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

by Jerry Crasnick

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1594860246
• ISBN13: 9781594860249
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: Rodale Books
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 1.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Great topic, mediocre writing = a fascinating 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.

great look at baseball's underside

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.

Sports Book of the Year

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.

A Job that Looks Very Glamorous

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.

American Original

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.