Like it or not, Scott Boras is baseball's Mr. November
BILL DWYRE
The game's most powerful agent is an easy target for fans, team executives and media, but those who blame him for skyrocketing salaries need to look in mirror, too.
Major League Baseball is divided into four parts.
There is spring training, the regular season, the playoffs and Scott Boras time.
This is November, Scott Boras time. It might be the most important of the four.
It wasn't long ago that baseball writers came home from the World Series and disappeared until pitchers and catchers reported in February. Their jobs were more seasonal than teachers'. Now, they make sure to get time off during the season so they are fresh for November.
It wasn't long ago that a team won the World Series, had a parade and went home to think about next year. Now, they are talking on their cellphones to other teams as they sit on the backs of convertibles and wave to the adoring home fans.
If you think the closer on the mound who is throwing 97 mph is dealing, you should see Boras. The players are playing hardball because Boras has really played it for them months before.
He has been accused of ruining the game, of being the "antichrist of baseball," of setting the boundaries of the game's economy. Nobody seems to take that a step further, to ponder that, if baseball is allowing Boras to set the boundaries of its economy, is that not baseball's fault?
Players' agents such as Boras are easy targets of scorn. They are like the messengers we all want to kill. They are the middle managers who have to lay you off because the corporate creeps who ordered it won't get their hands dirty. They are the sportswriters who report negative facts about your favorite team.
Boras is not an ax murderer. He is a 56-year-old guy who puts on his pants one leg at a time. He has a life, has friends, runs his business out of Newport Beach, goes to lots of baseball games at Dodger and Angel stadiums and doesn't prance around, looking for attention. He is just there, always there, watching what happens on the field and calculating how he can convert that into leverage in his next deal.
That is his job.
He represents about 60 players, but he is especially crucial to Southern California this November because two of his main clients are Manny Ramirez and Mark Teixeira. Dodgers fans have fallen in love with Manny and Angels fans fully understand the necessity of retaining Teixeira. The pressure is on general managers Ned Colletti and Tony Reagins, as well as owners Frank McCourt and Arte Moreno.
