Oct 25, 2003 -- Joel Mael '79YC loves crunching numbers, whether assessing corporate profits or baseball batting averages. The 46-year-old investment banker brings his "A game" to both, running his New York merchang banking firm while helping analyze player trades for th Florida Marlins. Analyzing those trades paid off in the biggest possible way this past October, when the Marlins defeated the New York Yankees in the 2003 World Series. The fact that the Marlins captured the championship in Yankee Stadium was icing on the cake for Mr. Mael, who grew up a fan of the Boston Red Sox, the Yankees's arch rival. The Marlins owner, Jeffrey H. Loria, is a member of YU's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and, unlike Mr. Mael, grew up rooting for the Yankees. As the vice chairman who advises the team on corporate and financial matters, Mr. Mael has almost unlimited access to the game, its players and executives. “What I enjoy most,” says Mr. Mael, 46, “is being able to walk into a manager’s office after the game and ask the manager questions related to strategy used during the game. And it is always amazing to me the types of things the manager or general manager sees or knows while watching a “simple” baseball game that never dawns on the average fan. When he takes part in trade discussions, Mr. Mael says, “Although I am not the lead guy, and this is handled by our owner, president and general manager, all off us get involved. It’s a puzzle….I will primarily look at the financial aspects of the contracts and financial implications from doing the trade, but I rely heavily on our baseball executives to opine on whether a particular trade will make us better.” Mr. Mael works at least half time with the Marlins and the remainder in New York with Tallwood Associates, the merchant banking firm he co founded in 1990 that primarily invests in real estate throughout the nation. About the time he founded Tallwood, Mr. Mael met Mr. Loria, who dreamed of buying a major league baseball team. With Mr. Mael’s assistance, Mr. Loria explored acquiring three or four teams before purchasing the Montreal Expos in 1999. When Mr. Loria sold the Expos and bought the Marlins in 2002, he named Mr. Mael vice chairman. Joining the Marlins rekindled a love of baseball for Mr. Mael, who grew up in the Boston suburb of Brookline, MA, rooting for the Red Sox. He also attended the Maimonides School where he was encouraged to enroll at Yeshiva University by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, the founder of the Maimonides School and the Leib Merkin Chair in Talmud and Jewish Philosophy at the University affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) and also a resident of Brookline. Mr. Mael is glad he followed the Rabbi’s advice and attended Yeshiva. “The study of the Talmud as well as other Hebrew subjects,” Mr. Mael says. “.. provided an ability to think of multiple solutions or approaches.” After graduation, Mr. Mael earned an MBA at Harvard University in 1981 before launching his business career. “Although as a kid I was a major Red Sox fan and went to many games,” he says, “I sort of lost touch with the sport while working for many years on Wall Street.” Now he combines Wall Street with an insider’s involvement in baseball. “This is just like playing rotisserie baseball,” he says, “but playing it for real.”