News
Play Ball!
October 12, 2011
| It’s no secret the Bay Area lost one of its most iconic sports figures last week. Since sports and commercial RE seem to go together, we thought we’d check in with a couple of local pros who are also active in sports—coaching their children’s teams. (Though we doubt they ever admonish their young players to “Just win, baby!”) |
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| Yesterday we chatted with Studley SVP/Silicon Valley managerGeorge Fox, who coaches son Tristan (almost 8) in football and baseball, and daughter Paris (11), in baseball and basketball. George played baseball himself at San Jose State and still plays in a league for those 25 and up—last year he attended the Arizona Diamondbacks' fantasy baseball camp and will be going again this year. The way to motivate little sluggers? You’ve got to teach them the fundamentals (good job sneaking a real estate term in there, George) and make it fun, so they’re happy going out on the field. The old saw that “winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing” is definitely not the way to teach kids how to play sports. |
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| Here's Studley’s Palo Alto office. Perhaps brokers who can kick the ball over one of those goal posts (on the right) earn a spot on the company team. George tells us that because his kids are so young, he coaches sportsmanship and character—learning life’s lessonsthrough sports—more than winning and losing. One lesson: how to treat each other—players and coaches (even the umps). For example, when his teams are up by a bunch of runs, they won’t steal bases. “You take the high road.” The same could be said about leasing. If a transaction is too one-sided, it’s probably not going to be a successful tenant-landlord relationship. Speaking of which, George says the Bay Area continues to buck the national trend with strong demand—maybe not at the level of four months ago, but gamingand applications companies continue to seek space. |
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| We also spoke to Cornish & Carey SVP/Santa Clara office managerJohn Yandle, who coaches sons Jackson and Nicholas’ baseball team and previously coached daughter Evelyn’s soccer team. The key to motivation, he says, is really about training, teaching, and being enthusiastic when you’re around them—encouraging them after good plays and not yelling after bad ones. At 10 and 11, his boys are still learning the game and they’re going to make mistakes or miss a fly ball or two. The point at this stage is for them to enjoy it, he says, because then they’ll put out the effort to be good at it. |
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| For the past 27 years, John has served as a practice batting pitcher for the Giants (they seem to get younger every year). In April, he received a 2010 World Series Championship ring at AT&T Park. But that’s not all of John’s bling—he also has a 2002 National League Championship ring—they were one out away from winning the World Series. And he played in the minor leagues with the San DiegoPadres and California Angels. John notes there are lots of ex-athletes in the biz. In both sports and real estate, you can’t rest on your laurels because there’s always another game or deal. In fact, John and Phil Mahoney, Kevin Delehanty, and Joe Hamilton just closed a 291k SF sale for Atmel and moved the company into a 195k SF office building in San Jose. |
