I am headed to the canucks/coyotes game with a group of clients tonight. Getting away from baseball will be a nice break, even if it's just for a few hours
mahalo
J
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Mute Memories Start Talking
Baseball as everyone knows is a game of failures and its how people deal with these specific failures that determines how successful they are within the confines of the game. How is an individual persons life measured though? Is life measured by the amount of success one has at the time of his passing or is it measured by how a person overcame specific failures in spite of all odds to excel? I tend to be in the middle when it comes to such philosophy. I believe everything just is. Things happen, people react, events occur, and that’s life. It’s how people deal with these events that determines individual success or failure. Two people can be dealt the exact same hand and end up on opposite sides of the spectrum. Two kids could be given the exact same professional opportunity in baseball and for one reason or another kid a ends up in the big leagues while kid b ends up watching kid a from the stands. As an agent, one of the most difficult parts of the job is watching someone you love give everything they have effort wise only to realize that they are just not good enough to make it to the top. What is the road like that determines failure or success?
There are two kinds of players in the minor leagues, the prospects and the players who get to play with the prospects. There is an old adage that says if you have a uniform you have a chance. That’s true to some extent, but more often than not, minor league baseball players will fail in their attempt to reach the major leagues. The later a player is drafted the less likely that that player will become a major league baseball player. The draft is where it all begins. As an agent, my philosophy has always been straight forward. The round a player is selected in is totally secondary to the amount of money that a player receives as a signing bonus. It really is basic common sense. The more money a player receives as a signing bonus the more chances that player has to screw up. It’s better to be a 50th round pick who signs for a million dollars than a 1st round pick who gets 850k. Due to the MLB Draft being 50 rounds, most prospects who end up signing a professional contract do so with a minimal signing bonus which in turn means these players are signing knowing they have little more than the chance to chase their dream.
When a player signs his first professional contract the player ships out to the teams complex in Arizona or Florida and that’s where the road begins. If a player signs out of high school at the age of 18 and climbs the organizational ladder year by year, that player would be projected to reach the major leagues at the age of 24. If a college player signed at age 21 and was forced to climb the organizational ladder at the same year to year pace as a high school player, that player would reach the major leagues at age 27 so it can reasonably be argued there are more opportunities for a high school player to succeed as opposed to a college player based solely on age. From a business stand point as an agent, there are pros and cons to representing both college players and high school players. In theory the high school player tends to have the higher level of potential while the college player tends to be more mature and thus closer to reaching his albeit lower ceiling (again I am speaking in total generalities). If an agent were to sign a high school position player after the draft, the agent would be making a massive long term financial commitment due to the fact that there would be no income generated from the signing bonus. So with that being said, an agent better be certain that that this player who is not going to pay them for many years is not only talented enough to potentially make it to the big leagues, but is of strong moral character that when the player excels he wont leave the agent high and dry.
I have represented many players who have not made it to the promised land and I have represented several that have. I have made the conscious decision to run my company as hands on as possible. I love my clients. I know each and every one of them not because I have to but because I want to. I could never give my life to this career without the relationships I have with my clients. I love all of them dearly and I know they love me or they wouldn’t be here. The absolute hardest part of my job is watching someone I care about fail. Sometimes a players talent takes them to a point and then its over. Other times injuries derail a promising career and that’s that. The hardest part of this job is watching a kid walk away. I stay in touch with several of my retired players. For me, the agent relationship doesn’t end just because the career does. It is my sincerest hope as an agent that I become engrained in these peoples lives so much so that the relationship transcends the players career.
The second player I represented was a cubs farm hand named Nathan Mitchell. Nathan was a pitcher who had a good deal of success in college at the University of Houston but was never drafted and was signed as a NDFA by the cubs in 2002. I signed Nathan in 2003 after meeting him at a Jupiter Hammerheads game. I became quite close with Nathan over the next three years because I felt this man gave me an opportunity to live my dream when just about everyone else thought I was crazy. I knew I would do everything I could to help make this mans dream come true because he had done the same for me. Nathan got all the way up to AAA in the 2005 but injuries derailed his career and after one season in Independent league baseball Nathan called it a career. We have since stayed in touch of the years and admittedly we are not as close as we were during his playing career but that doesn’t change how I feel about what this man did for me with respect to my career. We still talk and email a few times a year and if he ever needs anything at all I still would drop anything to help. Nathan has a regular job, a wife, and a child now, and I couldn’t be happier for him. Nathan Mitchell is the kind of human being you would run through a wall for and I still wish there was something I could have done that could have helped him break through to the major leagues.
Each player has their own breaking point on weather to continue on with their dream or to give it up for the 9-5 world. The boundaries are different for everyone. Some players are content playing until the uniform is torn of their back and other guys will only play as far as their talent will take them. Its hard to watch players fail that give up everything to do this job. Their lives are put on hold in pursuit of a childhood dream. Obviously if a player reaches the big leagues then every ounce of the struggle was worth it. It also could be reasonably argued however even if a player doesn’t reach the major leagues the struggle was still worth the effort after all. Maybe the reward is the opportunity and not the end result when it’s all said and done ?
This is a cynical business I work in and a lot of the human element of my career is removed because of the ungodly amounts of money that are available to my clients but that doesn’t make it right. It doesn’t mean that the pursuit of money should triumph above all else. Agents are supposed to aid and assist people in pursuit of the dreams in addition to enriching their lives off the field. Agents have a responsibility to do everything they can off the field so all the player has to do is go play baseball. A good agent simplifies the situation to that very basic equation. The agent does everything off the field and the player goes to work on the field. it’s a mutually beneficial relationship if both parties do what is required of them and that’s just the way things are.
I wish each and every player who has a dream to play in the major leagues could achieve that dream. The deck is stacked heavily against each player who puts on a uniform each day that a game is played. For a lucky few the dream is ultimately realized but for the vast majority of players the dream dies at some point in the minor leagues whether it be because of injuries or a lack of ability or lack of desire. As an agent if a player doesn’t make it to the big leagues it’s a devastating event. For me personally it has less to do with the monetary loss because it is absolutely impossible to put a price on somebody’s dreams. Even though players retire I am always there for a client as long as they will have me.
There are two kinds of players in the minor leagues, the prospects and the players who get to play with the prospects. There is an old adage that says if you have a uniform you have a chance. That’s true to some extent, but more often than not, minor league baseball players will fail in their attempt to reach the major leagues. The later a player is drafted the less likely that that player will become a major league baseball player. The draft is where it all begins. As an agent, my philosophy has always been straight forward. The round a player is selected in is totally secondary to the amount of money that a player receives as a signing bonus. It really is basic common sense. The more money a player receives as a signing bonus the more chances that player has to screw up. It’s better to be a 50th round pick who signs for a million dollars than a 1st round pick who gets 850k. Due to the MLB Draft being 50 rounds, most prospects who end up signing a professional contract do so with a minimal signing bonus which in turn means these players are signing knowing they have little more than the chance to chase their dream.
When a player signs his first professional contract the player ships out to the teams complex in Arizona or Florida and that’s where the road begins. If a player signs out of high school at the age of 18 and climbs the organizational ladder year by year, that player would be projected to reach the major leagues at the age of 24. If a college player signed at age 21 and was forced to climb the organizational ladder at the same year to year pace as a high school player, that player would reach the major leagues at age 27 so it can reasonably be argued there are more opportunities for a high school player to succeed as opposed to a college player based solely on age. From a business stand point as an agent, there are pros and cons to representing both college players and high school players. In theory the high school player tends to have the higher level of potential while the college player tends to be more mature and thus closer to reaching his albeit lower ceiling (again I am speaking in total generalities). If an agent were to sign a high school position player after the draft, the agent would be making a massive long term financial commitment due to the fact that there would be no income generated from the signing bonus. So with that being said, an agent better be certain that that this player who is not going to pay them for many years is not only talented enough to potentially make it to the big leagues, but is of strong moral character that when the player excels he wont leave the agent high and dry.
I have represented many players who have not made it to the promised land and I have represented several that have. I have made the conscious decision to run my company as hands on as possible. I love my clients. I know each and every one of them not because I have to but because I want to. I could never give my life to this career without the relationships I have with my clients. I love all of them dearly and I know they love me or they wouldn’t be here. The absolute hardest part of my job is watching someone I care about fail. Sometimes a players talent takes them to a point and then its over. Other times injuries derail a promising career and that’s that. The hardest part of this job is watching a kid walk away. I stay in touch with several of my retired players. For me, the agent relationship doesn’t end just because the career does. It is my sincerest hope as an agent that I become engrained in these peoples lives so much so that the relationship transcends the players career.
The second player I represented was a cubs farm hand named Nathan Mitchell. Nathan was a pitcher who had a good deal of success in college at the University of Houston but was never drafted and was signed as a NDFA by the cubs in 2002. I signed Nathan in 2003 after meeting him at a Jupiter Hammerheads game. I became quite close with Nathan over the next three years because I felt this man gave me an opportunity to live my dream when just about everyone else thought I was crazy. I knew I would do everything I could to help make this mans dream come true because he had done the same for me. Nathan got all the way up to AAA in the 2005 but injuries derailed his career and after one season in Independent league baseball Nathan called it a career. We have since stayed in touch of the years and admittedly we are not as close as we were during his playing career but that doesn’t change how I feel about what this man did for me with respect to my career. We still talk and email a few times a year and if he ever needs anything at all I still would drop anything to help. Nathan has a regular job, a wife, and a child now, and I couldn’t be happier for him. Nathan Mitchell is the kind of human being you would run through a wall for and I still wish there was something I could have done that could have helped him break through to the major leagues.
Each player has their own breaking point on weather to continue on with their dream or to give it up for the 9-5 world. The boundaries are different for everyone. Some players are content playing until the uniform is torn of their back and other guys will only play as far as their talent will take them. Its hard to watch players fail that give up everything to do this job. Their lives are put on hold in pursuit of a childhood dream. Obviously if a player reaches the big leagues then every ounce of the struggle was worth it. It also could be reasonably argued however even if a player doesn’t reach the major leagues the struggle was still worth the effort after all. Maybe the reward is the opportunity and not the end result when it’s all said and done ?
This is a cynical business I work in and a lot of the human element of my career is removed because of the ungodly amounts of money that are available to my clients but that doesn’t make it right. It doesn’t mean that the pursuit of money should triumph above all else. Agents are supposed to aid and assist people in pursuit of the dreams in addition to enriching their lives off the field. Agents have a responsibility to do everything they can off the field so all the player has to do is go play baseball. A good agent simplifies the situation to that very basic equation. The agent does everything off the field and the player goes to work on the field. it’s a mutually beneficial relationship if both parties do what is required of them and that’s just the way things are.
I wish each and every player who has a dream to play in the major leagues could achieve that dream. The deck is stacked heavily against each player who puts on a uniform each day that a game is played. For a lucky few the dream is ultimately realized but for the vast majority of players the dream dies at some point in the minor leagues whether it be because of injuries or a lack of ability or lack of desire. As an agent if a player doesn’t make it to the big leagues it’s a devastating event. For me personally it has less to do with the monetary loss because it is absolutely impossible to put a price on somebody’s dreams. Even though players retire I am always there for a client as long as they will have me.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
And I Will Await
Beyond exhausted in Arizona for ST. Going to games, going to meetings, going to more meetings and then going back to the hotel. Here for 11 days then back home for the final stretch run of ST. Then more draft stuff then more pro games then more draft stuff then more pro games then the draft then more pro games then more post draft stuff then more pro games then more post draft stuff then more pro games then the draft deadline then winter ball then the fall league then 2011 then repeat. Im in a good place. Im tired but it's a good place.
Mahalo
J
Mahalo
J
Sunday, February 28, 2010
What in the name of Steve Levy?
One major aspect of active player representation is marketing. When an agent attempts to brand a player that he represents there are many things that one can do to help facilitate the branding process. A strong relationship with the media is absolutely crucial while attempting to market a player. I know with respect to my company, I have an unusually strong relationship with the media given the small size of my company. I always felt that everyone involved in television and print media could help my company grow more so than if I attempted to go about this journey alone. There is no way I could envision my career being what it is without the major contributions for many members of the media. For the purposes of this article I am only going to focus on marketing up and coming prospects and not established stars.
A trend amongst some of the younger and newer agents within the industry is that they seem to think that social networks are not only excellent tools in generating exposure for their clients, many even go so far to use them as recruiting tools. I am assuredly not a part of the group that believes sites like twitter, myspace, and facebook can help make a player famous nor will they aid them in any way, shape, or form. To some degree, these social networking sites have knocked down the wall that used to exist between the players and the fans. Fans are closer to the players now than ever before and while the overall fan experience is much more involved these days than it was say 25 years ago, the players personal lives away from the field is getting encroached upon more and more. Strictly speaking from a marketing point of view, I completely fail to see how these social networking tools could actually benefit a player. The agents that tend to utilize these sites in hopes of creating a fan base for their players fail to realize that the only thing fans tend to care about when following a specific player or prospect is their statistics or their on field contributions to their respective team. Creating an artificial fan base via a facebook fanclub or have tons of followers on twitter is not an actual benefit and if anything, it only invades a players privacy to the absolute extreme. If a specific prospect is hitting .220 in the florida state league and has 5,000 followers on twitter and 5,000 fan club members on facebook would that player really be in a better situation than say a prospect who hit .330 anonymously? Absolutely not, and it would be ignorant for any agent to think otherwise. You cannot mask the reality of a players situation because now more than ever the fans are ridiculously educated about every facet of the game now. Full disclosure: I do post on several message boards and that is a total personal preference. I personally enjoy interacting with fans whether it be online or in person. I always answer all my emails and private messages. I do not consider what I do on message boards work and it is something I choose to do on my down time.
Beyond statistics and on field contributions, good old fashioned media exposure is the only way to help capitalize on a players success. Radio, television, and print media all offer sufficient means of exposure that could potentially aid a players career. It is the job of the agent to not only assist a player in dealing with all forms of media, it is also an agents job to capitalize financially on that exposure. When I first started in this industry the very first industry members I befriended beyond the scouts who got me started were the local beat writers for my hometown teams. I asked them hundreds of questions and contacted them incessantly and I thank them dearly for putting up with me. As my company grew and I signed players from all over the country I made it a point to contact every local writer I could from my clients home town in addition to contacting every major media member that covered my clients major league affiliate. Every winter meetings I attended I made more and more media contacts and in 2003, in a stroke of absolute dumb luck, I befriended John Buccigross of ESPN. This will take the story way off course but its pretty awesome and I think its worth telling.
I had the ultimate good fortune of attending the 2003 NHL all star game in addition to attending the All Star player party held the night before the game. I was on a mission that weekend and if I failed this mission I probably would have never emotionally recovered. All I wanted that entire weekend was to meet John Buccigross. I am a massive hockey fan. I played for 13 years, I went to tons of games with my father as a kid, and I always felt that a guy like John Buccigross just understood better than anyone what it was like to truly love the game. He was like your local drinking buddy who just happened to make it big but after making it he tried to take all of his buddies along for the ride, except his buddies were his entire audience. I was part of that group and I wasn’t going to be satisfied unless I got to meet him.
The night of the player party, I brought 1 silver paint pen, my camera, and 1 hockey puck. I got to the event early in hopes I catching him. Hour after mind numbing hour I failed with astonishing regularity. At the time, ESPN had a hockey program called NHL2NIGHT. I somehow managed to meet the entire cast that night except Buccigrorss. Steve Levy, Barry Melrose, and the eternal Bill Pidto. Each time I ran into someone I would ask, “Have you seen Buccigross?” Each time the question was asked I was greeted with a look of absolute annoyance (It was quite funny to watch Steve Levy come to the realization he had no fans). Finally at the end of the night I was going to the escalator getting ready to leave when I literally ran into John Buccigross.
I have only gone speechless around celebrities three times in my life. When I met Dominik Hasek when I was 16 years old I went completely numb and rambled like an idiot while he signed a hockey card for me. The second time I ever got star struck I literally almost got struck by a star. When I was walking back to my office in 2003 Larry David almost hit me with his rental car. Yes, Larry David of Curb Your Enthusiasm almost ran me over, I looked at the at the car after it almost smashed into me and said “Oh my god, that was Larry David”. I waited for him after he got out of his car and had him sign a hockey puck I had with me. He asked me how I recognized him and I told him I had Jewdar. I can pick out other jews from a crowd. Larry David laughed at that comment. I made Larry David laugh, game over and thank you for playing I can now die in peace.
The very last time I was star struck was when I finally met John Buccigross. I somehow spit out the words “Bucci, can you sign this puck for me please I have been searching for you all night?” His response was twofold “ Why and whats your favorite band?” I told him and he promptly signed the puck which I still hang in my office to this day “What Kurt Cobain was to Nirvana Josh is to John Buccigross” His presence relaxed me and we ended up chatting for about three hours that night. When it was all said and done we had exchanged emails and cell phone numbers. I made sure we stayed in touch and he graciously did the same and while I was in college he even used several of my emails in his weekly column. After I had graduated, John allowed me to use his image on our website and he had hired me to help assist him with whatever he needed with regard to his career, so basically I am on call for him as he needs me. When John hired me I felt a tremendous sense of validation and without guys like him believing in me at such a young age I’m not sure I could have survived in this business. I started out as a fan but I ended up as his agent and friend totally by accident.
With John Buccigross as a client, more members of the media began to take me seriously and it allowed me access and opportunity that I normally never would have had. As my clients progressed and became more well known I made it a point to make all of them available to the media for everything. Any time someone in the media needed a quote or wanted interview I made it a point to make my clients available in a flash.
But what does an agent do with all these raw materials? The interviews and stories? Well, my company has a file for each client that the agency represents. Each file contains every piece of media that I can get my hands on. Those files are scanned and eventually power point presentations, brochures, and even full blown books are created for each one of my clients. These materials are then sent to absolutely every company on earth in hopes of securing endorsement contracts for our players. Without the media, it would be significantly more difficult in marketing my clients. If I were to contact a company and all they had to rely on were statistics and the my word I don’t think I would have close to the number of endorsement contracts on the books that I have now. And those contracts that I have been able to secure for my clients have probably kept me in business more than anything because when a player is in the minor leagues he needs to generate as much off the field revenue as possible to stay financially afloat. Not every player signs for a 6 or 7 figure bonus so aside from their salary, all a minor league players has to survive on is off the field revenue. Aside from on the field performance, this process is heavily added and starts with the media. So with all that being said I believe it is imperative to have a positive relationship with everyone involved in the media whether it be radio, television, internet, or print.
The media can make players a great deal of money but they can also prevent a player from making money. An agents relationship with members of the media can greatly assist a players career by potentially helping that player earn additional off the field revenue. If an agent has a poor relationship with the media or even simply ignores them, it can very negatively affect a players career. It is very important to note that an agent should never ever try to outshine his clients. No player ever wants to compete with his agent for the spotlight. If an agent is able to walk that line in addition to assisting the media with their job, a player can greatly benefit financially from that agent/media relationship. And as one dear friend told me several years ago when I told him I’d make him famous, “I don’t want to be famous, I want to be rich”.
Mahalo
A trend amongst some of the younger and newer agents within the industry is that they seem to think that social networks are not only excellent tools in generating exposure for their clients, many even go so far to use them as recruiting tools. I am assuredly not a part of the group that believes sites like twitter, myspace, and facebook can help make a player famous nor will they aid them in any way, shape, or form. To some degree, these social networking sites have knocked down the wall that used to exist between the players and the fans. Fans are closer to the players now than ever before and while the overall fan experience is much more involved these days than it was say 25 years ago, the players personal lives away from the field is getting encroached upon more and more. Strictly speaking from a marketing point of view, I completely fail to see how these social networking tools could actually benefit a player. The agents that tend to utilize these sites in hopes of creating a fan base for their players fail to realize that the only thing fans tend to care about when following a specific player or prospect is their statistics or their on field contributions to their respective team. Creating an artificial fan base via a facebook fanclub or have tons of followers on twitter is not an actual benefit and if anything, it only invades a players privacy to the absolute extreme. If a specific prospect is hitting .220 in the florida state league and has 5,000 followers on twitter and 5,000 fan club members on facebook would that player really be in a better situation than say a prospect who hit .330 anonymously? Absolutely not, and it would be ignorant for any agent to think otherwise. You cannot mask the reality of a players situation because now more than ever the fans are ridiculously educated about every facet of the game now. Full disclosure: I do post on several message boards and that is a total personal preference. I personally enjoy interacting with fans whether it be online or in person. I always answer all my emails and private messages. I do not consider what I do on message boards work and it is something I choose to do on my down time.
Beyond statistics and on field contributions, good old fashioned media exposure is the only way to help capitalize on a players success. Radio, television, and print media all offer sufficient means of exposure that could potentially aid a players career. It is the job of the agent to not only assist a player in dealing with all forms of media, it is also an agents job to capitalize financially on that exposure. When I first started in this industry the very first industry members I befriended beyond the scouts who got me started were the local beat writers for my hometown teams. I asked them hundreds of questions and contacted them incessantly and I thank them dearly for putting up with me. As my company grew and I signed players from all over the country I made it a point to contact every local writer I could from my clients home town in addition to contacting every major media member that covered my clients major league affiliate. Every winter meetings I attended I made more and more media contacts and in 2003, in a stroke of absolute dumb luck, I befriended John Buccigross of ESPN. This will take the story way off course but its pretty awesome and I think its worth telling.
I had the ultimate good fortune of attending the 2003 NHL all star game in addition to attending the All Star player party held the night before the game. I was on a mission that weekend and if I failed this mission I probably would have never emotionally recovered. All I wanted that entire weekend was to meet John Buccigross. I am a massive hockey fan. I played for 13 years, I went to tons of games with my father as a kid, and I always felt that a guy like John Buccigross just understood better than anyone what it was like to truly love the game. He was like your local drinking buddy who just happened to make it big but after making it he tried to take all of his buddies along for the ride, except his buddies were his entire audience. I was part of that group and I wasn’t going to be satisfied unless I got to meet him.
The night of the player party, I brought 1 silver paint pen, my camera, and 1 hockey puck. I got to the event early in hopes I catching him. Hour after mind numbing hour I failed with astonishing regularity. At the time, ESPN had a hockey program called NHL2NIGHT. I somehow managed to meet the entire cast that night except Buccigrorss. Steve Levy, Barry Melrose, and the eternal Bill Pidto. Each time I ran into someone I would ask, “Have you seen Buccigross?” Each time the question was asked I was greeted with a look of absolute annoyance (It was quite funny to watch Steve Levy come to the realization he had no fans). Finally at the end of the night I was going to the escalator getting ready to leave when I literally ran into John Buccigross.
I have only gone speechless around celebrities three times in my life. When I met Dominik Hasek when I was 16 years old I went completely numb and rambled like an idiot while he signed a hockey card for me. The second time I ever got star struck I literally almost got struck by a star. When I was walking back to my office in 2003 Larry David almost hit me with his rental car. Yes, Larry David of Curb Your Enthusiasm almost ran me over, I looked at the at the car after it almost smashed into me and said “Oh my god, that was Larry David”. I waited for him after he got out of his car and had him sign a hockey puck I had with me. He asked me how I recognized him and I told him I had Jewdar. I can pick out other jews from a crowd. Larry David laughed at that comment. I made Larry David laugh, game over and thank you for playing I can now die in peace.
The very last time I was star struck was when I finally met John Buccigross. I somehow spit out the words “Bucci, can you sign this puck for me please I have been searching for you all night?” His response was twofold “ Why and whats your favorite band?” I told him and he promptly signed the puck which I still hang in my office to this day “What Kurt Cobain was to Nirvana Josh is to John Buccigross” His presence relaxed me and we ended up chatting for about three hours that night. When it was all said and done we had exchanged emails and cell phone numbers. I made sure we stayed in touch and he graciously did the same and while I was in college he even used several of my emails in his weekly column. After I had graduated, John allowed me to use his image on our website and he had hired me to help assist him with whatever he needed with regard to his career, so basically I am on call for him as he needs me. When John hired me I felt a tremendous sense of validation and without guys like him believing in me at such a young age I’m not sure I could have survived in this business. I started out as a fan but I ended up as his agent and friend totally by accident.
With John Buccigross as a client, more members of the media began to take me seriously and it allowed me access and opportunity that I normally never would have had. As my clients progressed and became more well known I made it a point to make all of them available to the media for everything. Any time someone in the media needed a quote or wanted interview I made it a point to make my clients available in a flash.
But what does an agent do with all these raw materials? The interviews and stories? Well, my company has a file for each client that the agency represents. Each file contains every piece of media that I can get my hands on. Those files are scanned and eventually power point presentations, brochures, and even full blown books are created for each one of my clients. These materials are then sent to absolutely every company on earth in hopes of securing endorsement contracts for our players. Without the media, it would be significantly more difficult in marketing my clients. If I were to contact a company and all they had to rely on were statistics and the my word I don’t think I would have close to the number of endorsement contracts on the books that I have now. And those contracts that I have been able to secure for my clients have probably kept me in business more than anything because when a player is in the minor leagues he needs to generate as much off the field revenue as possible to stay financially afloat. Not every player signs for a 6 or 7 figure bonus so aside from their salary, all a minor league players has to survive on is off the field revenue. Aside from on the field performance, this process is heavily added and starts with the media. So with all that being said I believe it is imperative to have a positive relationship with everyone involved in the media whether it be radio, television, internet, or print.
The media can make players a great deal of money but they can also prevent a player from making money. An agents relationship with members of the media can greatly assist a players career by potentially helping that player earn additional off the field revenue. If an agent has a poor relationship with the media or even simply ignores them, it can very negatively affect a players career. It is very important to note that an agent should never ever try to outshine his clients. No player ever wants to compete with his agent for the spotlight. If an agent is able to walk that line in addition to assisting the media with their job, a player can greatly benefit financially from that agent/media relationship. And as one dear friend told me several years ago when I told him I’d make him famous, “I don’t want to be famous, I want to be rich”.
Mahalo
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Sleeping With Ghosts
One of the busiest times of year for any agent with any modicum of clients has to be the spring. From February until April I am absolutely slammed with a wide variety of work. When you run a small staffed agency, you are usually stretched beyond your limits during Spring training. Between visiting clients, scouting for the draft, and running the day to day things that go on inside of an office, Spring time really tests how strong a players agent really is. Many agents tend to bite off more than they can chew but if you know you’re limits and are willing to make certain sacrifices, there is no reason that an agent cant successfully navigate this time consuming segment of the year. With that being said, on a human level, being in the game this long , being in my late 20’s, I cant help but wonder what I’m missing out on away from the game.
No matter how much I try to ignore the obvious, baseball balances me. When you break through everything that I have to do to perform my job, it's the game that balances me. The game makes me happy, the game makes sense, and the game is safe. No matter where you're at it's always familiar and everyone knows where to find it. It's peace and it's an escape. At the heart of the monster lies the joy. People come and go, places change, and lives stop but in the end the game lives on to give a sense of familiarity to everyone who wants to take part.
However, it's the normal things I think I miss more than anything. Friends are starting their lives, getting married, growing up and being normal. Ive mentioned it before here, I think thats what I miss the most. I miss the idea that one day Im going to grow up and have a normal life. The life, the wife, the house, the 9-5, that dream is dead to me completely. It's like sometimes I am almost living somebody elses dream and I cant trade back for my lost dreams. I am thankful some of the time for the things I have but I wonder all of the time about what I have given up to do this. Im on the road constantly and I dont ever have time for anything but the job. I’m married to it, it's my wife and to blindly steal from NAS, I’m glad it aint divorce me
To get on point again however, starting in January of each year, right after the winter meetings, most of our clients begin to plan for their equipment needs for the upcoming season. As an agent it is my responsibility to make sure our clients are completely taken care of on and off the field. The first thing we do as a company is identify which players have secured endorsement deals and which players have not. My company spends a great deal of time and energy attempting to secure as many endorsement deals as possible. If we can secure endorsement contracts with bat companies that deal with shoes, batting gloves, bats, sun glasses, and dry fits, well all the less we have to spend on our own. It’s always been our belief that a player should be fully equipped to do his job and it’s the agents job to make sure that happens no matter the cost. So with our without an endorsement all of our players will have what they need. If a player needs to order anything all they have to do is call our godsend of a secretary Sandy. Without Sandy the agency falls apart completely. Sandy takes all the players orders in the office, contacts all the companies to place the orders, and smooths out any accidental equipment mishaps that may occur during the season. The players love talking to her and without her being there I have no idea where our company would be.
The art of securing an endorsement deal varies I guess from company to company. Every company we have had the good fortune to deal with has been more than generous to our clients. The majority of these relationships were cultivated over very long periods of time. Whether we get to know the staff members of these companies over the phone, at a showcase, or at the winter meetings, its always important to remember to be polite and honest at all times. It is an agents job to sell his players but if you misrepresent a client and his abilities to a company that might decide to sink a large investment in that player and the player ends up being a total bust the negative fallout lands squarely on the agents shoulders. I believe any player playing in pro baseball can secure an endorsement of some kind and the best way to do that in my estimation is to properly sell your player as accurately as possible. If an agent develops an honest reputation it makes it more likely a company will take a chance on a lesser known player that the agent really believes in. It’s very much a two way street and if everyone is honest and upfront things tend to go quite smoothly.
The draft process aside from representing the pro guys has to be the most time consuming endeavor an agent can do. It takes years to scout players and it takes even more time to get hired as an advisor. Information packages are created and mailed out, home meetings are set up and hopefully at some point in time you get hired to be an advisor. Then its non stop information overload. Remember, an advisor can never provide anything of value to the armature player or his family for free so at that point you’re really regulated to being a sounding board of information. You better hope your information is spot on as well because if you get one thing wrong you’re done. You’re not only done with that player, you’re done to everyone who finds out about your mix up. So if possible, it’s best to always be right about everything (no pressure).
Another big aspect of my job is availability. I am available 24 hours a day 365 days a year for everyone. There is a reason I go to bed at 4 am each day and it isnt for anything Howard Hughesish. I always want my guys to know, no matter where they are, especially the west coast guys, that they can call me when their games are over just to talk. I never want them to feel like it's a huge imposition on my life style and I never want them to feel like they're bothering me either. I just try to do my job the way I think my job should be to the very best of my abilities each and everyday. I figure if I do my job well it will eventually rub off on the players and that can only be a good thing. There are major downsides to always being on call. The desolation. Being in another hotel room. The same hotel room Im always in. It's pure desolation and it cannot be understated how boring this room has become. I know the familiar bed with the familiar drapes and the familiar broken air conditioner and familiar remote control that links me to 400 broken channels of the same benign minutia on the same broken television while I sleep with the same familiar ghosts. I get tired of it all sometimes but I remember on occasion I still get to do something not many people get to do. I affect peoples lives and that my friends can be a very good thing but a consequence of that very good thing is the fact that I am always tired. The road does it to you. It's out of your bed and into your head all the time. You find ways to get past it though. Whatever it takes you know? Whether it be dedication or fear, there is always some driving force pushing me to be great. That is all I think about and all I strive to do. I hate losing. To anyone at anything. Im hypercompetitive. Some could see it as a fault but I really don’t see it as a negative. There is nothing wrong with a divine love of winning. I do not take losing well. Not at all. Ive been fighting my whole life with everything so why should this be any different? Whenever I beat another agent for a client it feels good. It feels really good. They blow the save and I shut the door for the win. It never ends. No time for celebrating though. On to tomorrow.
So between securing endorsements for the pro athletes I represent, traveling all year, managing the draft, and running the office an agent can really stretch himself thin. I believe anything worth doing is worth is worth doing right. If this career were to be easy, then everyone would do it. Sacrifices are part of the job requirement and not just small ones, life altering sacrifices are absolutes that comes with this career. I know I have damaged my health long term to some extent because of my career. I sleep less, I eat worse, and I travel more. I have a million ex girlfriends and an ex fiancé thanks to this career but I wouldn’t trade any of the experiences I have had because of my career for the world. I know when I wake up every morning I get to do something very few people in this world get to do. I know I’m good at my job and that’s something you cant put a price on. More importantly I know what I have overcome to get to this point in my life and the greatest reward I could get someday is knowing that in some small way I have helped change someones life for the better. Without that I would be nothing.
No matter how much I try to ignore the obvious, baseball balances me. When you break through everything that I have to do to perform my job, it's the game that balances me. The game makes me happy, the game makes sense, and the game is safe. No matter where you're at it's always familiar and everyone knows where to find it. It's peace and it's an escape. At the heart of the monster lies the joy. People come and go, places change, and lives stop but in the end the game lives on to give a sense of familiarity to everyone who wants to take part.
However, it's the normal things I think I miss more than anything. Friends are starting their lives, getting married, growing up and being normal. Ive mentioned it before here, I think thats what I miss the most. I miss the idea that one day Im going to grow up and have a normal life. The life, the wife, the house, the 9-5, that dream is dead to me completely. It's like sometimes I am almost living somebody elses dream and I cant trade back for my lost dreams. I am thankful some of the time for the things I have but I wonder all of the time about what I have given up to do this. Im on the road constantly and I dont ever have time for anything but the job. I’m married to it, it's my wife and to blindly steal from NAS, I’m glad it aint divorce me
To get on point again however, starting in January of each year, right after the winter meetings, most of our clients begin to plan for their equipment needs for the upcoming season. As an agent it is my responsibility to make sure our clients are completely taken care of on and off the field. The first thing we do as a company is identify which players have secured endorsement deals and which players have not. My company spends a great deal of time and energy attempting to secure as many endorsement deals as possible. If we can secure endorsement contracts with bat companies that deal with shoes, batting gloves, bats, sun glasses, and dry fits, well all the less we have to spend on our own. It’s always been our belief that a player should be fully equipped to do his job and it’s the agents job to make sure that happens no matter the cost. So with our without an endorsement all of our players will have what they need. If a player needs to order anything all they have to do is call our godsend of a secretary Sandy. Without Sandy the agency falls apart completely. Sandy takes all the players orders in the office, contacts all the companies to place the orders, and smooths out any accidental equipment mishaps that may occur during the season. The players love talking to her and without her being there I have no idea where our company would be.
The art of securing an endorsement deal varies I guess from company to company. Every company we have had the good fortune to deal with has been more than generous to our clients. The majority of these relationships were cultivated over very long periods of time. Whether we get to know the staff members of these companies over the phone, at a showcase, or at the winter meetings, its always important to remember to be polite and honest at all times. It is an agents job to sell his players but if you misrepresent a client and his abilities to a company that might decide to sink a large investment in that player and the player ends up being a total bust the negative fallout lands squarely on the agents shoulders. I believe any player playing in pro baseball can secure an endorsement of some kind and the best way to do that in my estimation is to properly sell your player as accurately as possible. If an agent develops an honest reputation it makes it more likely a company will take a chance on a lesser known player that the agent really believes in. It’s very much a two way street and if everyone is honest and upfront things tend to go quite smoothly.
The draft process aside from representing the pro guys has to be the most time consuming endeavor an agent can do. It takes years to scout players and it takes even more time to get hired as an advisor. Information packages are created and mailed out, home meetings are set up and hopefully at some point in time you get hired to be an advisor. Then its non stop information overload. Remember, an advisor can never provide anything of value to the armature player or his family for free so at that point you’re really regulated to being a sounding board of information. You better hope your information is spot on as well because if you get one thing wrong you’re done. You’re not only done with that player, you’re done to everyone who finds out about your mix up. So if possible, it’s best to always be right about everything (no pressure).
Another big aspect of my job is availability. I am available 24 hours a day 365 days a year for everyone. There is a reason I go to bed at 4 am each day and it isnt for anything Howard Hughesish. I always want my guys to know, no matter where they are, especially the west coast guys, that they can call me when their games are over just to talk. I never want them to feel like it's a huge imposition on my life style and I never want them to feel like they're bothering me either. I just try to do my job the way I think my job should be to the very best of my abilities each and everyday. I figure if I do my job well it will eventually rub off on the players and that can only be a good thing. There are major downsides to always being on call. The desolation. Being in another hotel room. The same hotel room Im always in. It's pure desolation and it cannot be understated how boring this room has become. I know the familiar bed with the familiar drapes and the familiar broken air conditioner and familiar remote control that links me to 400 broken channels of the same benign minutia on the same broken television while I sleep with the same familiar ghosts. I get tired of it all sometimes but I remember on occasion I still get to do something not many people get to do. I affect peoples lives and that my friends can be a very good thing but a consequence of that very good thing is the fact that I am always tired. The road does it to you. It's out of your bed and into your head all the time. You find ways to get past it though. Whatever it takes you know? Whether it be dedication or fear, there is always some driving force pushing me to be great. That is all I think about and all I strive to do. I hate losing. To anyone at anything. Im hypercompetitive. Some could see it as a fault but I really don’t see it as a negative. There is nothing wrong with a divine love of winning. I do not take losing well. Not at all. Ive been fighting my whole life with everything so why should this be any different? Whenever I beat another agent for a client it feels good. It feels really good. They blow the save and I shut the door for the win. It never ends. No time for celebrating though. On to tomorrow.
So between securing endorsements for the pro athletes I represent, traveling all year, managing the draft, and running the office an agent can really stretch himself thin. I believe anything worth doing is worth is worth doing right. If this career were to be easy, then everyone would do it. Sacrifices are part of the job requirement and not just small ones, life altering sacrifices are absolutes that comes with this career. I know I have damaged my health long term to some extent because of my career. I sleep less, I eat worse, and I travel more. I have a million ex girlfriends and an ex fiancé thanks to this career but I wouldn’t trade any of the experiences I have had because of my career for the world. I know when I wake up every morning I get to do something very few people in this world get to do. I know I’m good at my job and that’s something you cant put a price on. More importantly I know what I have overcome to get to this point in my life and the greatest reward I could get someday is knowing that in some small way I have helped change someones life for the better. Without that I would be nothing.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Ill Keep Them Still
Everything in this game tends to run in cycles. Players come and go, money comes and goes, children become fans and fans later have children. Teams win and lose and players are gods for a day then the next day they’re sitting at home. Even the agent world tends to be cyclical in nature to some extent. A generation of agents have their reign over the entire industry while the next group anxiously waits their turn to run things behind the scenes. It’s hard breaking into this industry, I don’t think anyone really would dispute that fact. Like anything in life, being an agent takes equal parts technical skill and showmanship. You can have an agent who is the most technically sound and intelligent guy in the world but has no clients because he has zero charisma or ‘it” factor. On the other hand, you can have a guy who is the most vocal and flashy guy in the room but without any substance that agent wont have any clients either. Having a balance of flash and skill is something I have worked very hard at. Some days I struggle with keeping the flash in check and other days I’m all business. If you’re not careful, it would be very easy to forget who you really are sometimes.
One of the major issues I have had to deal with in my career from my own vantage point is the issue of "professionalism".You know what I have to say to all that? Fine. It's 2010 and everyone has a way of running their business and doing their job. I have seen many agents in my career and I don’t want to become what they are. Elliott Smith said it best "But they can't be people/not if I'm one/if i have to be like them/i'd rather be no one".
I don’t want to lose the human element of my career. I choose to be the way I am, completely out there and totally accessible. Other agents can say they do things a certain way or claim they want to run an agency like it’s a family but 99.9 percent of the time its total BS. I know how deep I get into my players lives and I wouldn’t change a thing. I’ve been fired before and I’ve cried over losing a player before and it had absolutely nothing to do with the money. When you lose a client in this business and you care about the player and the family as much as I do you should be upset over getting fired. Time heals everything and you learn from each experience obviously but the hurt never goes away because in some small way it's still a reflection of your work as an agent and ultimately the player decided that I had let them down.
The movie Thank You For Smoking had a tremendous concept within the film and I believe it applies to being an agent as much as it applied to the cigarette industry. Flexible Morality. Morality in its descriptive sense refers to values that help determine right and wrong whereas morality in its normative sense refers to a more absolute definition of right and wrong such as if a specific act was to be “immoral”. The concept of flexible morality was something that has always resonated with me since seeing the concept in the movie. Obviously the term and concept are meant to be satirical in nature but I think that within the confines of my specific field of work, flexible morality is a very active and present concept.
Morality by definition cannot be flexible, morality is an absolute concept so the idea that it could be somehow flexible is a flawed concept, however as an agent, I have seen many instances where an agent could be considered to have flexible morals. There are things you do within your career that you would never ever carry over to your personal life. For example, if an agent were to lie to the media during the course of a public negotiation does that mean the agent would do the same thing to his wife? If a player was currently represented by an agent but then went to dinner with another agent does that mean the player would cheat on his wife also? Can you be a bad person but be a good agent? I don’t have the answer to questions like this nor do I have a definitive opinion on flexible morality. I just think that a concept such as flexible morality should at least have a place in the discussion regarding professionalism.
I’ve discussed professionalism in addition to discussing what it’s like to get fired and the impact that has mentally and professionally however I haven’t really discussed some of the uplifting things that this job has afforded me to experience. I think the most fulfilling part of my career is experiencing the totality of a players career on and off the field starting in high school and ending in big league career. I get to experience a great deal of self discovery every day that I work in baseball. I have learned more about myself thanks to my career than I ever would have without it. I have been so fortunate to learn so much about myself at such a young age I cant even imagine what my life would be like without having done so.
Before I was a player agent I started a small company that sold autographs and trading cards of professional athletes. I would go to the local baseball card stores and card shows as often as I could and it was there that I learned how to negotiate. Around the time I was 14 I realized that it was far too difficult acquiring major league players autographs so I gave up and started to attend class A Florida state league games. The closest team to where I lived was in West Palm Beach, which was the class A affiliate of the Montreal Expos. The very game I went to I was able to watch Brad Fullmer, Hiram Bocachica, and some skinny outfielder by the name of Vladimir Guerrero. The visiting team that first game I attended was the Lakeland Tigers that sported a lineup of Darryl Ward, Juan Encarnacion, and Mike Darr. Several years later all six of the players I mentioned were in the major leagues and I had not only seen these guys play before they were major leaguers I had met them and acquired their autographs. Experiencing this process was arguably the biggest thrill of my teenage years. Research a player, scout him in person, get an autograph, then wait, then repeat. Though the process was time consuming, it was also substantially rewarding. It’s hard to put into words what its like when your scouting efforts are validated.
As an adult, the process hasn’t really changed all that much for me but instead of starting in the minor leagues, I start watching kids in high school. Instead of determining the future value of a players signature, I now try to determine a players actual value. The one constant feeling between the two experiences is the sense of validation. Knowing you were right about a player and his abilities is a feeling that cant be duplicated. Scouts , teams and agents are wrong about players more often than not , so in the rare chance you get one right, its just absolute and total elation. So as a teenager if I got a player right, I had a really cool autograph. As an adult, if I get a player right, I have a career. There are some little things that go into the job that one wouldn’t normally think about but that doesn’t mean these little things don’t leave a big impact.
From a personal standpoint, one of the most exciting moments of my career was when I got to first negotiate baseball card contracts for my clients. As a kid as I was a huge autograph collector and baseball card collector. I probably have 10,000 autographed trading cards in storage thanks to my old business. The first contracts I got to negotiate were in 2004. Companies like Just Minors, Donruss, Topps, and Upper Deck all made cards of my clients that year. I will never forgot making those phone calls to my clients giving them the good news. Part of the excitement came from knowing I wasn’t totally inept at my job but the major excitement came from knowing I was partially responsible for a trading card coming into existence. Getting card deals for my players is about as close as I will ever get to having a card of my own but that doesn’t take anything away from how wonderful an experience this process was to me personally. To be honest, I almost take getting card deals for my clients for granted these days. Ive done hundreds of deals for my clients over the years (I even secured a trading card deal for ESPN’s John Buccigross) and it is now just another part of my job. It’s right up there with scouting, traveling, and negotiating, just another thing that has to be done. I don’t think the job has made me that jaded yet, but with that being said certain things don’t retain a residual value. Even though it has gotten easier for me to negotiate trading card contracts over the years and the mystique of that experience has dissipated, it doesn’t make the experience any less important for the player. Without fail, one of the happiest times of a young players career is when they get their first real trading card. I still remember the first time guys like Michael Brantley, Lorenzo Cain, Darren Ford and Luke Montz all saw their first cards. It’s one of the last pure moments of a players career. You can see it in their faces, that childlike curiosity, that general shock that the card that they are staring at isnt a childhood hero, it’s them. Helping to make that dream come true is absolutely one of the best parts of my job.
People within the industry all have their opinions on me. Some people think I’m crazy, some people think I have a ton of potential, while others don’t even know I exist. None of that really matters though. What matters is what my clients think of me and more importantly what I think of myself. I have no idea what kind of agent I am, I have never been one to label myself, but I do know this, I have never sold out what I believed in to excel at this job. I have always stayed true to everything I believed in no matter what the cost was. Have I lost out on certain players because of who I am? Probably. It doesn’t bother me though because I can go to bed every night with a good conscience knowing I did everything I wanted to professionally on my own terms. Res Ipsa Loquitur.
One of the major issues I have had to deal with in my career from my own vantage point is the issue of "professionalism".You know what I have to say to all that? Fine. It's 2010 and everyone has a way of running their business and doing their job. I have seen many agents in my career and I don’t want to become what they are. Elliott Smith said it best "But they can't be people/not if I'm one/if i have to be like them/i'd rather be no one".
I don’t want to lose the human element of my career. I choose to be the way I am, completely out there and totally accessible. Other agents can say they do things a certain way or claim they want to run an agency like it’s a family but 99.9 percent of the time its total BS. I know how deep I get into my players lives and I wouldn’t change a thing. I’ve been fired before and I’ve cried over losing a player before and it had absolutely nothing to do with the money. When you lose a client in this business and you care about the player and the family as much as I do you should be upset over getting fired. Time heals everything and you learn from each experience obviously but the hurt never goes away because in some small way it's still a reflection of your work as an agent and ultimately the player decided that I had let them down.
The movie Thank You For Smoking had a tremendous concept within the film and I believe it applies to being an agent as much as it applied to the cigarette industry. Flexible Morality. Morality in its descriptive sense refers to values that help determine right and wrong whereas morality in its normative sense refers to a more absolute definition of right and wrong such as if a specific act was to be “immoral”. The concept of flexible morality was something that has always resonated with me since seeing the concept in the movie. Obviously the term and concept are meant to be satirical in nature but I think that within the confines of my specific field of work, flexible morality is a very active and present concept.
Morality by definition cannot be flexible, morality is an absolute concept so the idea that it could be somehow flexible is a flawed concept, however as an agent, I have seen many instances where an agent could be considered to have flexible morals. There are things you do within your career that you would never ever carry over to your personal life. For example, if an agent were to lie to the media during the course of a public negotiation does that mean the agent would do the same thing to his wife? If a player was currently represented by an agent but then went to dinner with another agent does that mean the player would cheat on his wife also? Can you be a bad person but be a good agent? I don’t have the answer to questions like this nor do I have a definitive opinion on flexible morality. I just think that a concept such as flexible morality should at least have a place in the discussion regarding professionalism.
I’ve discussed professionalism in addition to discussing what it’s like to get fired and the impact that has mentally and professionally however I haven’t really discussed some of the uplifting things that this job has afforded me to experience. I think the most fulfilling part of my career is experiencing the totality of a players career on and off the field starting in high school and ending in big league career. I get to experience a great deal of self discovery every day that I work in baseball. I have learned more about myself thanks to my career than I ever would have without it. I have been so fortunate to learn so much about myself at such a young age I cant even imagine what my life would be like without having done so.
Before I was a player agent I started a small company that sold autographs and trading cards of professional athletes. I would go to the local baseball card stores and card shows as often as I could and it was there that I learned how to negotiate. Around the time I was 14 I realized that it was far too difficult acquiring major league players autographs so I gave up and started to attend class A Florida state league games. The closest team to where I lived was in West Palm Beach, which was the class A affiliate of the Montreal Expos. The very game I went to I was able to watch Brad Fullmer, Hiram Bocachica, and some skinny outfielder by the name of Vladimir Guerrero. The visiting team that first game I attended was the Lakeland Tigers that sported a lineup of Darryl Ward, Juan Encarnacion, and Mike Darr. Several years later all six of the players I mentioned were in the major leagues and I had not only seen these guys play before they were major leaguers I had met them and acquired their autographs. Experiencing this process was arguably the biggest thrill of my teenage years. Research a player, scout him in person, get an autograph, then wait, then repeat. Though the process was time consuming, it was also substantially rewarding. It’s hard to put into words what its like when your scouting efforts are validated.
As an adult, the process hasn’t really changed all that much for me but instead of starting in the minor leagues, I start watching kids in high school. Instead of determining the future value of a players signature, I now try to determine a players actual value. The one constant feeling between the two experiences is the sense of validation. Knowing you were right about a player and his abilities is a feeling that cant be duplicated. Scouts , teams and agents are wrong about players more often than not , so in the rare chance you get one right, its just absolute and total elation. So as a teenager if I got a player right, I had a really cool autograph. As an adult, if I get a player right, I have a career. There are some little things that go into the job that one wouldn’t normally think about but that doesn’t mean these little things don’t leave a big impact.
From a personal standpoint, one of the most exciting moments of my career was when I got to first negotiate baseball card contracts for my clients. As a kid as I was a huge autograph collector and baseball card collector. I probably have 10,000 autographed trading cards in storage thanks to my old business. The first contracts I got to negotiate were in 2004. Companies like Just Minors, Donruss, Topps, and Upper Deck all made cards of my clients that year. I will never forgot making those phone calls to my clients giving them the good news. Part of the excitement came from knowing I wasn’t totally inept at my job but the major excitement came from knowing I was partially responsible for a trading card coming into existence. Getting card deals for my players is about as close as I will ever get to having a card of my own but that doesn’t take anything away from how wonderful an experience this process was to me personally. To be honest, I almost take getting card deals for my clients for granted these days. Ive done hundreds of deals for my clients over the years (I even secured a trading card deal for ESPN’s John Buccigross) and it is now just another part of my job. It’s right up there with scouting, traveling, and negotiating, just another thing that has to be done. I don’t think the job has made me that jaded yet, but with that being said certain things don’t retain a residual value. Even though it has gotten easier for me to negotiate trading card contracts over the years and the mystique of that experience has dissipated, it doesn’t make the experience any less important for the player. Without fail, one of the happiest times of a young players career is when they get their first real trading card. I still remember the first time guys like Michael Brantley, Lorenzo Cain, Darren Ford and Luke Montz all saw their first cards. It’s one of the last pure moments of a players career. You can see it in their faces, that childlike curiosity, that general shock that the card that they are staring at isnt a childhood hero, it’s them. Helping to make that dream come true is absolutely one of the best parts of my job.
People within the industry all have their opinions on me. Some people think I’m crazy, some people think I have a ton of potential, while others don’t even know I exist. None of that really matters though. What matters is what my clients think of me and more importantly what I think of myself. I have no idea what kind of agent I am, I have never been one to label myself, but I do know this, I have never sold out what I believed in to excel at this job. I have always stayed true to everything I believed in no matter what the cost was. Have I lost out on certain players because of who I am? Probably. It doesn’t bother me though because I can go to bed every night with a good conscience knowing I did everything I wanted to professionally on my own terms. Res Ipsa Loquitur.
Build It Up Slowly
EXTENDED VERSION OF OLDER POST
Sometimes things happen in your career that shock you no matter what you've seen or been through before. I have seen almost everything happen in this business and I have to admit, I have become numb to a lot of the bad things. There is one act, one very specific experience that I never ever have gotten used to. Getting fired is still the ultimate pain in a very painful business. Getting fired by a player signals several things. It’s the death of a relationship and because of the way I try to structure my relationship with my clients it is a gut wrenching hell that has nothing to do with money. Anytime that I have gotten fired I have been pushed to the point of exhaustion. I have become physically ill and I have cried because I not only have lost a client but in almost every case, a friend. The other reason getting fired is so hard to swallow is because it’s a condemnation of your work. You feel like a total failure and again in my case, I feel like I have let down a player and his family. I am supposed to aid and assist these young men in their careers so if there comes a time where a player feels I have not upheld my part of the bargain I feel like a total failure.
There are some instances where an agent can get fired through no fault of his own. I had a player fire me once because a childhood friend of his started a company of his own. What am I supposed to do in a scenario like that? I also have been fired by players who have been lured away by other agents by the promises of better contracts and more money. These things happen. Companies see players they want and they go after them regardless of if they have representation or not. I have been fortunate thus far where I have not lost many players to other companies. I think I do a well enough job educating my players about what an agent can or cant do for them. I never promise any of my clients anything I cannot deliver and I think that’s a large part of my appeal. If a players asks me a question they know I will answer it as honestly as possible. If I cannot deliver something a player desires, well then it’s simple, I just tell them this isn’t something that I can do and if I cant do it there is a real good chance nobody else can either. Again though, there are just some times where there is nothing you can do anymore and the player agent relationship just dies.
Several weeks ago while I was in Arizona working, I had dinner with 10 or so of my clients. Everyone that was in town showed up except for one player who I had signed a couple years ago. Over the last two seasons I felt that I had cultivated a pretty good relationship with him. I felt especially close to him because here was a guy that was a lot like me. He had a reputation off the field which was totally unfair because this is an absolutely great guy. He was not unlike me with regards to what outsiders thought of him, but if you took the time to get to know him he really is a tremendously awesome person. I learned something valuable on that trip to Arizona, a very painful lesson that I will carry with me the rest of my career.
I picked up said player from the field my last day in Arizona to meet for lunch. As I had said earlier this player bailed on the team dinner the night before so that was a very bad omen. I had a horrible feeling about this meeting going into it but it didnt make the news any easier to hear. I was getting fired. Two years of work , all the phone calls, the travel, the endorsements, the meetings, the dinners, the baseball games, everything, finished. This player handled the situation as classy and as professionally as anyone I’ve dealt with in my entire career. I was shocked to say the least because I thought my relationship with him transcended baseball. I thought we were friends and that because we were both a little bit misunderstood we at least had each other to lean on when nobody else did. I was wrong. Very wrong. This is a sobering reminder that no matter how much you care about a player or how much you think you're helping them there are still things out there that can get you fired. This player voiced some concerns, we talked, but I wish to god he said something sooner than just firing me. I teared up during several points in the conversation and you know what? That’s a good thing. I really cared about this guy but in the end it didnt matter to him. In his eyes, and he has every right to feel this way, I just wasnt right for him. I respect him for being honest with me but I am saddened that our relationship is damaged forever.
When I first began my career I did everything I could to be a textbook agent. Suit and tie, slick hair, expensive shoes, the Jerry Maguire special. I did that for a few years and it was the worst mistake of my entire career. I failed. I not only failed but I failed hard, so much so that I almost quit the industry all together. Nothing sat right with me when I tried to do this job the way I thought other people wanted me to. I sold out and I almost burned out. I hated my job and I hated what I had become. I was a monster and not only that an unhappy monster with zero clients. Anytime I did have a client during that time period eventually they would move on to another agent in short time because I was just like everyone else. I was a carbon copy of the text book agents out there except I was the Ed Wood version of the bigger agents. If a player is going to hire a text book agent why would they ever hire someone like me? They would and they should hire someone with more track record. And that’s when things changed. When I realized how miserable I was trying to be someone that I wasn’t , only then could I start to become the kind of agent I ultimately am today. I made the very conscious decision at that point in time that I was going to do things my way no matter the cost. I was going to dress the way I wanted, speak the way I wanted, and do the things I wanted and if it worked, fantastic. If I failed? Well, there is always stand up comedy. As soon as I fully embraced the DIY approach I started to head the right direction. This is a double edged sword though. The players who buy into my program, who buy into me as a person, as their representative, will stick with me to the bitter end. As beautiful as that sounds the flip side is equally ugly. I am not for everyone. Because I am so open, outspoken, loud , whatever, there are some players that wouldn’t come within 100 miles of me much less even consider hiring me. So in some respects I limit the player pool that I get to represent but as a bonus the players I do represent love me and I love them in a way other agents could never understand.
And that’s the rub. The sobering cold reminder of everything that everyone always tells me. It's still a business. This is just a business. So, if the player is reading this, I'm sorry that you feel I let you down. I make no apologies for my actions or anything I have done that has gotten me to this point. If I didnt do things exactly the way I did them, I wouldnt be where I am at today. That doesn’t mean going forward Im the same person I was a couple years ago. All last year I worked hard to shake any labels I may have had. I worked hard to show people I was doing real things instead of coasting on potential. I think I have done a pretty good job of getting to where I need to be with my career thus. Im proud that I have 11 40 man guys, Im proud I have 5 25 man guys. I am proud of everything I have done so far.
All I can do now is keep doing what Im doing and hope that the guys I have will appreciate everything I try to do for them because god knows I appreciate all of them for sticking with me. I thank god every day for every single player I represent because I give up my life for them. They are my world, they are my life, and without them Im nothing and there is nothing I could do to ever fully repay these guys for giving me the life I have today. You win some you lose some but if you fully give up your soul for your job like I have you will never feel bad when things go wrong because deep down you know the problem is not with you.
Sometimes things happen in your career that shock you no matter what you've seen or been through before. I have seen almost everything happen in this business and I have to admit, I have become numb to a lot of the bad things. There is one act, one very specific experience that I never ever have gotten used to. Getting fired is still the ultimate pain in a very painful business. Getting fired by a player signals several things. It’s the death of a relationship and because of the way I try to structure my relationship with my clients it is a gut wrenching hell that has nothing to do with money. Anytime that I have gotten fired I have been pushed to the point of exhaustion. I have become physically ill and I have cried because I not only have lost a client but in almost every case, a friend. The other reason getting fired is so hard to swallow is because it’s a condemnation of your work. You feel like a total failure and again in my case, I feel like I have let down a player and his family. I am supposed to aid and assist these young men in their careers so if there comes a time where a player feels I have not upheld my part of the bargain I feel like a total failure.
There are some instances where an agent can get fired through no fault of his own. I had a player fire me once because a childhood friend of his started a company of his own. What am I supposed to do in a scenario like that? I also have been fired by players who have been lured away by other agents by the promises of better contracts and more money. These things happen. Companies see players they want and they go after them regardless of if they have representation or not. I have been fortunate thus far where I have not lost many players to other companies. I think I do a well enough job educating my players about what an agent can or cant do for them. I never promise any of my clients anything I cannot deliver and I think that’s a large part of my appeal. If a players asks me a question they know I will answer it as honestly as possible. If I cannot deliver something a player desires, well then it’s simple, I just tell them this isn’t something that I can do and if I cant do it there is a real good chance nobody else can either. Again though, there are just some times where there is nothing you can do anymore and the player agent relationship just dies.
Several weeks ago while I was in Arizona working, I had dinner with 10 or so of my clients. Everyone that was in town showed up except for one player who I had signed a couple years ago. Over the last two seasons I felt that I had cultivated a pretty good relationship with him. I felt especially close to him because here was a guy that was a lot like me. He had a reputation off the field which was totally unfair because this is an absolutely great guy. He was not unlike me with regards to what outsiders thought of him, but if you took the time to get to know him he really is a tremendously awesome person. I learned something valuable on that trip to Arizona, a very painful lesson that I will carry with me the rest of my career.
I picked up said player from the field my last day in Arizona to meet for lunch. As I had said earlier this player bailed on the team dinner the night before so that was a very bad omen. I had a horrible feeling about this meeting going into it but it didnt make the news any easier to hear. I was getting fired. Two years of work , all the phone calls, the travel, the endorsements, the meetings, the dinners, the baseball games, everything, finished. This player handled the situation as classy and as professionally as anyone I’ve dealt with in my entire career. I was shocked to say the least because I thought my relationship with him transcended baseball. I thought we were friends and that because we were both a little bit misunderstood we at least had each other to lean on when nobody else did. I was wrong. Very wrong. This is a sobering reminder that no matter how much you care about a player or how much you think you're helping them there are still things out there that can get you fired. This player voiced some concerns, we talked, but I wish to god he said something sooner than just firing me. I teared up during several points in the conversation and you know what? That’s a good thing. I really cared about this guy but in the end it didnt matter to him. In his eyes, and he has every right to feel this way, I just wasnt right for him. I respect him for being honest with me but I am saddened that our relationship is damaged forever.
When I first began my career I did everything I could to be a textbook agent. Suit and tie, slick hair, expensive shoes, the Jerry Maguire special. I did that for a few years and it was the worst mistake of my entire career. I failed. I not only failed but I failed hard, so much so that I almost quit the industry all together. Nothing sat right with me when I tried to do this job the way I thought other people wanted me to. I sold out and I almost burned out. I hated my job and I hated what I had become. I was a monster and not only that an unhappy monster with zero clients. Anytime I did have a client during that time period eventually they would move on to another agent in short time because I was just like everyone else. I was a carbon copy of the text book agents out there except I was the Ed Wood version of the bigger agents. If a player is going to hire a text book agent why would they ever hire someone like me? They would and they should hire someone with more track record. And that’s when things changed. When I realized how miserable I was trying to be someone that I wasn’t , only then could I start to become the kind of agent I ultimately am today. I made the very conscious decision at that point in time that I was going to do things my way no matter the cost. I was going to dress the way I wanted, speak the way I wanted, and do the things I wanted and if it worked, fantastic. If I failed? Well, there is always stand up comedy. As soon as I fully embraced the DIY approach I started to head the right direction. This is a double edged sword though. The players who buy into my program, who buy into me as a person, as their representative, will stick with me to the bitter end. As beautiful as that sounds the flip side is equally ugly. I am not for everyone. Because I am so open, outspoken, loud , whatever, there are some players that wouldn’t come within 100 miles of me much less even consider hiring me. So in some respects I limit the player pool that I get to represent but as a bonus the players I do represent love me and I love them in a way other agents could never understand.
And that’s the rub. The sobering cold reminder of everything that everyone always tells me. It's still a business. This is just a business. So, if the player is reading this, I'm sorry that you feel I let you down. I make no apologies for my actions or anything I have done that has gotten me to this point. If I didnt do things exactly the way I did them, I wouldnt be where I am at today. That doesn’t mean going forward Im the same person I was a couple years ago. All last year I worked hard to shake any labels I may have had. I worked hard to show people I was doing real things instead of coasting on potential. I think I have done a pretty good job of getting to where I need to be with my career thus. Im proud that I have 11 40 man guys, Im proud I have 5 25 man guys. I am proud of everything I have done so far.
All I can do now is keep doing what Im doing and hope that the guys I have will appreciate everything I try to do for them because god knows I appreciate all of them for sticking with me. I thank god every day for every single player I represent because I give up my life for them. They are my world, they are my life, and without them Im nothing and there is nothing I could do to ever fully repay these guys for giving me the life I have today. You win some you lose some but if you fully give up your soul for your job like I have you will never feel bad when things go wrong because deep down you know the problem is not with you.
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