Customer Reviews

License to Deal: A Season on the Run with a Maverick Baseball Agent

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is a wonderful read for any baseball fan who wants to learn of the intricacies of the business. However, it is much more than that. It is a novelistic portrait of a fascinating, Gatsby-esque character, the young baseball agent, Matt Sosnik. It describes his struggles to succeed while retaining his integrity and his basic human qualities, his capacity for honesty and true friendship in a cutthroat world. It is a wonderfully drawn portrait of the unlikely friendship between Matt, a white, Jewish, introspective entrepreneur and Dontrelle Willis, a black, gifted pitching prodigy. We come to understand the way each influences the other and along the way we get to see how frequently basic human relationships are undermined by the quest for fame and fortune. Yet in the end the Sosnik-Willis relationship seems to remain strong. The book is also novelistic in the way we see the central character, Sosnik, maturing as he struggles with his own inner demons. Crasnik has written an engrossing, often funny account of people we come to care for deeply.

After the movie Jarry Maguire the role of the sports agent became famous even though the movie was pure fiction. In reality, this is a business anyone can enter. There are no licensensing or special educational requirements.

In reality though, it isn't all that easy. How do you get started? How do you first find a promising young star and second, convince him that you can do as good a job as one of the bigger, much better known agencies? How do you even go about convincing the young athelete that you can do a better job for him than he can do for himself, and save your fees?

This is the story of Matt Sosnick, a west coast businessman who decides to change his career from the high tech industry to being a sports agent. For several months the author a baseball insider worked with Mr. Sosnick, watching, following him around the country to provide the first real insiders view of the glamorous world of the sports agent. After reading the book, you come to believe that it's not so glamerous after all. It looks like a lot of hard work.

Filled with insider details, this is a very interesting book.

Despite the fact that the book seems quickly written and is organized rather poorly, Jerry Crasnick offers a fascinating study of the sports agent's life. "License to Deal" causes one to root for the up-and-coming agents and against the behemoths, like Scott Boras, that control so many of the top free agents in baseball.

After reading the book, I have a new understanding of the business behind baseball and the battle for new prospects still developing in the farm systems and high schools. In recent months, Sosnick was in the L.A. media surrounding the signing of Luke Hochevar, the Dodgers' top pick this year. Hochevar's negotiations with the Dodgers were strained when he switched from Matt Sosnick's agency to Scott Boras in mid stream. (See the excellent article in "Baseball America" by John Manuel and Kevin Goldstein on September 9, 2005.)

I highly recommend this book for its fascinating portrayal of Matt Sosnick and his agency.

It's hard to wonder what life would be like if your day job involved working with professional athletes on a daily basis. For Matt Sosnick and Paul Cobbe, their day job became more than a full time job (it was 24-7). Two upper class white males from the west coast follow their dream and enter into the big shark tank of sports business. What makes this book entertaining, as a 20 something white male myself, is that I found humor in the variety of anecdotal references of "small time guys" with a trust fund, living out their dream, and doing it the old fashion way (with honor, respect, and buddying up with the client). Who by the way, know very very little about the game of baseball.

The author attempts to paint this picture that you should feel bad for Matt and Paul as they go head to head against the likes of Scott Boras and other big time agents. Your typical David v. Goliath story ... while it is true that Matt and Paul are building their business from scratch, hence their brand, it is the American way to start a small business from nothing (as probably most of our ancestors did), begin by struggling big time, and over time establish a brand.

The book takes a few twists about how their relationship with certain ball players out weighs the services performed by other sports agents, and why the Sosnick / Cobbe franchise is "for a lifetime." Unfortuantely, the song gets old, and the author happily changes direction, but at the same time loses the general story line, providing a few history lessons of sports agents and scouts in the 50's / 60's.

If your purpose is to get inside the business side of the game, this book definitely does that. But the cost of having to read through the authors attempt of making the reader feel bad for two guys with millions in the bank outweighs how the business side of sports is run.

As some one who is very familiar with the agent business which is at the heart of Mr. Crasnick's book, I appreciate how interstingly and thoughtfully he has explored the topic. By focusing on young agents trying to enter the business he has found a perfect vehicle to let his readers understand the emotions of the business from the elation in landing a new client to the depression of having another , more experienced agent steal his clients. One can sense the commitment made by these young agents to their players as well as their naivete in expecting that such a commitment woujld be sufficient to retain those players as clients. Crasnick also does a nice job in exploring the relationships, both positive and negative, that exist between agents and major league organizations. For one of the first times, an author has focused a non-condescending, literary light on the essence of the agent business, allowing the public to better understand an agent's role both as an influence on the financial aspects of his client's career as well as the development of that career. It's a must read for anyone thinking about entering the business and an enjoyable read for any baseball fan.

Crasnick is a great tour guide through the complexities and insanities of sports agenting, it's clear he's been here before. What's most impressive is that he resists the tendency in most sports books to lionize the main character. While you sympathize with Matt Sosnick as he embarks on his David vs. Goliath quest, Crasnick doesn't gush over him and he doesn't skip over Sosnick's less attractive qualities. Crasnick's first loyalty is to the reader and not to the guy he spent months hanging out with, and that's what makes the story most compelling -- besides the fact it's also a fun, fast and wonderfully observed ride.

Without question, this will go down as the best sports book of 2005. Jerry Crasnick stumbled onto a gem of a story in his profile of Matt Sosnick, an up and coming baseball agent. The story of who Sosnick is and what makes him tick is absolutely fascinating - in fact, Crasnick's description of him is so interesting that, at times, I had to remind myself this was a work of non-fiction. Additionally, Crasnick does a great job of giving a historical overview of the role of agents in baseball and describes, in superb detail, the other cast of characters of this profession. This is one of those books you will not be able to put down. 5 Stars. A+. Buy it.

An easy read, entertaining, though not necessarily eye-opening. Crasnick tells the story of a rare breed of baseball agent: one who actually cares about something beyond his wallet.

Review: License to Deal by Jerry Crasnick

License to Deal by Jerry Crasnick is sub-titled "A Season on the Run with a Maverick Baseball Agent". The agent is Matt Sosnick, whose most famous client is Dontrelle Willis of the Florida Marlins. Crasnick paints Sosnick and his partner Paul Cobbe as good people and friends to their clients. All this in a field of sharks and wolves. Sosnick and Cobbe routinely try to keep their own clients from abandoning and jumping to other agents while the players are still in the minors or just starting out their careers in the majors. Crasnick makes Sosnick look like the victim. But as Crasnick shows (although he never explicitly states it), Sosnick-Cobbe have their own moments where they are rude, arrogant, aggressive and steal other agents' clients as well. The bottom line is this is a cut throat business and either all agents are victims or none of them are, because they all get screwed and all try to screw others too. Crasnick also writes about other agents and baseball deals in the book. There is a whole chapter on Scott Boras, as well as many other anecdotes and quotes from other agents and baseball management interspersed throughout the book.

Overall, Crasnick does a good job describing the life of agents. The middle-tier ones like Sosnick and Cobbe and the stars like Boras and Moorad (now in management with the Diamondbacks). I recommend this book for those that are interested in the business side of baseball.

This book is not really what the subtitle, "A season on the run with a maverick baseball agent", recommends. It is more of a description of the Sosnick-Cobbe sports agency, Matt Sosnick's biography, Sosnick's business approach, a history of baseball agents, a picture of the cutthroat business, Scott Boras' biography, and a basic how to of the agent business. All this information is randomly spewn about. It is like a picture you look at closely and think that it looks sloppy but when you take a look at the whole thing it is a masterpiece. Read the whole book before you make an opinion.