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Barstool’s Erika Nardini @ekanardini @tokenCEO, just had a terrific podcast on how MLB, inexplicably, is about to rubber-stamp a new team owner who embodies all the #MeToo 
, diversity, and integrity problems that have dogged that league for years. I have thoughts. THREAD
, diversity, and integrity problems that have dogged that league for years. I have thoughts. THREAD
Here’s the full segment, key portion at 5:51 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/token-ceo/id1503065691
Working in PR/comms for years you start to get a radar for some of the looming PR disasters out there. This one could be epic. MLB owners are about to create a piñata party with themselves as the main attraction.
Any day now, those MLB owners are set to vote and approve the sale of the NY Mets to one of the most infamous hedge fund crooks of our era, Steve Cohen. This guy has more baggage than LaGuardia lost-and-found so why are they considering him as an owner? https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-mets-sandy-alderson-20200924-2waagjtn5zf2rdrz4s3opetdgy-story.html
Prosecutors said his firm was at the top of “the most profitable insider-trading conspiracy of all time.” The firm he founded and headed pled guilty to criminal charges and paid a TEN-figure(!) fine. Several of his associates went to prison and Cohen was sanctioned by the SEC.
Remember the Showtime series “Billions”? It was based on him!
Remember how *last year* MLB suffered a horrendous scandal when it turned out the team that had won the World Series had flagrantly cheated? Which do you think is worse, stealing signals for balls and strikes or felony
insider trading on historic scale?
insider trading on historic scale?
Ok, so anything else about Cohen that should be a red flag? Looks like some sketchy sexual harassment cases where settlements were all kept quiet thanks to non-disclosure provisions and forced arbitration. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/18/sports/baseball/steve-cohen-mets-point72-discrimination.html
Pretty sure Major League Baseball is vulnerable on those issues already. 
https://nypost.com/2018/10/11/dodgers-secretly-harbored-player-accused-of-sexual-assault/
https://nypost.com/2018/10/11/dodgers-secretly-harbored-player-accused-of-sexual-assault/
Just imagine if Steve Cohen had to face the same question Mike Bloomberg did in the Democratic debates: Will you release all those women from their nondisclosures so that we can hear their side of the story? Do you think any journalists might ask that?
What’s amazing to me is that MLB knows it has a serious problem here. Five years ago, they retained a major recruiting firm to help them improve diversity in leadership ranks. (Narrator: it went nowhere). https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/sports/baseball/minority-recruiting-mlb-korn-ferry.html
But if Cohen doesn’t buy the team, wouldn’t it just be sold to some other billionaire dude? Maybe there are no qualified women! Oh wait a sec, the competing bid is led by Jennifer Lopez (as in, J-Lo!) who would be the first minority woman to ever own an MLB team.
Would it be important for MLB to have a Latina woman own a team in the most diverse fan base in the country? Does MLB want to improve its appeal with women and minorities? Their own diversity goals would point to “YES.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2016/12/13/with-new-diversity-goals-mlb-tries-to-change-its-image-as-an-old-white-boys-club/
MLB has been getting roasted in the press for years about living up to its promises to enhance minority and gender diversity. https://theathletic.com/1889328/2020/06/26/at-its-highest-level-mlb-leadership-has-become-less-diverse-in-recent-years/
In a weird way, Cohen’s ownership of the Mets will be a bonanza for the sports press, kind of like Trump is for CNN. He will be the perpetual proof of all their worst assumptions about baseball leadership.
Good luck, gentlemen, you are going to need it by the bushel. Just don't say the bad news came as a surprise.
