America 1982-Chapter 442 - 67: Boiler Room Tucker_2

But after little Turner bought the team, he felt that as a die-hard baseball fan with decades of experience watching games, why would he need to hire a highly paid club manager to help him manage things? Didn’t he purchase the baseball team because he wanted to create a dynasty with his own hands?

So, the tycoon held a press conference for the team, announcing that he would take on the role of club manager himself, and had it not been for the requirement of professional certification for the head coach, he might have even declared his intention to take on that job on the spot.

The press conference provoked an outburst from the hundred or so Atlanta fans present that could be likened to angry roars of "Bullshit! Refund!"

The Atlanta Braves had been around for over a hundred years, and in all that history, they had only won the championship once. Fans had thought that with Turner, a new owner who seemed to truly love baseball, the club had finally found a patron willing to spend for victory. Instead, he struck them with a blow, informing everyone that his primary purpose in buying the team wasn’t to win a championship, but to indulge in the role of club manager and head coach.

This forced the Major League Baseball Commission to send a commissioner the next day specifically to meet with Turner and tell him that the league had regulations prohibiting club managers from holding shares in the team. If Turner insisted on being the club manager, he would have to give up ownership of the team and then apply for the job of club manager from the new owner.

After much thought, Turner decided that it was unlikely any club would hire an amateur like himself as a manager, and he finally resigned his managerial position in frustration.

Thus, Turner earned the distinction of having the shortest career of any manager in the history of the Atlanta Braves and possibly the whole of Major League Baseball, serving for two days with a team record of one loss, for a win percentage of 0%.

Unable to experience the thrill of building a dynasty himself, Turner began meddling with the team’s logo, uniform design, and even persuaded his team’s star players to change their surnames or adopt nicknames to proudly print on their jerseys.

Most of the nicknames or surnames he helped to conjure up included the letters CNN, while a few were the brand names of other sponsors. For instance, star player Andy Messer Smith once shared with reporters that Turner invited him to dinner and asked if he could apply to the league to change his surname from Messer Smith to Corona.

Sports entertainment news often seen in Atlanta was: Today, Turner gave a catchy advertising name to his team’s outstanding MVP player.

So in the first few years after buying the team, even though the team’s performance was on the decline, the vast majority of fans united closely with the players, coaches, the team doctor, and even the manager. Fans expressed sympathy for the players and coaches, who in turn thanked the fans for their understanding.

Because everyone who loved the team understood that the Atlanta Braves’ real enemy at the moment was none other than Turner, their owner.

Tommy certainly didn’t want Rick Russo, a top reality show talent from San Fernando working hard to make money for him, to think he was ungrateful by sending Turner, an eccentric who liked to be hands-on in everything, to torment them.

After meeting with his father-in-law and Herbert Siegel, Tommy did not hurry to leave New York but went to meet with Wolfe Tuck, who was busy preparing for the financial news network.

He knew that Wolfe has been under significant pressure lately.

Not work pressure, but rather the pressure of public opinion from those around him.

In the case of BT Television Network, Wolfe led his team from initial registration and networking to infrastructure building, involving himself in every step. Now that BT Television Network has become a favorite among a large number of African Americans, he has gained nothing at all.

For VOX News Network, once again, Wolfe led his team through the hard work of leasing satellite bandwidth to going on the air, only to be replaced by the suddenly parachuted-in Jewish man, Morris Schoenfeld. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Now, Tommy asked Wolfe to come from Washington to New York to prepare the financial news network.

More than one of Wolfe’s team members who had followed him complained about this, and even his wife had spoken up. They felt Tommy was just dangling a carrot in front of Wolfe, making him act like a foolish donkey, spinning in circles, time and time again, reaping success for Tommy while gaining nothing for himself.

Tommy had learned that some large headhunting firms had offered Wolfe exorbitant salaries, inviting him and his team to change jobs for better prospects, but Wolfe had turned them all down.

To Tommy’s surprise, Wolfe chose a Japanese business club as the location for their meeting.

It wasn’t that Tommy found it strange that New York would have a Japanese business club—after all, the Japanese had opened plenty of restaurants and tea houses in America over the years to export their culture globally. Tommy was baffled because Wolfe was African American and the sight of an African American donning a Japanese robe and entering a tea room was something which he had only seen in certain Japanese S&M action films of his previous life, giving him a sense of déjà vu.

Seeing Wolfe ceremoniously kneeling in front of a small table, engrossed in admiring the Japanese tea master preparing the tea, Tommy laughed and asked, "Since when did you start taking a liking to Japanese culture?"