License To Deal: A Season on the Run with A Maverick Baseball Agent - Couverture rigide

Crasnick, Jerry

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1594860246 ISBN 13 : 9781594860249

Editeur : Rodale Pr, 2005

Synopsis

Book by Crasnick Jerry

A propos du livre

Revue de presse

“Matt Sosnick co-runs a small California agency representing nine major league baseball players, including All-Star pitcher Dontrelle Willis. Crasnick, a baseball writer for ESPN.com, spent months at Sosnick's side, watching him work with clients and try to sign up new prospects. This in-depth profile is especially good at capturing the earnest but earthy young agent's contradictions: he feels so strongly about integrity that he can complain that a competitor's luring away of a player "doesn't add to the goodness or the kindness of the world," yet he plots pragmatically to pry loose some talent for his own roster. The story loses some focus when Crasnick elects to broaden the perspective, abandoning Sosnick and his players to check out the competition, including super-agent Scott Boras. But these outside views prove helpful, rounding out Sosnick's portrait to show the less flattering light in which others see him. The success of Michael Lewis's Moneyball has aroused interest in the behind-the-scenes financial maneuvers that decide who gets to play, and while this sympathetic look at the frequently maligned role of the agent can't quite match its predecessor's vitality, it should still attract moderate attention.” —Publisher's Weekly

“Dontrelle Willis, an early-season favorite to win the National League Cy Young Award with the Florida Marlins, has a tattoo of the logo of his agents' company on his arm. License to Deal is the story of what those agents, Matt Sosnick and Paul Cobbe, have done to earn the support of Willis and their other clients. ESPN writer Jerry Crasnick, who accompanied Sosnick and Cobbe over the course of a year, paints a portrait of the sports-agent business that is fascinating but far from pretty. There's the monumental investment of time and money the agents pour into wooing potential clients around the country; the constant care and feeding of signees (from the scene of a serious accident in early 2003, Willis' first call was to Sosnick); and the brutal competition from larger, more glamorous agents like Scott Boras, who regularly make off with the players of smaller agents like Sosnick and Cobbe. An excellent account of a critical but rarely explained component of Major League baseball.” —Alan Moores, Booklist

“Jerry Crasnick's License to Deal is the best independent look at the baseball agents' world ever written. He weaves the tale around maverick agent Matt Sosnick, and explores every facet of the business from the draft to the Players Association to Scott Boras. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand baseball's very important subculture.” —Peter Gammons, ESPN

“License to Deal is a fascinating look at a subject about which so much is heard, but so little is known. It's a classic story of haves and have-nots, and favorites and underdogs. By looking at the baseball agent world through the eyes of Matt Sosnick, Jerry Crasnick puts a human face and a personality to what is often viewed as a cold and impersonal business. At the end, you find yourself rooting for the little guy.” —Billy Beane, Oakland A's general manager

“There have been thousands of books about baseball, but Jerry Crasnick has written a remarkable original, about the game among agents: the lawless competition to lure clients, the wars to keep other agents from stealing their players, and the endless internal battles over whether they are serving the player or serving themselves. A must read for anybody who wants to understand Major League Baseball.” —Buster Olney, ESPN, author of the New York Times best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty''

“Jerry Crasnick takes an in-depth look at an often misunderstood facet of the modern business of baseball. His writing is compelling and his depiction of his main characters is remarkably human. In a business where agents are often vilified and their personas exaggerated, Jerry helps us to understand a very compassionate and personal side of the relationship between player and agent and how that dynamic influences the current landscape of baseball.” —Mark Shapiro, Cleveland Indians general manager

Présentation de l'éditeur

The movie Jerry Maguire and HBO series Arli$$ barely skimmed the surface. Now the true inside story of the sports agent business is exposed as never before.

During baseball's evolution from national pastime to a $3.6 billion business, the game's agents have played a pivotal role in driving and (some might say) ruining the sport. In a world of unchecked egos and minimal regulation, client-stealing and financial inducements have become commonplace, leading many to label the field a cesspool, devoid of loyalties and filled with predators.

Matt Sosnick entered these shark-infested waters in 1997, leaving a job as CEO of a San Francisco high-tech company to represent ballplayers--and hoping to do so while keeping his romantic love of baseball and his integrity intact. License to Deal follows Sosnick as he deals with his up-and-coming clients (his most famous is the 2003 rookie-of-the-year pitching sensation Dontrelle Willis). We become privy to never-before-disclosed stories behind the rise of baseball's most powerful agent, Scott Boras. And we get a novel perspective on the art of the deal and the economics of baseball.

By one of baseball's most respected sportswriters, who is now ESPN.com's lead Insider baseball reporter, License to Deal, like Michael Lewis's bestselling Moneyball, will provide fuel for many a heated baseball discussion.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Rodale Pr
• Date d'édition: 2005
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1594860246
• ISBN 13: 9781594860249
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 312
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible