping the story appears before the All-Star break. Or before the decade is over. All you Yankee fans in a tizzy over the team's slump, I feel your pain. Maybe it's just me — after all, I once suggested a 621-foot 'crevasse' for a stadium — but I adore the weird and esoteric parts of this great sport. So of course I love the knuckleball. The pitch is — pardon a reference I'm not proud of — too weird to live, too rare to die. Except, in recent years, it has seemed rather dead. Adrian Morejon throws one once in a while. Matt Waldron threw it regularly last year, but he's back in the minors. The last knuckleballer to stick around? R.A. Dickey, who last pitched in 2017. Advertisement I know the game has changed, but c'mon — Dickey won 20 games and a Cy Young award in 2012. Charlie Hough, Tim Wakefield, Phil Niekro and Hoyt Wilhelm pitched an average of 22.5 seasons throwing it. Surely baseball hasn't completely tossed it aside, right? Take heart. Cody Stavenhagen has a great story today about Kenny Serwa, a 27-year-old who was recently called up to Double A in the Tigers organization. Serwa throws two versions of the pitch: one is slower. The other? It's the hardest knuckleball in Statcast history, at 88.5 mph. Throw in a sinker, cutter, curveball and mid-90s fastball, and … I'm intrigued. Stavenhagen does a brilliant job not only of telling Serwa's story, but also explaining why the pitch has fallen out of favor in big-league front offices. It's for the same reason it can be such an effective weapon: It's unpredictable. Citing physics professors, former big-leaguers and the folks at Tread Athletics, Stavenhagen fills us in on the kid who was playing indie ball and delivering pizzas in Chicago last year. Here's hoping he makes it. The baseball world is a little weirder when there's a successful knuckleballer hanging around. I see this same play crop up once in a while online, and the comments are always similar: 'I didn't know you couldn't do that!' 'First time I've ever seen that' or 'What a stupid rule.' I have no opinion on the stupidity of the rule, but it is a rule! Here, watch this GIF and see if you can tell what Luis Torrens does wrong: The Braves take a 2-0 lead when Luis Torrens uses his mask to scoop the baseball and the runners on 2nd and 3rd are both awarded a base [image or embed] — Baseball GIFs (@ June 18, 2025 at 4:42 PM That's right: Torrens attempted to corral the ball with his mask. You can't do that. He knew it, too — if you watch again, you can see him attempt to drop the mask quickly, hoping the umpire missed the infraction. Home plate umpire Edwin Jimenez was on it, though. And unfortunately for the Mets, there were runners on second and third when it happened. Each was awarded one base, increasing the Braves' lead to 2-0. Advertisement It was but the latest Mets catching scenario to give fans a bit of agita. Francisco Alvarez made some miscues the night before, and his power has been nonexistent this year. The Mets say they're not yet inclined to send him to the minor leagues to sort it out, though — as Tim Britton reports — that's … yet. And of course, it's all magnified by the fact that last night's 5-0 loss gives the Mets a five-game losing streak. NL East lead down to one game. Thought we were done with the All-Quarter Century Team? Not quite! Jayson Stark and Tyler Kepner — along with help from fan voting — have now assembled a full 40-man roster. The Dodgers are expected to announce plans to assist the immigrant community in Los Angeles. This comes on the heels of some controversy earlier this week, when singer Nezza said a team official told her not to sing the national anthem in Spanish. After comments over the weekend about how the Nats' losing streak — now 11 games — is 'never on the coaches' … is manager Davey Martinez on the hot seat? Pete Crow-Armstrong's great season with the bat might be overshadowing it, but his defense has been special this year in Chicago. Tragedy in Florida: Orioles minor leaguer Luis Guevara was killed in a jet ski accident. Keith Law has his list of the biggest draft misses from 2015, and Melissa Lockard has notes from this year's MLB Draft Combine. After a stunning three-run, two-out ninth-inning rally to walk off Arkansas, LSU is advancing to the College World Series final. They'll face Coastal Carolina. On the pods: The 'Rates & Barrels' crew talks about Cal Raleigh's MVP case and the importance of good communication. Programming note: No newsletter tomorrow — we're taking today off from writing in observance of Juneteenth. 📫 Love The Windup? Check out The Athletic's other newsletters.
Globe and Mail
a day ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Tampa Bay Rays say they're in talks for a potential sale amid stadium uncertainty
The Tampa Bay Rays say they are in 'exclusive discussions' with a Florida investment group for a potential sale of the team. The Rays are valued at $US1.25-billion, according to Forbes magazine. Stuart Sternberg bought the Major League Baseball club for $US200-million in 2004. 'The Tampa Bay Rays announced that the team has recently commenced exclusive discussions with a group led by Patrick Zalupski, Bill Cosgrove, Ken Babby and prominent Tampa Bay investors concerning a possible sale of the team,' the club said Wednesday while declining further comment. The potential sale comes at a precarious time for the Rays and their home ballpark. They are playing this season at the spring training home of the New York Yankees in Tampa after the roof of Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg was heavily damaged during Hurricane Milton last October. Before the hurricane, the Rays and the city had agreed on a plan for a $US 1.3=billion stadium development project next to Tropicana Field. In March, Sternberg said the club was withdrawing from that agreement. St. Petersburg is spending about $US55-million to repair Tropicana Field with a plan for the Rays to return there in 2026. The city and the club have a three-year agreement to play there. Beyond that, the club's future in the Tampa Bay area is uncertain. When the Rays withdrew from the project, the city noted that it was possible the club would have new owners. 'If in the coming months a new owner, who demonstrates a commitment to honouring their agreements and our community priorities emerges, we will consider a partnership to keep baseball in St. Pete,' Mayor Ken Welch said in March. 'But we will not put our city's progress on hold as we await a collaborative and community-focused baseball partner.'
Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
Who Is The Billionaire Making A Bid For The Tampa Bay Rays?
By Thomas Gallagher Patrick Zalupski On Wednesday, the Tampa Bay Rays announced that a group led by Patrick Zalupski—a homebuilding billionaire–entered exclusive negotiations to buy the team from principal owner Stuart Sternberg. The price being discussed: $1.7 billion, according to Sportico. The announcement comes amid uncertainty regarding the team's future in the Tampa Bay area following a series of failed stadium proposals–including plans for renovations of Tropicana Field or a new ballpark in St. Petersburg. Now, ownership could be turned over to a group headed by the 44-year-old CEO of a publicly-traded developer. Zalupski, whose net worth Forbes estimates at $1.3 billion, is the founder and CEO of Dream Finders Homes, a Jacksonville-based company that describes itself as one of the country's fastest-growing homebuilders. Zalupski's group is in talks with Sternberg, a former partner at Goldman Sachs who purchased the Rays in 2004 with fellow Goldman Sachs partner Matthew Silverman for a reported $200 million. The two other buyers joining Zalupski, according to a Rays announcement, are Bill Cosgrove, CEO of Union Home Mortgage, and Ken Babby, the founder of the Fast Forward Sports Group and owner of two minor league baseball teams. Zalupski did not immediately reply to a request for comment from Forbes. Born in the suburbs of Detroit, Zalupski's family moved frequently during his childhood, as Forbes first reported in 2021. After graduating with a degree in finance from Stetson University, he became an auditor at FedEx, a job he felt dispassionate about. When his parents divorced, his mother moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where she worked as a realtor. Zalupski soon followed and began helping with her business. He flipped his first property in 2004 at age 24. Reinvesting the profits from the deal, he then bought a nine-unit condo project in 2006–just before the housing market crashed. Despite taking a loss on the investment, the mistake formed the foundation of Dream Finders, which Zalupski cofounded with a construction partner, Mark McGuigan, and McGuigan's wife, Tobi, in 2008. As the real estate market began to rebound following the financial crisis, Dream Finders built 27 homes the following year. By 2013, the company had sold a total of more than 1,000 homes, and Zalupski bought out the McGuigans for an undisclosed amount. Zalupski then expanded Dream Finders beyond Florida into Georgia, then Colorado and Texas. In 2021 he took the company public on the New York Stock Exchange. He owns about half the company's shares and has 84% of the voting rights. The business has been profitable every year since its founding, Zalupski told Forbes in 2021. That remains true four years later, based on Securities and Exchange Commission filings. In its most recent year, Dream Finders closed on 38,000 homes and earned $335 million in net income on revenue of $4.4 billion. More than 90% of Zalupski's estimated fortune lies in his Dream Finders shares, per Forbes calculations. Since taking the company public four years ago, he's sold about $20 million worth of his stock, plus has entered into more than one pre-paid forward only sale agreement. Just how he's going to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars to finance the purchase isn't clear, though there is always the chance he pulled out dividends when the company was private. He'll also have partners and the group will likely borrow to fund the deal. The Rays, meanwhile, have gone through a tough stretch. In 2024, the roof at the team's stadium, Tropicana Field, was destroyed by Hurricane Milton. For the 2025 season, the Rays elected to play home games at Steinbrenner Field, the Yankees' spring training stadium, located nearby in St. Petersburg. It only seats 11,026, making it the smallest ballpark in Major League Baseball and roughly a quarter the size of Tropicana. With ticket sales down for the 2025 season and the foreseeable future, Zalupski's group might have a plan to turn the franchise around. Despite being relegated to a stadium more compact than the Oakland A's, who are destined for relocation, billionaire Zalupski and his rich partners' potential ownership may be a needed shot in the arm for the team's stadium issues.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The Tampa Bay Rays are in advanced talks to sell team
The Tampa Bay Rays are in advanced talks to sell team A group of investors led by a Jacksonville developer is in exclusive talks to buy the Tampa Bay Rays, the team said Wednesday. In a two-sentence statement, the Rays said the team is discussing a possible sale with Patrick Zalupski, Bill Cosgrove, Ken Babby 'and prominent Tampa Bay investors.' Advertisement Zalupski, 44, is the founder, president and CEO of Dream Finders Homes in Jacksonville. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Florida. 'Neither the Rays nor the group will have further comment during the discussions,' the statement concluded. The news comes at a critical time for the Rays, who were forced to play home games this season at the New York Yankees' spring training stadium in Tampa after Hurricane Milton destroyed the roof of Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg last year. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
New York Post
a day ago
- Business
- New York Post
Rays owner in ‘advanced talks' to sell MLB franchise for $1.7 billion
The Rays revealed Wednesday that owner Stu Sternberg is in 'advanced talks' to sell the team. The potential deal values the MLB club at $1.7 billion with a group led by Jacksonville homebuilder Patrick Zalupski having executed a letter of intent to purchase the club, per Sportico. 'The Tampa Bay Rays announced that the team has recently commenced exclusive discussions with a group led by Patrick Zalupski, Bill Cosgrove, Ken Babby and prominent Tampa Bay investors concerning a possible sale of the team,' the team said in a statement. 'Neither the Rays nor the group will have further comment during the discussions.' 3 Rays' Junior Caminero runs the bases after his double off Miami Marlins pitcher Edward Cabrera. AP The Rays perennially have one of the smallest payrolls in Major League Baseball but have been one of the most successful teams since 2008, with the third-highest winning percentage in that time. Only the Yankees and the Dodgers have a higher win percentage. Sternberg, principal owner of the franchise, purchased the Rays in 2004 for $200 million, but has faced mounting pressure to sell the team in recent years. According to The Athletic, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and other owners have been attempting to persuade Sternberg to sell. The Rays have spent considerable time trying to build a new stadium to replace Tropicana Field. They had a deal in place to begin building a new 30,000-capacity stadium as part of a mixed-use development in the Historic Gas Plant District in downtown St. Petersburg. 3 Patrick Zalupski is the founder, chairman and CEO of Dream Finders Homes, a Florida-based homebuilder. University of Florida 3 Tropicana Field after Hurricane Milton. AFP via Getty Images However, as the March 31 funding deadline passed, Sternberg announced that the plans were being scrapped due to financing delays. Currently, the Rays are unable to play at Tropicana Field after the stadium sustain massive damage from Hurricane Milton in October 2024. They are instead playing out of George M. Steinbrenner field in Tampa, which is the site of the Yankees' spring training facility and home of their High-A club. A Rays sale would be MLB's third franchise to change hands in recent years. In 2020, the Mets were sold to Steve Cohen, and, in 2024, a group led by David Rubenstein bought the Orioles. The news of the franchise's potential sale came just hours before ESPN reported the majority share of the NBA's Lakers being sold to Mark Walter, owner of MLB's Dodgers, in a $10 billion deal.
