Veeck leaves RiverDogs; Well, sort of

Nothing personal.

Mike Veeck loves the Lowcountry as much as any time since he arrived more than 10 years ago to run the Charleston RiverDogs. But the wacky funster who uses Riley Park as center stage for "Fun Is Good" marketing schemes that draw national attention is selling his ownership interest in the Class A South Atlantic League team. Disputes with fellow minor league baseball executives who object to Veeck's zeal for independent league baseball drove him out.

"I'm just tired of the board of trustees (in various baseball minor leagues) screaming about the independent league teams," Veeck said Tuesday at The Joe.

"Everybody will tell you it's not getting worse. I think it is."

This is no "Win Mike's Money" promotional stunt.

There isn't a punch line.

It's not April 1.

Final transfer and division of Veeck's share within the RiverDogs' ownership group is just a matter of sorting out details.

But the spiciest minor league baseball news of the season is no big deal.

Veeck expects to remain RiverDogs president.

He will drop by the office regularly.

Fun is still good.

Hassled by The Man

Veeck will continue to live in Mount Pleasant. Unless he and RiverDogs co-owner Bill Murray some day take over the Chicago Cubs.

"Are you kidding?" Veeck said, explaining the love his wife Libby, son Night Train and daughter Rebecca have for Charleston. "If I said we were moving, they would each shoot me, independently."

Pardon the pun.

It isn't so much the difference between independent league professional baseball and "affiliated" minor league baseball. It's the mix of the two and a real or perceived conflict of interest.

Independent league teams do not have working agreements with major league teams. They sign their own players, usually castoffs. They counter a shaky talent pool with aggressive marketing and promotions, many borrowed from Veeck, whose smash success with the St. Paul Saints of the Northern League in the early 1990s made independent league ball viable.

Affiliated teams, like the RiverDogs and every other South Atlantic League team, belong to major league farm systems.

In many parts of the country, independent and affiliated clubs compete for customers and territory. Specifically, Veeck's consulting work for an independent league team in Brockton, Mass., owned by RiverDogs principal owner Marvin Goldklang, seriously rankled the club president of the nearby Pawtucket Red Sox of the Triple-A International League. In short, a baseball guy named Veeck has been hassled by The Man. Again.

Veeck's father, the late Hall of Fame owner Bill Veeck, butted heads often with the baseball establishment during his seasons as owner of the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians and St. Louis Browns.

Cubs win?

Veeck's investment in the RiverDogs was via the Goldklang Group, an influential bunch of baseball innovators headed by Goldklang, a New York investment banker who also owns a piece of the New York Yankees. He recruited Veeck into the minor league biz two decades ago. Murray came aboard sometime between "Caddyshack" and "Lost In Translation."

Veeck remains part of the Goldklang Group. He will sever his ties with three of the group's minor league clubs that have big league affiliations (the RiverDogs, Fort Myers Miracle and Hudson Valley Renegades) while continuing to own parts of the independent league St. Paul Saints and Sioux Falls Canaries.

"Nothing changes. We just lose that conflict of interest," Veeck said as he planned for Saturday night's annual "Kindness Beats Blindness" mega-auction at The Joe during the RiverDogs-Savannah Sand Gnats game.

Veeck says the split will not negatively impact his efforts in two other baseball pursuits:

--Gradually building a case for Charleston as a Double-A market.

"However annoying I may be, Marv (Goldklang) is the absolute power behind the throne in any league he is in," Veeck said.

--Helping Murray and other would-be investors if they make a realistic push to buy the Cubs.

Seems like a longshot. After all, if the stodgy suits in major league baseball are frowning at Cubs bidder Mark Cuban, thinking the owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks is too much an outsider, how do you think they view a group with an attachment to original maverick owner Bill Veeck?

"I always think there's a chance," Veeck said. "I'm very interested in that possibility."

It would be so cool. Bill Veeck, while working odd ballpark jobs for Cubs executive William Veeck Sr., planted the initial ivy aside the brick outfield wall at wonderful Wrigley Field.

What a great full-circle welcome back to affiliated baseball for Mike Veeck.

Reach Gene Sapakoff at gsapakoff@postandcourier.com.