Iowa Cubs Owner Surprises Workers With ‘Life-Changing Gesture’ After Sale

Three days aft Christmas, Michael Gartner summoned the employees of the Iowa Cubs insignificant league shot squad to a unit gathering astatine Principal Park, the team’s stadium successful Des Moines.

The team’s merchantability to a planetary sports and amusement institution had closed that day, and Mr. Gartner, 83, said helium wanted to springiness the employees their caller concern cards.

But determination were nary concern cards successful the envelopes that helium handed out. Instead, wrong were checks worthy $2,000 for each twelvemonth each worker had worked for the squad — $600,000 successful full for the 23 full-time workers.

Employees who enactment successful maintenance, accounting, selling and different areas received checks for $4,000 to $70,000, said Mr. Gartner, who was the team’s bulk proprietor for 22 years, until the merchantability closed past Tuesday.

“My jaw dropped,” said Alex Cohen, 33, who has been the team’s vigor broadcaster since 2018 and has worked successful nonrecreational shot since 2009. “It’s an manufacture wherever you enactment truly hard, and sometimes you don’t get compensated similar that.”

Mr. Cohen described the checks arsenic “a life-changing gesture” for immoderate longtime unit members.

“Seeing each the radical who had been determination for 2 decades, 3 decades, tears streaming down their faces, it was a precise special, affectional day,” helium said.

Mr. Gartner said connected Saturday that sharing proceeds from the merchantability “was the close happening to do.”

“A batch of those radical person worked for america for implicit 20 years, and they’ve helped america physique a palmy team,” said Mr. Gartner, whose motion was reported by Yahoo! Sports. “They’re conscionable fantastic people.”

Mr. Gartner, who had owned the squad with his lad and 3 different partners, added: “They request the wealth much than we do. A batch of them inactive person mortgages and car payments and assemblage payments.”

Scott Sailor, 63, who received $46,000 for his 23 years moving for the squad successful media relations, sales, selling and different areas, said the checks were “not retired of character” for Mr. Gartner, a businessman, lawyer and third-generation Iowa newspaperman.

A erstwhile exertion of The Des Moines Register and a erstwhile president of NBC News, Mr. Gartner won a Pulitzer Prize successful 1997 for editorial penning astatine The Daily Tribune of Ames, Iowa. Two years later, helium bought the Iowa Cubs, the Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs, and became a fixture successful the beforehand bureau and successful his accustomed spot down location plate.

In 2020, erstwhile the insignificant league shot season was canceled due to the fact that of the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Gartner kept each full-time worker connected the payroll, with benefits, Mr. Sailor said.

“The astonishment was not that helium was generous due to the fact that that’s the mode he’s been,” said Randy Wehofer, the team’s vice president and adjunct wide manager, who joined the nine successful 2008.

“We’ve had above-standard wellness security and 401(k) contributions, and we’ve ever been the enactment that radical looked astatine and said, ‘Gee, I privation everybody did that,’” Mr. Wehofer said. “That’s ever been his way, arsenic agelong arsenic I’ve been portion of the organization.”

Last month, however, the Cubs announced that the squad had entered into an statement to go a portion of Diamond Baseball Holdings, a subsidiary of Endeavor, a planetary sports and amusement institution based successful Beverly Hills, Calif. The merchantability signaled the extremity of Mr. Gartner’s section ownership.

In a database of the 30 astir invaluable insignificant league shot teams successful 2016, Forbes placed the Iowa Cubs astatine No. 22, and estimated the team’s worth astatine $30 million. Mr. Gartner declined to disclose the merchantability price.

He said helium had felt little unafraid owning the squad since 2019, erstwhile Major League Baseball projected a large restructuring of the little level of the insignificant leagues. And astatine 83, helium said, “I conscionable decided it was time.”

Mr. Gartner said helium hoped that his erstwhile employees would enactment with the Iowa Cubs, and that the checks would assistance transportation them not to look for jobs elsewhere.

“You cognize their spouses and you cognize their kids,” Mr. Gartner said. “You spot them astatine the ballpark and astatine the bureau each day, and you spot however hard they enactment and however overmuch amusive they have, and however overmuch they bask it. And you privation to marque definite they’re not tempted to spell bash thing else.”

Mr. Sailor said helium had utilized portion of his cheque to springiness his nephew and 2 nieces “very bully Christmas gifts” this year: $2,000 checks of their own.

Dustin Halderson, 32, a stadium operations manager who is getting joined successful 2 months, said his $16,000 cheque gave him “some stability.”

“It was bully to consciousness bully astir the enactment I enactment in, and that they recognized it,” Mr. Halderson said. “The bonus was unexpected and conscionable truthful nice.”