As of October 1, 2010, the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) has a new set of Regulations Governing Player Agents. I am currently working on Co-Authoring a major law review/journal piece that will provide a complete synopsis of the 2010 Regulations. In the meantime, if you want to read through the entire document, feel free!
One consequence of the 2010 Regulations is that the MLBPA will need a lot more manpower to ensure proper oversight of the new rules. In my future article, I will attack many of the 2010 Regulations’ provisions based on a variety of reasons, most importantly that they are not in the best interests of the players that the MLBPA is supposed to represent. But I digress.
The 2010 Regulations call for Michael Weiner, the current Executive Director of the MLBPA, to appoint a Player Agent Advisory Committee “for the purpose of reviewing and discussing the MLBPA’s implementation, interpretation and enforcement of the Regulations, any potential amendments to the Regulations and relations among Players, Players agents, and the MLBPA…” This information may be found in Section 9 of the 2010 Regulations, which is page 40 of the document (if you were brave enough to click on the link above). Section 9 states that the Committee will consist of 5-7 active, certified Player Agents, yet Mr. Weiner has appointed a total of 9. The following individuals were recently appointed:
- Casey Close, CAA (New York)
- Keith Grunewald, Career Sports and Entertainment (Atlanta)
- Damon Lapa, All Bases Covered Sports Mgt (Valencia, CA)
- Sam Levinson, ACES (Brooklyn, NY)
- Alan Nero, Octagon (Chicago)
- Mike Nicotera, Sparta Group (Parsippany, NJ)
- Jim Munsey, Munsey Sports Mgt (West Palm Beach and Durham, NH)
- Mark Pieper, SFX (Northbrook, IL)
- Larry Reynolds, Reynolds Sports Mgt (Riverside, CA)
Each of the aforementioned agents will serve on the Committee for 2 years; however, the first 3 members appointed will have a 3 year term. There has been no indication as to who were the first 3 agents selected. Jay Reisinger has been asked to serve as outside legal advisor to the Committee. Scott Boras’ name is nowhere to be found.
Mr. Weiner had the challenge of creating a diverse Committee representing various categories of the agent population such as experience level, geography, size of agency, etc. How would you grade Mr. Weiner based on the committee listed above?
