Rye Resident Going to World Series (He Owns the Team)
There is one very happy Rye resident this morning.
Bellevue Avenue resident Stuart Sternberg, 49, is going to the World Series.
That’s because Sternberg, a Brooklyn boy who was raised a Mets fan, is the controlling owner of the Tampa Bay Rays. If sometimes Rye resident A-Rod and his Yankees can’t make the trip, and if former Yankee skipper and Harrison Huskie Joe Torre‘s LA Dodgers bombed out, this writer is all for rooting for a hometown owner that was able to dispatch the Red Sox.
The "Sternberg Six" bought controlling interest in the Rays in 2004 and Sternberg assumed the role of managing general partner in 2005. Sternberg is a successful financier, first as a partner at Spear, Leeds & Kellogg, and after that firm was acquired by Goldman Sachs, he became a partner there before retiring in 2002. He and his wife have four young children.
In September, the Associated Press reported the story of Sternberg purchasing the Tampa Bay Rays:
"He lives in suburban Rye these days and tried to buy into the Mets when Nelson Doubleday sold his shares to Fred Wilpon and Wilpon’s investors in 2002.
"I called a couple of bankers to please check into it, and I was told the ship had sort of sailed," he recalled Thursday. "They said, ‘But gee, if you’re interested in sports teams, we can show you a few on the baseball side. You can actually meet with the CFO and owner of the Devil Rays to really get a firsthand account of what’s going on. You can see how you feel about it.’
"I was like, oh, the Devil Rays? They’re in Tampa. They’re pretty bad. And they said, ‘Yeah, but look, you’ll speak to them and maybe you’ll see something.’ So I did. I sat down with them, and I saw immediately that it could have been a real good opportunity.""
