{"id":208954,"date":"2026-04-24T23:30:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T23:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/208954\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T23:30:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T23:30:40","slug":"billionaire-john-catsimatidis-celebrates-first-weekend-as-minor-league-baseball-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/208954\/","title":{"rendered":"Billionaire John Catsimatidis celebrates first weekend as minor-league baseball manager"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Billionaire <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/13\/opinion\/dining-and-dashing-about-with-gristedes-and-wabc-radio-owner-john-catsimatidis\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">John Catsimatidis<\/a> is taking a swing at leading a minor-league baseball team as they gear up for opening weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The mogul behind Gristedes supermarkets and conservative radio network WABC was gearing up for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DXUIJIegP-G\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Staten Island FerryHawks\u2019 opening weekend<\/a> after adding Atlantic League managing partner to his resume.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just a wonderful day,\u201d Catsimatidis, who spent years supporting the Yankees-affiliated team, told The Post on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.50146628;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39192031\" width=\"886\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/JC1212.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a blue suit and striped yellow tie sitting in a gray armchair, in front of a blue background with the &quot;77 WABC&quot; logo.\" class=\"wp-image-39192031\"  \/>Billionaire John Catsimatidis will take part in the Staten Island FerryHawks\u2019 opening weekend festivities while discussing the previous affiliated Staten Island Yankees and developments with the team\u2019s current stadium. James Messerschmidt<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the Yankees called me up about four years ago and they wanted to be partners \u2013 I said absolutely yes I love baseball. My grandfather took me to my first Yankee game when I was about six or eight years old,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Catsimatidis \u2013 a power player in New York business and conservative politics \u2013 was a key investor in the team when it launched in 2022, replacing <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2020\/11\/09\/staten-island-yankees-shocked-big-league-team-dumped-them\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Staten Island Yankees<\/a>, which shut down operations in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The FerryHawks home base is Staten Island University Hospital Community Park, located off of the Staten Island Ferry stop. <\/p>\n<p>The stadium was built in 1990 under Mayor Rudy Giuliani and went through a renovation after its ownership change in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Catsimatidis said he hopes to eventually name it the WABC stadium after his radio station, and plans to expand the site\u2019s offerings to include concerts, festivals and a soccer team.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39192023\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026-manhattan-demonstrators-gathered-outside-124778422_0c94a2.jpg\" alt=\"Billionaire John Catsimatidis smiling at the camera as he confronts a group of protesters outside his residence.\" class=\"wp-image-39192023\"  \/>Catsimatidis is an investor of the ballclub and hopes to one day renmae the park from its current name Staten Island University Hospital Community Park to WABC Stadium. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to make it a full entertainment facility,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p>He even floated the idea of a minor league spinoff of the MLB\u2019s Yankees and Mets Subway Series.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have the Mets minor league team the Coney Island Cyclones and you have the FerryHawks, which is a Yankee associated team,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe should have a a series of a competition between the Cyclones and the FerryHawks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The new owner added that if it rains for Saturday\u2019s game, they will implement a double header for Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou get two for the price of one on Sunday!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billionaire John Catsimatidis is taking a swing at leading a minor-league baseball team as they gear up for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[8305,57,9,24,63,14738,134,136,135,58],"class_list":["post-208954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-john-catsimatidis","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-rudy-giuliani","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}