In the first installment of our multi-part feature on Drew Streets (link), we discussed the recent renaming of iconic Farmers Field to Streets Casino and Holdings Park at Jacksonville and what this may mean for the future of the franchise. In this report, we detail some of the pivotal events that led to this. Stay tuned for parts 3 and 4 in the coming weeks.

While full reports have not been given, many believe that it has to do with questions swirling Streets’ belief in first time GMs – first with a green Kevin Lewis in 2009, then with Ken Hannahs in 2023.

In what can only be described as “Machiavellian” in design, reports are that Streets made power plays early and often to get “his guy” into the top spot throughout the last twenty years of Featherheads baseball. While this may read as a bit of a conspiracy theory, we will endeavor to lay out several factors that we can objectively point to as, if not definitive proof, at least convincing of Streets’ grand design taking shape.

In 2008, Drew Streets was already a famous entrepreneur – owning a cruise line and casinos – decided to branch out and buy a baseball team. The problem for Streets was that ownership of a team wasn’t as simple as simply “buying a team.” Back in 2008, PEBA was still nascent. After the fall of the MLB, many franchises had been doled out simply to the highest bidder. With the league forming, but many still believing that there was money to be made, the ability to simply buy out a team without paying an exorbitant markup, was simply not possible. However, one option presented itself: The Florida Featherheads. A so far unsuccessful team, the ownership was not as settled on the success of the PEBA experiment or, more explicitly, the success of the club that made their home among the muggy confines of Farmer Field.

In stepped Mr. Streets.

While we cannot read Streets’ mind back in 2008, we can flash back to his first ad where he introduced himself as the plurality owner of the Featherheads. In what is now considered a bit of iconic PEBA advertising, the image of Drew saying that he was “expecting a new brand of Featherheads baseball” from his cabana chair now is seen as a clue towards his larger goals, 20 years before its activation. While this, at first glance, could be shrugged off as conjecture or logical fallacy, let us remember the final line of that ad as the screen went to black… “Are you ready… for Florida Featherheads baseball?” The first part of this line is exactly the same with the final line of the aforementioned press release… save the part about the team name… and the city. We’ll come back to this point later – but for now, let’s focus on Streets’ rise in power and predominance within PEBA and how he secured himself as one of, if not the most, influential owner in the league.

When Streets purchased his stake in the team, he had a condition. One up until now wasn’t entirely known and is, even to this day, hazy at best. He wanted his guy in the driver’s seat. He wanted Kevin Lewis.

On December 1^st, 2008, Kevin Lewis sat down with Jacksonville Sentinel staff writer Serenity Summers to conduct an interview about how he came into the position. For many budding F-Heads, the interview read like a terrifying glimpse into a future that would be full of mediocrity and sadness. Lewis, who is now credited as the builder of one of the most consistently successful franchises in PEBA, came off as a Drew Streets yes man. And, in a way, he was. Streets tasked him with reinventing the image of Featherheads into a winning organization – and he did. In Kevin Lewis’ third season, the Featherheads won their first Rodriguez Cup. The exploits of Kevin Lewis and Drew Streets do not need rehashing here – this only to show the alacrity with which Streets and Lewis worked to revamp a team into winners quickly.

With their team growing by leaps and bounds and fresh off their first Rodriguez Cup victory, Streets bought out another stakeholder in the team, a Dr. Millie Hayes, furthering a slowly building takeover of the Florida ballclub.

For the rest of Lewis’ time at the helm, the club was stable. Ironically, this probably had more to do with just how successful Streets and Lewis were at creating winners. “Rats don’t jump ship when the gettin’s good,” quipped one source. “The silent owners had no reason to split – even when presented with a cruise ship full of cash.”

And so, the reign of Lewis was otherwise marked with consistency… perhaps even more than Streets would have wanted. What Streets needed was something else. Something weird to happen. That something weird did happen but perhaps not the way that anyone could have expected.

In the next installment, we will go deeper into what became, in a sense, a hostile takeover. This was in no small part to the emergence of Ken Hannahs after the departure of Lewis and how this may impact the future of the Featherheads franchise.