Finding Another Joan Kroc Won’t Be Easy

When the owner of a professional franchise announces that the team is for sale, the reaction of the general public usually runs a narrow gamut, from ho-hum to good riddance.

Owners, you see, are generally perceived as curmudgeonly fellows with fat stomachs, two or three chins, cigars in their mouths and their wallets sewn into the pockets of their three-piece suits.

These are people who put on a show of worrying about Ws and Ls but really worry most about Ps and Ls.

When the Chargers changed hands, and Alex Spanos replaced Eugene V. Klein as the owner, there was hardly a ripple of response from the populace. It was as if an owner is an owner is an owner, so what’s the big deal exactly who that might be?

It’s different this time.

Joan Kroc has announced that the Padres are for sale.

The first person I ran into after work Tuesday night was my insurance agent.

“Why,” he asked, “would Joan want to sell the Padres?”

I have heard the same question over and over. And it has always been Joan. Never Kroc.

Why? And what will happen to the Padres without her?

George Bush could learn a lot about kind and gentle stewardships from this woman. That was the way the fans (and players) perceived her. The word generous also comes into play, and not because she could afford to be. A lot of people can afford to be generous but aren’t.

Joan Kroc has always left the impression that she is a mere caretaker for San Diego’s team, not much more or less important than just another fan. Most owners let ownership feed their egos, and fans pick up on that.

Consequently, Kroc actually had fans and players who were loyal to her and trusted her.

It is almost as if the fans perceive that this owner is a most indispensable person . . . perhaps the unseen (by most) and unsung Most Valuable Person.

“I’ve been a conscientious owner,” she said Wednesday, “but not a great owner. I’ve been a sincere and honest owner. But no one’s irreplaceable. The team goes on.”

Yes, and life goes on.

This is where she is at now. Life. This is why she decided it is time to sell the baseball team.

“Looking at the calendar,” she said, “I’ll be 62 next August. That’s an age when a lot of people, not just me, start thinking about what they’re going to do with their golden years.”

She laughed.

“And I assure you, my hair will stay gold.”

A little aside. A little joke at her own expense. A little laughter. A little message that maybe it’s time for the simpler, more basic things in life.

“I’d like to take the family to the Greek Islands,” she said. “In the summer.”

After all, summer does not have to belong to baseball.

“The nature of baseball is sort of like life in that it’s unpredictable,” she said. “There are a lot of ups and downs, just like in life. I can cope with the ups and downs of life without having to cope with the ups and downs of baseball.”

The “ups” of baseball told her this was the time.

“If we had finished poorly, even a third-place finish,” she said, “I certainly would not have sold the club. I wouldn’t shirk my responsibility in getting the ship righted. But I feel very good about the future of this team.”

That was Joan Kroc, feeling it was her responsibility to make sure the team was in good shape. It was not her nature to abandon a ship anyone might have perceived was sinking.

Thus, her last responsibility as owner will be to work with Jerry Kapstein, her son-in-law, to find a suitable successor. This will be as important as anything she has done with and for this team and its fans.

“I assure you that the person buying this team will be a very financially healthy and prominent man or woman of integrity,” she said. “There will never be another fiasco like there was in ’86 with George Argyros.”

Argyros, of course, was the Newport Beach businessman who almost bought the club when Kroc had it on the market in the winter of 1986-87. The more she heard about him, the less she wanted to sell it to him until the deal financially dissolved, and she took the team off the market.

“Nothing like that will happen again,” she said. “I’m going to look to Jerry to be very stringent in checking people out.”

Jerry Kapstein’s chore will be nothing like the scouting department has ever encountered. It is much easier to shop for a starting pitcher or a shortstop or a center fielder than it is to shop for a buyer.

Of course, he knows all the qualities he is seeking. He need only sit down at the dining room table with his mother-in-law.

“It’s very important,” he said, “that I find someone, be it a man or a woman, who can carry on what Joan has done so well.”

That’s all he has to do.

Just how many Joan Krocs are there?