Hanson: Excuse me…do I know you?
Walt: No Miss Hanson. You do not. However, you do know of me.
Hanson: Ok. What's that supposed to mean?
Walt: I left you a note several weeks ago regarding John Watson, the owner of the Charlotte Flyers.
Hanson: Ok. That was you?. It’s been a while. I expected to hear something sooner.
Walt: I get that. It made more sense to hold off until the end of the season.
Hanson: So, what do you have for me? Is he involved in some shady backroom deals, some kind of prostitution ring, or something else?
Walt: No. It’s really something else entirely. You see, it turns out that John Watson is simply an idiot.
Hanson: An idiot? Ok, what does that mean? And more importantly, what does that information do for me?
Walt: Perhaps nothing, or perhaps it helps clear up the lens through which you view his actions. You see, his parents, Edgar and Penelope Watson, made their fortune through smart investments and having a knack for figuring out what people needed and finding a way to make sure they could be involved in getting it to them for a profit. Their son was just along for the ride. They loved him, but they were worried that he would lose all of their money if given the chance to take control of their enterprises. Despite their best efforts, he had absolutely no understanding of business or investing. They did everything they could to help him. They sent him to the best schools, hired the best tutors, and made large donations to those schools when it was clear that he would not do well unless they got involved financially. He’s not disabled in any way. He just doesn’t have the ability, or desire, to get anything done, unless it has something to do with baseball. He has always loved baseball. He struggled in math in school, but he would sit and work tirelessly to understand statistics related to his favorite players and teams. His parents tried to help connect the two. They hired specialists who were brought in to help him connect his school learning to baseball concepts. For a while, everyone thought it was working. Then John got bored of it and went back to just focusing on baseball.
Hanson: So is this about how he ended up owning the Flyers?
Walt: In a way, yes. I’ll skip ahead a bit. As his parents were looking for ways to move out of their roles in the family business, they knew they couldn’t hand it over to John. He also made it clear that he didn't want that. He spent several years working as an usher for his local baseball team but wanted nothing to do with working for his parents. He loved them. He just thought their work was boring and difficult. In the late 2020’s John’s parents began to worry about what would happen if they just passed money along to him and decided that they would look for a way to indulge John’s love of baseball and set him up financially for the rest of his life. John was charming enough and dated plenty but hadn’t settled down by this time, but his parents wanted to make sure that future generations would be set up for success if John were to have children. By the mid 30’s his parents had a plan. They started working with a group in Charlotte, North Carolina on getting involved in the Brewster Baseball Association. They came up with the money and the structure to make a bid for an expansion team that they would purchase in John’s name.
Hanson: So John Watson wasn’t actually the one who bought the team? It was his parents?
Walt: Yes. That’s correct. However, they went out of their way to make it look like John was at the helm. You see, his parents actually knew very little about baseball. They just listened to their son talk about it and went to games for his sake. They had no interest in getting involved in the team themselves. If it didn’t look like John was the frontman, then he wouldn’t be awarded the team. So they hired men who knew about baseball and understood money. Men who were happy to keep their mouths shut and help guide John as he worked his way through the process. Those men are still bound to John to this day. They signed contracts that stated they would guide most of the financial discussion that John makes. They do it with the understanding that they must stay in the background but must always be involved in the big financial decisions that happen.
Hanson: Who are these men? Do you have names? Is Watson always aware of all the decisions? How do they deal with meetings he holds without them?
Walt: You do have a lot of questions. That’s good. I have a lot of answers. I also have documentation to back it up. This drive contains emails, legal documents, text conversations, and some audio files that back up all of what I’ve been saying. I’ll let you find some of the answers yourself. However, there is one story that helps clear up a couple of those ideas pretty well.
Hanson: I’m all ears.
Walt: John Watson is really upset with the front office of the Flyers right now. It’s been going on since last offseason and will probably continue for at least a while. As you know, the team had been in a bad way for a while prior to this season. The new General Manager, Nathan Garrison, couldn’t stand losing that many games and started doing his homework. He didn’t just look at the players who might be available, or the other teams around the league. He also dug into his own organization as deeply as possible. He found out about some of the things we’ve been discussing here and went around Watson to acquire the money needed to bring in an influx of talent to the big league club. As I said earlier, these men know baseball and money. Garrison presented them with his plan to not only make the team better, but also bring in money to help pay for it, now and in the future. They agreed to open up the accounts and send money his way. It worked. Garrison brought in talent, including some big names that excited the fan base. The team was competitive and exciting. Fans packed the stadium and the money flowed. The extensive injuries were one of the main reasons the team couldn’t finish the job and get into the playoffs where they would have had even more money coming in. All in all, the men really making the decisions were happy and will likely be putting more money into the team than Watson expects. Last season, there was a meeting in which Watson made clear his anger over Garrison’s “unauthorized’ spending. That animosity has remained, even with the general success of the plan. In fact, Watson reached out to the media to do an interview making sure that everyone thought he had spent big on the team to bring a winner to town. He was trying to drive the narrative that he, not the front office, was behind the renewed success of the team.
Hanson: Interesting. I want to ask you a few more questions.
Walt: I’m sure that you do. Unfortunately, I’m out of time for today. I’ll reach back out after you’ve had time to go through that drive.
Walt left money on the table to pay for her meal and got up from the table to leave the diner. Monica packed up her things, clutched the drive tightly, and left as well. She wanted to dig in as quickly as possible.
