A life lived with great passion
Tom Reich will be missed, and well, he should be
Jake and Esther Reich raised two boys in the clamorous Pittsburgh of the mid-20th century; they weren’t necessarily rich, even if that was the correct way to say the surname, but older son Sam made it to law school at Penn and brother Tom became a lawyer, as well, after studying at Pitt and Duquesne.
OnThursday of last week, theday of his brother’s funeralin Los Angeles, Sam spokewith me on the phone fromBradenton, Fla. Now in hismid-80s, he was unable to travelto California for the service,but you can be pretty sureno one who got there had theinsight into legendary sportsagent Tom Reich like hisolder brother, much less thetreasured memories.
“Mystrongest memories of Tom,as I approach his funeral thatI’m going to watch on Facebook,the strongest memoriesare when we were little boys,”he said, “because if it wasa Saturday Kids Day at ForbesField or a Sunday or holiday double header, we werethere. We were Kiner fans.Ralph Kiner was our firsthero. And we would go all thetime even though the Pirates— except for 1948 — werepretty hopeless.” Ican’t imagine. Thebrothers never really broketheir addiction to bad baseball,and Sam even spreadit to his wife. Before theymoved to Florida four yearsago, the two of them wouldsee the Pirates 100 timesa year in various locales.
Tochoose a standout memoryin their adult lives, Sam goesstraight to the moment Tomchanged the course of his career,which would ultimatelychange the course of sportsin America. That’s all.
“Tom’spersonality to some peoplewas very bizarre, very loud,”Sam said. “He would erupt.He would say outrageousthings for effect. That personalityis part of his legend,but it doesn’t reflect his intelligent approach to problems. I’ ll never forget the night hecame home and told the
family,‘I’m going to be a sportsagent, representing baseballplayers.’
“Somesports teams wouldn’teven talk to agents. Theygave them such a hard time.One of his early cases, he spenthours, days, trying to geta player a $3,000 raise. I rememberthinking, ‘What kind ofliving can you make for yourwife and family and yourselfif you have to fight to getreally good players $10,000 or$13,000?’ But the union changedall that, and the agentswere indispensable.”
Beforelong, Tom Reich couldbe spotted prowling the concretebunker of a concourseoutside the Three RiversStadium locker rooms, cajoling Dave Parker to consider the benefits of Tom Reich representation. In January1979, Reich landed Parker afive-year, $5 million deal, the firstcontract in professional sportsto average $1 million peryear. There was a gala to mark the occasion. That summer, Pittsburghers fired projectilesat the gifted right fielder, prefer ring I guess that theGalbreath ownership keeptheir money to lavish on feedfor their thoroughbreds. Thefirst baseball contract to average$2 million was a Tom Reichproduction, as well, landingwith George Foster of theNew York Mets.
Buteven before either of thosethings happened, even beforeTom Reich developed intricateback-channel networkswith George Steinbrennerand Jerry Reinsdorf and somany powerful baseball owners,long before he would beinstrumental in setting up thegame’s arbitration system andforcing the disastrous 1994strike toward a settlement,it was evident to anyone whocame across his kinetic personalitythat Tom was possessedof an out-sized confidence.From somewhere, fromsomeone, he’d gotten the ideathat whatever it was, he coulddo it.
“Iunderstand Tom’s degreeof self-confidence but I don’tknow where it came from,”Sam said. “My father wasa very confident person, butnot like that, not like being ableto take on the world. My motherwas very smart, and Tom,in his way, sometimes hisprofane way, was a civil libertarian.When we were kids,Jackie Robinson was oneof his heroes. Not bigger thanKiner; no one was bigger thanKiner. But Tom did a lot todefend and represent minorityathletes. He inherited thatfrom my mother.”
WhenTom branched out intohockey, his boisterous presencechanged the landscapeof representation in the sport.He was the agent for MarioLemieux and for Ron Francis,and was part of Le mi eu x’ s negotiating team asNo. 66 became owner of the franchise.
“Tomwas a maverick, a realsolid person that I got to knowover time, and I really appreciated everything he did forme and my family,” Francissaid in an email last week.“He’ll be sorely missed.”
Yetas Sam indicated, he andTom were baseball guys attheir core, and one of Tom’s closestfriends later in life was formerPirates owner Kevin McClatchy.
“Agreat friend and a great person ,” M cC la tc hy said on thephone from Europe. “Tom hada lot of characteristics, buthe led with passion. Everythinghe did had passion behindit. As our friendship grew,we talked about everything— baseball, hockey, politics,life, family; we covered it. Hewas a very loyal person andhe had a great sense of humor.I was honored to call him afriend.”
Hewas cooperative with themedia, and he knew how toleverage it.
“Isthat for the record?” a columnistonce asked him.
“No,don’t quote me; just sayit yourself and make yourselflook smart.”
TomReich died July 2 in California.He was 82.