Catching Up With Octagon Dir Of Baseball Joe Urbon

Octagon’s Joe Urbon Discusses Upcoming MLB Season

At first, Octagon’s Joe Urbon went with the chalk, offering up two favored World Series contenders — Yankees and Dodgers — as his picks to meet in the Fall Classic this season. But like any good agent, he quickly amended those choices, opting for Indians vs. Pirates instead. Questionable, sure, but not surprising considering Urbon represents the Indians’ Grady Sizemore and Pirates’ Jason Bay as head of Octagon’s baseball division, a position he’s held since ’98. While preparing for the upcoming season, the proud father of four-month-old twins took a moment to speak with Staff Writer Brad Pinkerton.

Favorite Movie: “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” (1941).
Last book read: “The Brothers K,” by David James Duncan.
Next vacation (when/where): We were planning a trip to the Scandinavian region of Europe when we found out we were pregnant with Walter and Josephine. So whenever we are more mobile, that will be our next vacation.
Sports business exec you most admire: Octagon President of Athletes & Personalities Phil di Picciotto.
Favorite sport outside baseball: College football.

Q: What is your daily routine once you reach the office?
Urbon: Usually when I get to the office — when I’m in the office — it’s a combination of reading the local newspapers online from virtually all [the markets] our baseball clients are playing in. I have them all bookmarked. I go through them just to see what’s being said locally about our clients or a situation going on in those cities. ... I usually do part of it from home now that I’ve got the twins and one of them refuses to sleep past 5:15am — I think the record right now is 5:30.

Q: You played professionally in the Phillies organization — what do you miss most about playing?
Urbon: One is the actual game itself, the competition. Number two is the guys I hung around with and spent so much time with in the clubhouse. Obviously I was in the minors, so I was on the buses, in the bad restaurants and the bad hotels. One thing I don’t miss at all is the overwhelming downtime that is so prevalent in baseball. ... Unfortunately, having my career end so abruptly because of injury, if I knew it was going to end that quickly, I would have savored more of the moments. But at the same time, I’ve got such great memories from that brief time, they’ll always stick with me.

Q: On a competitive level, how does being a sports agent compare to being an athlete?
Urbon: The competition to represent the best athletes is every bit as competitive as what goes on on the field. People in our industry are out there to win. ... As a player you always want to perform better and as an agent you always want to represent the best players.

Q: How would you grade MLB on its int’l growth? What do you see in baseball’s global future?

Brosnan Receives Praise For Role In MLB’s Int’l Growth

Urbon: I would grade it as an “A” without question. I think [MLB Exec VP/Business] Tim Brosnan has done a fantastic job. I think MLB as a whole has done a fantastic job in all aspects, getting to parts of the world that they probably didn’t think they’d get to and having great success. ... Just seeing the overwhelming growth in television, merchandising and events, it’s amazing. I would like to see global competition. Rather than having some of the best players from the different countries playing in the major leagues, I’d like to see them stay in their countries and have a truly competitive league and a true world series. ... I’d love to have the game played out in a global arena, where we have the World Baseball Classic, but have it count.

Q: Were you surprised by the amount of posting money that was involved to negotiate with [Daisuke] Matsuzaka?
Urbon: I was surprised in the context of what had been posted in the past. But at the same time with the type of player we’re talking about and the economics of the game right now ... it really doesn’t surprise me. If you look at it on a global scale, the transfer fees you see in soccer for the best player, this amount pales in comparison. I think this is just a natural progression of this sport moving toward what’s going on on the global sporting scene.

Q: Do you see baseball ever reaching that level?
Urbon: No. I don’t see it reaching that level. This was an unusual case.

Indians’ Sizemore Being Selective In Marketing Opportunities

Q: What should baseball teams be doing with players at the local level that they may not be?
Urbon: I think by and large the clubs have done a very good job of getting not only their veteran players, but their young players out into the marketplace and known within their communities. ... And I think the players are accepting their roles more positively than players in the past to get out there and be part of the community. You see that with the winter caravans all these teams have in the offseason.

Q: What are the Indians doing with Grady?
Urbon: If Grady would let them, he would be utilized every single day before and after a game and twice on Sunday. For Grady, it’s about playing and about being prepared each day. He’ll do what he’s asked to a degree, but when given a choice, he’ll defer to his teammates. On some level, that’s a bit frustrating for the club because he is their most marketable player. We’ve turned down so many more opportunities than we’ve accepted — last year we turned them all down.