Casey Close represents Derek Jeter, Ryan Howard, and Derek Lee (amongst other baseball players). He is a former Michigan baseball player who won Baseball America’s National Player of the Year award in 1986. Close is a member of the fairly new MLBPA Player Agent Advisory Committee. He is nothing less than one of baseball’s major power brokers. And now he is a part of Excel Sports Management.
In March 2010, a reader asked if I had heard anything about Casey Close leaving Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to start up a new company with long time basketball agent David Falk. Perhaps at one point in time, Close had contemplated teaming up with Falk. In the end, he ended up choosing former IMG co-employee, Jeff Schwartz (pictured right), the current President of Excel Sports Management.
Up to Close’s departure from CAA and inclusion in Excel, Schwartz’s company has strictly represented basketball players in the USA and abroad, including familiar names like Jason Kidd, Kevin Love, Lamar Odom, Paul Pierce, and many other superstars. With Close in the fold, Excel will also represent some of the best players in baseball.
This move increases Excel’s caché and puts the company in a new class of sports agencies. With some of the best in baseball and basketball under one roof, Excel is certainly a firm that becomes tougher to compete against.
One reply on “Former CAA Baseball Agent Casey Close Joins Excel Sports Management”
[…] City University, which additionally helps with his ability to negotiate effectively. With Casey Close’s departure from CAA, Berry became one of the co-head’s of CAA’s large baseball division. AKPC_IDS += […]