the repub l i c o f sp o rts
As great as his current job is, Weiss left a good gig at Time
While these are serious efforts, don’t get the idea that Weiss
Warner, where he hung his hat for more than a decade. He
lives in a fun-free zone. You can crack his professional veneer
handled worldwide litigation, regulatory and intellectual prop-
with talk of baseball and the new season.
erty issues for the likes of HBO, CNN, Sports Illustrated, and
Warner Bros. But the opportunity to return home – and to an
panel concerning the economics of baseball that the league
organization and team close to his heart – proved irresistible.
would add another wild card team to the playoffs. That came
Like many young boys in Boston, or Philadelphia, or New
true. The latest wrinkle is realignment, which equalizes the num-
York, Weiss worshipped his local teams. He lived and died with
ber of teams in each division and each league – leading to more
the Bruins, the Celtics, and the Red Sox. The baseball revival
interleague play.
began in Boston when the Red Sox won the American League
pennant on the last day of the 1967 season and made the World
try of the new system,” he says. “You get a chance to see players
A few years ago, Weiss predicted during a law school reunion
Here’s where Weiss admits to being a fan. “I like the symme-
Series for the first time in twenty-one years. Too young to bear witness, Weiss, who played Little League Baseball, nurses boyhood memories of the valiant 1975 World Series loss when Carlton Fisk coaxed a decisive home run in Game Six to stay fair and keep the Series alive – a magical moment reenacted at playgrounds all over Boston and by the nine-year-old Weiss himself. But while baseball might be religion in Boston, Weiss realized quickly that it paid to prac-
“How lucky I am to be in the middle of the passion in the midst of
arguably the greatest run of success any city has ever witnessed in sports,
his Red Sox cap at home. And let there be no
which makes you feel pretty good about coming to work every day,”
doubt, baseball, like all sports, is BIG business.
says Ed Weiss
tice separation of Church and State. In other words, when it comes to business, Weiss leaves
“Sports teams have become mini-media companies,” notes Weiss. “They’re much bigger than the family-owned businesses they used to be. They are about different ways to galvanize an audience.” Take the New England Sports Network run by the Red Sox and part-owners the Boston Bruins. While it doesn’t approach the scope of Time Warner, NESN covers a lot of ground. It brings games and sports programming in High Definition to four million homes in New England. Then there’s the Red Sox Foundation, which counts among its efforts the long-running Jimmy Fund, an initiative with the Dana Farber Institute to raise money in the fight against child-
– even if it’s only once a year – that you otherwise wouldn’t see.” Does he feel the same way about more games against, say, the Philadelphia Phillies? “The Phillies have obviously been one of the best teams in major league baseball for many years now. So that has not worked in the Red Sox favor,” says Weiss, who met his wife, Susan, a Philadelphia native, while in law school.
Ever the media guy, Weiss knows his audience.
hood cancer, and a new partnership with Massachusetts General Hospital called Home Base, a groundbreaking program to offer medical treatment and support services to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families.
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