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John Keker too pricey for Barry Bonds
Scott Boras: The Ari Gold of baseball
Like any sport, baseball needs its villains.
And right now, there’s no better villain than Scott Boras, the California-based sports agent who has the audacity to seek and get really, really good contracts for his millionaire clients.
Boras, 55, is so hateful, it would seem, that he will even upstage the World Series.
While the last game between the Boston Red Sox and Colorado Rockies was being played last month, the word emerged that Boras client Alex Rodriguez was opting out of the last three years of his contract with the New York Yankees. In doing this, he was passing up $91 million to seek more money elsewhere.
The writers were appalled that Boras — the presumed leaker of the info — didn’t wait until after the World Series to let the opting-out be known.
“At the very least, the decision to announce Rodriguez’ decision violated baseball etiquette in the extreme,” wrote Jack Curry in the New York Times.
Casual observers might wonder how a game in which the players spit frequently and scratch themselves could have etiquette, but baseball does.
And there are lawyers who might argue that Boras, who is a lawyer and a former minor league player, was just doing his duty to his client.
Regardless, the fuss over Boras, sometimes called the most hated man in baseball, may obscure the fact that he is a business powerhouse.
His company, Boras Corp., has so many clients on so many baseball teams that he may be the best-connected person in the sport.
According to an Oct. 29 profile by Ben McGrath in the New Yorker, Boras Corp. represents 65 major-league players.
For its services, the company gets 5 percent of the major leaguer’s salaries.
Daisuke Matsuzaka, a star player in Japan who signed with the Boston Red Sox last December, is a Boras client.
To get Matsuzaka, Boston first won bidding rights by paying $51.1 million. Then the Red Sox agreed to pay Matsuzaka $52 million over six years, a figure that could reach $60 million if Matsuzaka reaches certain goals.
Boras also got pitcher Barry Zito $126 million for seven years from the San Francisco Giants in 2007.
And his bargaining brought outfielder Carlos Beltran $119 for seven years in 2005 from the New York Mets.
Many other Boras clients have done very well.
However, none has received the contract numbers Boras negotiated in 2000 for Rodriguez. The player signed a 10-year, $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers. (Rodriquez went to the Yankees in 2004 and the contract remained in force.)
According to reports, Boras now hopes to get Rodriguez, an extraordinary player who has had less than extraordinary results in the post-season, a new contract in the range of $350 million.
With the exception of Rodriguez, it’s usually Boras and not the players who are accused of greed after big contracts are signed.
And sometimes, too, it’s Boras, and not the team owners, who is blamed by fans for high ticket and hot dog prices.
Boras, though, would seem to be able to take the heat, believing he has a role to play. “There’s a clear need for someone to represent the athlete and to explain the athlete’s value,” he told the New Yorker. “If that person is characterized as a villain, well, so be it.”
Torre Should Have Looked Over the Fence
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Patriots’ Kraft wants English club
English football teams are the latest craze for U.S. sports tycoons.
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, in the United Kingdom for the NFL game in London last weekend between the New York Giants and the Miami Dolphins, says he is interested in buying a Premier League soccer – oops, football – team. He already owns Major League Soccer’s New England Revolution.
“We looked seriously at Liverpool,” he told Sky Sports News on Thursday, unwilling to disclose which team he wants to buy. “We still do have an interest in playing in the Premier League. We’d like to close our deal and then talk about it.”
American tycoons are planting red-white-and-blue flags throughout England: earlier this year, yanks George Gillett and Tom Hicks purchased Liverpool F.C. (apparently beating out Kraft). Gillett owns the Montreal Canadiens while Hicks owns the Dallas Stars and the Texas Rangers.
Cleveland Browns owner Randy Lerner bought the Aston Villa club in 2006. Meanwhile, Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Malcolm Glazer gained controlling interest in Manchester United in 2005.
Cablevision’s James Dolan has string of losses
As the chairman of Madison Square Garden, the company that owns the hapless New York Knicks, James L. Dolan should have already known a lot about losing.
But Dolan, 51, who is also a blues/rock singer, has learned even more about embarrassing defeats during the last few weeks.
Already vilified in the New York press as a rich kid whose dad gave him the Knicks as a plaything, Dolan is now depicted as a boss who tolerates bad behavior and bad language in the office.
In addition, a Dolan family plan to make Cablevision Systems Corp. a private company has been rejected by shareholders.
Cablevision, a dominant player in the New York City area, owns Madison Square Garden, which, in turn, owns the Knicks, the MSG Network, hockey’s New York Rangers, the New York Liberty of the Womens National Basketball Association and Radio City Music Hall.
All in all, Dolan may be finding new wisdom in the first lines of one of his bands’ songs: “Who told you life would be easy? Who said you would smile every day?”
On Oct. 2, a federal jury in Manhattan found that Madison Square Garden and Knicks coach Isiah Thomas had sexually discriminated against one of its executives.
The verdict came after a trial that made the Knicks front office seem like a locker room where boys were, alas, boys.
The Garden was ordered to pay $8.6 million to the executive, Anucha Browne Sanders. The jury found that the company had created a hostile work environment and that it fired Browne Sanders in retaliation for her complaints about inappropriate language and advances.
The jury ordered Dolan, president and chief executive officer of Cablevision Systems, to pay Browne Sanders $3 million for the retaliatory firing.
His father, Charles F. Dolan, the founder of HBO, is Cablevision’s chairman and founder.
Several Dolan family members also serve on the company’s board. Among them is Lawrence Dolan, Charles’ brother and the owner of the Cleveland Indians.
On Wednesday, shareholders rejected a $10.6 billion bid by the Dolan family to take Cablevision private. The Dolans had offered $36.26 a share. Some major shareholders said the price was too low.
Charles and James Dolan, who have sometimes feuded, put the best face they could on the rejection, saying in a joint press release:
“We see today’s outcome as a vote of confidence in the prospects of Cablevision, its management team, its 20,000 employees and the industry’s future.”
James Dolan’s total compensation for 2006 was $8.71 million, Forbes magazine reported.
Some of his earnings, over $300,000, have gone to political candidates, mostly Democrats. This year he has given to the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
Dolan is also the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of JD & the Straight Shot.
According the band’s website, mixing business and music gives Dolan “a sense of balance in his life.”
The Rocky Mountain News in Denver described the band’s first album, as getting “grudgingly good reviews.”
The grudging praise sometimes comes from Knicks fans. The team has not had a winning season since 2000-2001, despite a high payroll.
After 2005-2006 losing season, the club found itself in a soap opera feud with its coach of one year, Larry Brown. The melodrama ended with the Knicks buying out Brown’s contract for $18.5 million.
Last season, the team won 33 games and lost 49, certainly enough to make Dolan sing the blues.