If you’ve watched a baseball game recently, odds are you’ve seen Marlins Man. He is a guy who wears an orange Marlins jersey, shows up to games, and sits behind home plate. The Marlins don’t even need to be playing, but he’ll be there, representing his team while enjoying a game with one of the best seats in the house.
ESPN decided to do some digging into this guy and found out who he is. Marlins Man’s real name is Laurence Leavy. He’s a dude who goes to a lot of sporting events – ESPN claims he’s been to 92 World Series games, 70 NBA Finals games, and all three legs of this year’s Triple Crown.
Why does Leavy do this? According to ESPN, a scare with terminal cancer (which, fortunately, turned out to be nothing) led to his decision to start attending games left and right.
Leavy had always gone to a lot of games, but never at the pace he has put himself on since March. That’s when an initial diagnosis of liver cancer with six to eight months to live got his attention. On a second reading, it turned out to be a mass of scar tissue, but the 59-year-old lawyer wasn’t looking back. He was going to enjoy life.
The entire operation is funded directly out of Leavy’s pocket – he runs a Florida law firm from the road and that his work is “almost entirely mobile because he says only 1 percent of his cases actually go to trial where he needs to show up in court.” He’s been approached by owners to switch his team allegiance, which he won’t do, because he’s actually a fan of the Marlins.
Leavy has also used his status as a famous fan to connect with others. He also donates large quantities of money to charity.
It’s not all about him, though. Leavy likes to connect people who don’t have tickets; In a Johnny Appleseed type of way, he buys a block of tickets and puts them together at the game.
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Leavy recently donated $10,000 to the families of two Kansas City firefighters killed in the line of duty. He donated thousands of dollars more to the V Foundation, while winning five auctions to have unique experiences, one that includes being in the pace car at Sunday’s New York Marathon.
Leavy is one of the most interesting people in all of sports despite not being an athlete. Maybe we can all learn something from the 59-year-old superfan about enjoying life to the fullest.
(via ESPN)
