A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
It's playoff time for Major League Baseball, a golden time for teams still in contention, like the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Guardians, as heard here in this ESPN highlight from last night's game.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Hitting run in Game 3. Fry. Deep drive, left field. Fry's watching. It is a walk-off home run.
MARTÍNEZ: And for everybody else, well, they've cleaned out their clubhouses and are hoping for better luck next year. That includes those responsible for the big decisions about rosters salaries and ballpark improvements. And for the first time, David Rubenstein is one of those people. He spoke with our co-host Michel Martin.
MICHEL MARTIN, BYLINE: The billionaire investor and philanthropist bought the Baltimore Orioles earlier this year. We wanted to hear how it went. And he was nice enough to join us. Welcome. Thank you for joining us.
DAVID RUBENSTEIN: My pleasure. Thank you for having me.
MARTIN: Well, you knew it was going to be a rebuilding year. The Oriole started out strong, you know, hit a hitting slump, had to deal with a lot of injuries, squeaked into the playoffs, then got knocked out. So your rookie season as an owner, how do you feel about how it turned out?
RUBENSTEIN: Well, obviously, I would have wished we went further into the playoffs, and obviously, I was hoping that we would. But the baseball gods did not want a new owner to get to the World Series, I guess, and you have to rack up some experience in losing before you get to the World Series. So on the whole, it was a satisfying experience for me. I learned a lot. I think I connected with the fans, but I'm just disappointed we didn't do better.
MARTIN: Well, you know, something to look forward to, right? You know, a lot of little boys grow up dreaming of playing baseball. I don't know too many little boys who grew up wanting to own a baseball team. Were you one of them?
RUBENSTEIN: I was a little boy who played Little League and was very good at the age of 8 and thought I would get to the major leagues, but at the age of 9 and 10, I realized that probably wasn't going to happen. So I went to other things, like the law and business. As I got older, and many of my friends in the private equity world, in the business world, the tech world were buying sports teams, I thought maybe I should look at it. But I just didn't think I wanted to spend that much time on it, and I never did it. I did it this time for different reasons, not so much to make money, but more of a philanthropic gesture to help my hometown of Baltimore.
MARTIN: I was going to ask about that because, I think - look, as you just pointed out, you're very wealthy. You are co-founder and co-chair of The Carlyle Group. That's a global private equity firm. But as a public figure, I think a lot of people, they think of you as an arts guy and as a history guy. I mean, you were chair of the Kennedy Center Board, you're chair of the Smithsonian Board. You certainly have deep passions in those areas. So what was the appeal for buying a sports team?
RUBENSTEIN: I've tried to be philanthropic in the Washington area, where I've lived the last 50 years or so, and I tried to do the kind of things you mentioned. But I felt probably I hadn't done enough for my hometown. I grew up in Baltimore. My parents grew up in Baltimore. My parents lived most of their life in Baltimore. My parents are buried in Baltimore. I spent much of my youth in Baltimore and got a very good public education in Baltimore, and no doubt, I'll be buried in Baltimore as well.
As I thought back on it, I didn't really do enough for Baltimore compared to what I got out of Baltimore. While I have been involved in the Johns Hopkins Board and the medicine board, what I've done there probably hasn't been adequate to what I think I got out of Baltimore. So I thought when an opportunity came along, I would do it not to lose money, but not so much to make money. I could probably make more money doing other things with this amount of money that I put into this. But I thought it was a way to help Baltimore, which is a city that could use some help.
MARTIN: I was going to ask about that, too, because the thing about it is that some of those things like Kennedy Center, Smithsonian, that's purely philanthropic. A sports team is something else. It is a business. And it's this interesting dynamic. I mean, on the one hand, as an owner, you rely on the love of fans for the team and for players, but it's still a business. And as we have seen, when the business doesn't perform, you know, owners tend to make certain decisions. They trade players that sometimes people are very attached to. How do you think about that? You know, balancing the love that the fans have for the team or the fact that - and you rely on that...
RUBENSTEIN: Right.
MARTIN: ...With the fact that it is a business.
RUBENSTEIN: Well, it is a business and has been in business since the time that professional baseball was created, but it's not a business that is as profitable as other things that you could do with your money. If I wanted to maximize the amount of money that I was going to put into this kind of venture, I could put that amount of money into venture capital or private equity and probably make a higher rate of return. So the highest rate of return isn't what you do when you're looking to invest in a baseball team. There's psychic benefits. You enjoy being a fan. There's psychic benefits to having other people - you're helping your local town. There's the pleasure of seeing good athletes perform well. So that's a trade-off. I'm not disappointed in all that I put in the amount of money that we put in to do this. I don't expect to make a spectacular rate of return, but I would hope not to lose money from it.
MARTIN: Have you noticed, though - I mean, I was reading another interview that you did with The Wall Street Journal, and you said that this is the first time in your life that people have wanted selfies with you. Just kind of, what's that like?
RUBENSTEIN: It's a strange phenomenon because I've been the chair, as you pointed out, of the Kennedy Center for quite a while. I was the chair of the Smithsonian. I'm the chair of the National Gallery of Art, chair of the Library Congress Board, and nobody ever asked for a selfie or an autograph. Now, all of a sudden, 8-year-old boys and girls are asking me for autographs. You know, I don't want to say, look, my autograph isn't really going to be worth very much to you. Rather than explain to them, but I'm not that important a person, I just signed the autograph.
And I always remember when I was a little boy and I wanted autographs, I always thought that players that wouldn't sign them weren't as nice. So I've never turned down an autograph request or a selfie request, but I also think to myself that probably they can do better things with their time than getting my autograph. And people - you know, people make fun of my autograph because I am a lawyer by training, and I always date the autograph. And people say, well, why are you dating it? They don't really care what the date is. But I just I'm used to putting dates on things. Anyway, maybe the kids are making fun of me for dating all these things.
MARTIN: I don't think they are. I think they really want the autograph. Well, what does success mean for you in this role?
RUBENSTEIN: Well, success means you win a championship. Everybody wants to win a championship. I don't think any owners bought a team and the first year won a World Series. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's what I was told. And so I recognize it takes some time before you kind of get to a World Series. But clearly, without winning a World Series or a championship, it won't be satisfying. So I'm trying to do everything I can with my partners to make sure that the team has everything it needs to win a championship. It may take time. Some people own teams for 10 or 15 or 20 years and don't win a World Series.
So I have to recognize that it may not happen. I'm now 75 years old. It's unlikely that I'll be, you know, doing this for 20 more years. So I've got to speed up the effort to get a World Series a lot sooner than maybe some younger owners would.
MARTIN: David Rubenstein is the owner of the Baltimore Orioles. Looking forward to next season. David Rubenstein, thank you so much for talking with us.
RUBENSTEIN: My pleasure. Thank you for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
