Iowa Cubs Owner Leaves Generous Goodbye Gift On His Last Day

Michael Gartner, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper columnist and former president of NBC News, has owned the Iowa Cubs since 1999. Since he and his partners bought the team, it has been the last stop for many Chicago Cubs names like Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, and Javier Baez.

Being he had recently sold the team, Michael Gartner used his last day to give one last gift to the 23 employees that have worked under him.

Tuesday evening, Gartner gathered the employees inside a ballpark lounge overlooking left field. As some employees ate hot dogs and sipped their beer, Gartner pulled out a stack of envelopes while he wrapped up his farewell speech.

“Here are your new business cards,” Gartner joked, according to Yahoo! Sports.

“Everyone knew something was up because of the way he said it,” Alex Cohen, the team’s lead broadcaster, told the news outlet.

Inside those envelopes wouldn't actually be new business cards, but a combined total of nearly $600,000.

Gartner, Bernabe, and the other three members of the ownership team got together and determined how long each employee had been with the Iowa Cubs.

Each employee, from marketing managers, to stadium operation workers, and even the custodial staff, were given $2,000 per year they'd been with the company.

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$70,000 was given to the most tenured employee.

“It was the single most genuine gesture I've ever seen,” Cohen said. “You work in sports and it's usually long hours and low pay. You’re not in it to make money. But this is an ownership group that really cares about its employees. And this gesture really typified that.”

Read more at Yahoo! Sports