‘ Tired of swimming in a sewer,’ agent exits
FORT LAUDERDALE – It was the baseball draft that was supposed to rejuvenate veteran agent David Sloane’s career, representing a premium high school pitcher who’s a top prospect today, only to wind up taking on costly legal fees, ongoing court battles and leading him right out of the business.
A baseball agent since 1974, Sloane says he is leaving the industry, enraged at Yankees top prospect Justus Sheffield, furious at the state of Tennessee and exasperated with the Major League Baseball Players Association.
“I didn’t get out of the agent business because I was a bad agent,” Sloane tells USA TODAY, “I got out of the agent business because I was tired of swimming in a sewer. It’s a horrible (expletive) business. I probably should have walked away 10 years ago. They’re (18-year-old kids) on the cusp of greatness, and on the brink of making good money, and then they stab you in the back.
“It pisses me off seeing agents whose only notable skills are their ability to bribe players with gear, hookers, steroids or training facilities, making 10 times what I ever made, despite the fact that they have never negotiated anything remotely approaching a contract that broke any kind of new ground in their entire career.”
Sloane, 66, represented about 125 major league and minor league players during his 43-year career, including All-Star Carlos Delgado, who earned about $147 million. He says he might advise one last player in this year’s draft, which begins Monday, but will no longer pay dues to remain certified.
“I’m not slinking away,” Sloane says, “but walking away with my head held high. My decision to turn away is not just motivated by my distrust over having to deal with people like Justus Sheffield, but motivated by my potential in a new venture.”
It was Sloane’s relationship with Sheffield, 22, representing him when he received a $1.6 million signing bonus in
2014 as a first-round pick with the Indians, that began a four-year legal dispute that still has not ended.
It started after Sheffield paid Sloane
$48,000, a 3% cut for his services, only for Sloane to accuse Sheffield of shortchanging him by $33,000 for a 5% fee. That led to Sloane filing a breach of contract suit against Sheffield, which led to the state of Tennessee filing four complaints against Sloane and a $50,740 civil penalty, which led to Sloane informing Vanderbilt University that his older brother, Jordan Sheffield, violated NCAA bylaws by having another agent represent him during his collegiate career, which led to Tennessee reducing the civil penalty to $10,740, which led to Sloane filing another appeal.
“I’m looking for a white knight,” he says, “who realizes the wrong that has been done here and would like to correct an unjust and abusive power. The secretary of the state is not empowered to conduct vendettas. This is not justice, this is about revenge. It’s a witch hunt.”
And, to think, it all started when Sloane thought he struck gold by representing Sheffield, the Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year, going 11-0 with a 0.34 ERA and 131 strikeouts in 61 2⁄3 innings as a high school senior.
“I wish I had never heard the name ‘Sheffield,’ ” Sloane said. “It has eroded my faith in human nature to a degree I can’t even put in words. I’m rooting for karma now. Look, if he becomes the Cy Young Award winner next year, it’s not going to ruin my life. But him stabbing me in the back the way he did is his loss. I’m the best agent he would have had. I’m as good as there ever was.”
Sheffield, who is 1-3 with a 2.03 ERA, striking out 57 in 44 1⁄3 innings at Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (Pa.), declined to comment, with his family saying simply it’s a closed matter. Several agents and an attorney familiar with the case also declined to comment publicly.
The dispute began when it came time to collect fees for the signing bonus. Sloane said Sheffield agreed to be charged the standard 5%. After Sheffield was paid, Sloane said he received
$48,000 and not $81,000. He voiced his objection, and when Sheffield refused to give more than 3%, Sloane sued in Arizona. And lost, with the case dismissed.
“The law in Arizona at the time of the Sheffield signing, as in most states that have specific agent laws, was very clear,” said Gregg Clifton, the lawyer who represented Sheffield from the firm of Jackson Lewis and himself a longtime agent. “You must be registered with the state in order to work as an agent and any agreement that an agent enters into with an amateur athlete must be in writing and contains very specific, statutorily mandated provisions in order to be enforceable.”
It was a case that never should have been filed, several agents and union representatives said, with Sloane having virtually no chance of winning.
And once the state of Tennessee was made aware of it, a complaint was filed against Sloane for violating a law requiring agents to register with the state when representing Tennessee athletes.
“How is it right that the secretary of state should be able to use his office for exacting his revenge against somebody?” Sloane said. “The one thing I did was that I didn’t register with the state before saying I worked to represent Sheffield. They didn’t say I bribed him. Or I stole money from him. Or that I caused Vanderbilt to forfeit scholarships and championships and victories. I did next to nothing wrong. All I did was fail to register. And as soon as I became aware of this law, I registered immediately and paid the $500 fee. If there is going to be a consequence, it should be something along the lines of what a speeding ticket should be.”
Sloane will be around if anyone needs advice, and now that he’s leaving the business, he’s unafraid to talk. He’ll tell you how the union’s strategy in the last collective bargaining agreement was severely flawed. He wonders if it’s possible for the union to recover its lost power. And he wonders if leadership change is needed.
“This was a slow-motion train wreck,” Sloane says, “and whoever didn’t see it coming was blind. This (CBA) is messed up in so many ways. I hope the meals these guys are getting in the clubhouse are worth the millions they gave up.
“The union has done an extremely poor job of reading the tea leaves foretelling what was going to take place, and understanding what the unintended consequences might be. It’s really an uphill climb now. Are the owners going to scrap the luxury tax? Are they going to scrap the draft system that so favors the clubs? That’s not going to happen.
“Where is the leverage on the players’ side now? How do you go on strike when players will never get sympathy from fans when average salary will be over $4.5 million?”
It’s no longer Sloane’s problem, and after 43 years he’s walking away and refuses to look back.
“I’m going to be a lot happier not having to deal with the back stabbing that goes on in the agent business,” Sloane says. “You look around, and the overwhelming majority of an agent’s clients are players they stole from somebody else. The union doesn’t do anything to stop it.
“It’s like steroids. I remember telling (former union chief ) Don Fehr that I have a player that says he’s the only one on the team not using steroids. Don told me, ‘This is not something that concerns us. We don’t handle that. It’s a privacy issue.’ It was ignored, of course, and not long after that the whole thing blew up.
“Well, after 43 years, I’ve had enough. I wasn’t a big-time agent. I wasn’t relentless as a self-promoter. But I had a significant career. Now, others can have this. I’m out of this sewer.”