Is David Samson Looking for a Job?

March 6, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Marlins president David P. Samson fields questions from reporters before a spring training game against he Miami Hurricanes at Marlins Park. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Over at Yahoo! Sports, noted Marlins hater Jeff Passan comments that Marlins president David Samson may soon be pushed out of the organization. Passan mentions that Samson, generally an unstoppable mouthpiece for all things Marlins, has been “noticeably absent” this season, and that team sources say that owner Jeffrey Loria no longer considers him an integral part of the organization.

On a normal day, I would have ignored this article as simply Loria bashing coming from a simple Loria basher. But something was different about today. This morning, when I checked my LinkedIn account, David Samson showed up under the “People You May Know” heading. His job was listed as “President at Miami Marlins, L.P.” but he had only one connection and no profile picture. I figured it may just be someone creating a prank account, although I’ve never seen a fake LinkedIn account for a famous person. I didn’t connect with the Samson profile, figuring there was no need to, especially if it was a fake.

After I read Passan’s article, I got curious. I logged back onto my LinkedIn and saw Samson’s profile was still showing up under my potential future connections. I checked it and saw something interesting – the profile had added 60 new connections since this morning. Not only that, but the account is a LinkedIn Business Plus account, which costs $480 a year or $50 a month if billed monthly. Certainly, no one would spend this kind of money to create a fake profile on a business-oriented social networking site. This makes it all but positive that the account does, indeed, belong to Samson.

Now, does the presence of a LinkedIn account necessarily mean that Samson is looking for work? No, not at all. But the timing of the article in tandem with the appearance of a paid profile on the major business social networking site does leave one to wonder: is the Marlins’ president going to be looking for employment soon?