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Book
Review: License To Deal
Jonathan Leshanski
June 11, 2005
Book Review: License to Deal - A Season on the
Run with a Maverick Baseball Agent
by Jerry Crasnick
Published by Rodale Press
P. 312
I have to admit that I’m a sucker for a baseball book that
not only teaches me something but also manages to find a fresh look
at a topic that most of us overlook. License to Deal is that
type of a book; it takes a look at the dog eat dog world of sports
agents - specifically when it comes to baseball.
Author Jerry Crasnick spent a year following Matt Sosnick of the
Sosnick & Cobbe agency learning the ins and outs, the tricks
of the trades, the personalities, and the business of being a baseball
agent. The publicity and inside information in License to Deal will
do for Sosnick & Cobbe what Moneyball did for A’s GM Billy
Beane by opening a door into a world that we have never seen before
(Jerry Maguire notwithstanding).
While the book largely centers on Matt Sosnick (who’s most
famous client is certainly Dontrelle Willis), it also introduces
us to quite a few of the major players that have a role in baseball
management relations today. In that group are Scott Boras, Gene
Orza, The Beverly Hills Sports Council, Jeff Moorad to name a few.
We also get insight as to how they conduct business, steal each
others clients and even they way that they think. There are also
many tales of both the successes and failures that have resulted
in athletes making millions, failing utterly or just getting by.
The baseball agent exists in a world with few rules and no regulation.
In fact becoming an MLB agent is incredibly simple; you need a background
check with no record of committing a felony and then you need to
find a player to represent that is on a 40-man roster of a major
league team. That means that just about anyone can become an agent
- the hard part is surviving as one in a profession where stealing
clients is a norm rather than an exception and the big fish in the
pond (the Boras corporation, SFX and Beverly Hills Sports Council)
are essentially piranha preying regularly on the small guys.
In some ways that makes the Sosnick & Cobbe Agency underdogs
and as the book goes on you can’t help yourself for liking
both partners and rooting for them to succeed. This book was probably
a double edged sword for these guys, opening the whole profession
to public scrutiny and teaching competitors, or would be competitors
about their operation yet at the same time garnering them more publicity
then they could have bought - and they are slick enough operators
to know that.
The book deals with a lot of issues including contract negotiation,
finding and wooing potential clients, the inner dynamics of the
amateur draft and the codependent relationship that many athletes
develop with their agents since few are well enough rounded to handle
many of the day to day responsibilities of real life. Some agents
handle all of the player’s business and finances as well as
even taking the flack and trying to cover for him when a player
does something stupid off the field. And that’s a natural thing
especially today when kids are drafted right out of high school
and have never had a chance to grow up. That’s not the fault
of the agents, but the system that MLB has in place, the agents
just help to make it work.
This is a book for everyone that wants to know more about the game,
even if you believe that agents are evil incarnate - It’s one
of a handful of books that will open your eyes to things you didn’t
know, and it’s a good read to boot.
Give this one 3.5 balls for a not quite perfect, but certainly enlightening
look at the world of the baseball agent.
Our
Rating System is based on a four ball system as follows:
One Ball: Average. It has something to say but is nothing
special.
Two Balls: Something men usually have - also means its a
cut above average, and worth reading/owning.
Three balls: Stands out from its peers and is highly recommended.
Four Balls: More than just what two men have when hanging
out together, it means it is an exceptional book that truly earns
a walk - straight to the local book store to get a copy.
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