The employees of the Iowa Cubs minor league baseball team were summoned to a staff meeting by Michael Gartner three days after Christmas.
The sale of the team to a global sports and entertainment company had closed, and Mr.Gartner wanted to give the employees new business cards.
There were no business cards in the envelopes that he handed out. Each employee of the team received checks worth $2,000 for every year they had worked for the team.
The team's majority owner, Mr. Gartner, said that employees who work in maintenance, accounting, marketing and other areas received checks for $4,000 to $70,000.
Alex Cohen, the team's radio broadcaster, said his jaw dropped when he heard the news. Sometimes you don't get compensated like that in an industry where you work hard.
The checks were described as a life-changing gesture by Mr. Cohen.
He said it was an emotional day when he saw all the people who had been there for two decades, three decades.
Sharing proceeds from the sale was the right thing to do, according to Mr. Gartner.
Mr.Gartner said that a lot of the people who worked for them for 20 years helped build the successful team. Sports. They are fantastic people.
The team was owned by Mr.Gartner and his son and three other partners. A lot of them still have mortgage and car payments.
Scott Sailor, who received $46,000 for his 23 years working for the team in media relations, sales, marketing and other areas, said the checks were not out of character for Mr.Gartner, a businessman, lawyer and third-generation Iowa newspaperman.
A former editor of The Des Moines Register and a former president of NBC News, Mr. Gartner won a Pulitzer Prize in 1997 for editorial writing. He became a fixture in the front office and in his usual seat behind home plate after buying the Iowa Cubs, the Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs.
When the minor league baseball season was canceled because of the coronaviruses, Mr. Sailor said that Mr.Gartner kept every full-time employee on the payroll.
Randy Wehofer, the team's vice president and assistant general manager, said that the surprise was not that he was generous, but that he has been.
Mr. Wehofer said that they have always been the organization that people looked at and said, "I wish everybody did that." As long as I have been a part of the organization, that has always been his way.
The Cubs entered into an agreement to become a part of Diamond Baseball, a subsidiary of Endeavor, a global sports and entertainment company. The sale signaled the end of local ownership by Mr.Gartner.
Forbes put the Iowa Cubs at 22 on their list of the 30 most valuable minor league baseball teams. The sale price was not disclosed.
Major League Baseball proposed a major restructuring of the lower level of the minor leagues, which made him feel less secure owning the team. He said he just decided it was time.
The checks would help persuade the former employees to stay with the Iowa Cubs, Mr. Gartner said.
You know their spouses and kids, Mr. Gartner said. You can see how hard they work and how much fun they have when you see them at the office and at the ballpark. You want to make sure they don't go do something else.
Mr. Sailor gave his nephew and two nieces $2,000 checks of their own, as a Christmas gift, and said he had used part of his check to give his nephew and two nieces very nice Christmas gifts.
Halderson, who is getting married in two months, said his $16,000 check gave him some stability.
Mr. Halderson said it was nice to feel good about the work he did. The bonus was very nice.
