Magic is Midas

Los Angeles Dodgers part owner Magic Johnson in attendance with wife Cookie Johnson as the Dodgers play against the Cardinals at Dodger Stadium (photo by Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports)

Baseball is not my thing,  I’ve never really followed it but living in Los Angeles and seeing what the Dodgers are doing is hard to ignore. I’m not going to sit here and blow smoke up your ass and say I know the ins and out of the game, but what I do know is that the Dodgers are on fire and show no sign of cooling down.

They do have a huge payroll, 2nd in the MLB, and some could say they have bought their wins.  The same has been said about the Lakers in the past, which leads me to the main topic of this story. You see this isn’t truly about baseball as it’s actually about ownership and the persona of a team. It could be any team in type of sport, this one just happens to have connection to me and the city I live in.

Although Magic Johnson only owns about 3 or 4 % of the team he is the face of Ownership, he spends time at the games and always takes the time to give the team a congratulatory shout out on Twitter.  Little things like that go a long way when you are dealing with a clubhouse full of millionaires and egos. He should know because he was in their shoes while with the Lakers.

Magic is in every sense of the word “MAGIC”. He may want to think about changing his name to Midas, because everything he touches turns to gold and the Dodgers are living proof of that.  Magic has had or has partnerships with some of the biggest corporations around, Loews Theaters, Pepsi, Starbucks, Fatburger, 24 Hour Fitness and T.G.I. Fridays to name a few. The Johnson Development Corporation is the driving force behind it all.

When I heard Magic was working with a group to buy the Dodgers I knew it wouldn’t be long before they would be in the winning mode. Magic does what any great owner does, he gives his organization all the tools needed to win, and they are winning.

Magic learned how to be a great owner from the greatest owner in any sport, he learned from Dr. Jerry Buss. Dr. Buss is the reason Magic is Magic. Those two men had a bond that went further than an owner and a player, not father and son, but friends, close friends and soul mates of sort. Dr. Buss spent the money and took the gambles more than most and they seemed to pay off. Magic is following the same system he was taught, spend the money, take the gamble and give the team all the right tools and watch them win.

Down deep inside I hope the Dodgers win the World Series this year, not that I actually care about Baseball but because I really admire Magic Johnson.  He has used his fame in such a positive away to help hundreds of thousands of people and he continues to do so.

He has shown that he is a good owner and on the way to being a great owner, all while keeping his smile and electrifying personality out in the open to draw more and more fans in. He pushed to have Dodger Stadium remodeled , it’s now the safest it’s been in years, he made it a family park, with attractions for the kids, all while making sure the ticket prices stay relatively low.

That competitive drive that pushed him in the NBA is still alive and well in him to this day, but rather than running Showtime on the court he is running his Midas Kingdom in the game of Business.  Now, if we could only get more millionaires to follow in his footsteps and actually have the drive to do good for all we would be in a better place.