Like millions of men, Jonathan Mariner goes into his New York office every day and reads the sports page. Unlike the rest, however, Mariner is legitimately being paid to do so.
"I joke with people that it's one of those jobs where when you show up at your desk in the morning and start reading the sports page, you're actually doing your job," he said. "I think I have one of the best jobs in the country."
Mariner, the chief financial officer of Major League Baseball, runs the financial side of America's pastime.
As CFO of a sport filled with economic challenges, Mariner has helped turn a league that lost $500 million in 2001 into one that may break even this year.
In its May 5, 2003 edition, Sports Illustrated called him baseball's Alan Greenspan. The magazine also named him the 11th most influential minority in sports in that same issue, and they did so for good reason. Mariner handles interactions with team CFOs, who all must report back to baseball's central office regarding their finances.
Mariner also oversees the budgeting, financial reporting and risk management for the 400-person Commissioner's Offices, as well as the compliance issues of teams.
His office reviews potential new owners, and he meets quarterly with owners to keep them apprised of the state of the game. On top of that, Mariner also serves on baseball's relocation committee.
"I love what I do," Mariner said. "I really enjoy it tremendously. There are a lot of very interesting people -- the owners, the general managers and the CFOs are all good people. It's a very collegial environment."
The environment in which Mariner works may be a dream job for millions, but it was certainly not the one he envisioned for himself when he was an undergraduate in Charlottesville.
The Norfolk native spent his first two years at the Naval Academy before transferring into the McIntire School of Commerce at the University.
"I spent my first two years at the Naval Academy when there were no women there, so the initial fondest memory [at Virginia] was just being around women," Mariner said.
He also vividly recalls listening on the radio over Spring Break to Virginia's sole ACC basketball championship in 1976 and admits to following Cavalier sports to this day, made easier by the fact that the second of his three sons, Matthew, is a second year at the University.
After Mariner received his B.S. in Accounting at Virginia, he proceeded to earn his MBA from Harvard and took a job with MCI Communications before a management position with Ryder Trucks brought him to South Florida in 1985.
In Florida, he moved on to an executive job with the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau before his career took an unexpected turn. He interviewed with the soon-to-be-born Marlins for two vice president positions, community relations and finance and administration, the latter of which was his title at the Bureau.
He got neither of those positions, instead impressing owner Wayne Huizenga and getting hired as CFO of the Marlins in Feb. 1992, the first African-American to hold that post.
He would serve in that capacity for eight years, also serving as CFO of Huizenga's Florida Panthers and of the company that owned Pro Player Stadium (where the Marlins played).
"I never thought I'd be doing that because before I worked for the Marlins, I couldn't name five baseball players," Mariner said. "I followed football and basketball. Not only was I not looking to get into sports as a profession, but baseball would have been the last place I looked other than hockey. I ended up being CFO of a hockey team and a baseball team."
Mariner still sports a ring from the Marlins' 1997 World Series Championship and the 49-year-old also played a role in the later dismantling of the champion after their title run.
"Going into the playoffs, [Huizenga] had decided, with the team being for sale, that once that season was over, he was going to basically trade as many players with big contracts as he could, so when the team was finally sold, it wouldn't be losing as much money," Mariner said. "In September, [general manger] Dave Dombrowski already had a list of all the players we were going to trade. We used to joke in our staff meetings, wouldn't it be funny if we won the World Series."
Mariner continued as CFO under new owner John Henry for two years before resigning in 2000 to serve as Chief Operating Officer of Charter Schools USA.
"I left the Marlins to pursue an entrepreneurial dream of sorts that also combined a separate interest that I had, which broadly defined was educational reform," he said.
Eighteen months later, the former Wahoo joined the commissioner's office as of senior vice president and CFO of MLB.
Despite his current occupation, Mariner is far from a sports nut. He is playing fantasy baseball for the first time this year and hardly watches any sports on TV, indulging himself only when his beloved Redskins play. Mariner's family still lives in Florida, but the Redskin-season-ticket holder has commuted on eight Sundays for each of the past seven autumns to watch his Burgundy and Gold.
Even within baseball, Mariner saw less than a dozen regular season games last year. Yet he still capitalizes on the perks of his job, attending Games 6 and 7 of the NLCS, Game 7 of the ALCS, and all of the 2003 World Series.
And every day for the last two years, Jonathan Mariner has gotten paid to start his day reading the sports page.
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