What others are saying …

“My dad died when I was in third grade. [Our parish priest] was the closest thing to a father I ever had. He took us to Orioles games growing up. He took us out to dinner for our birthdays. I was very lucky to have a guy like Father [Joseph] Raley for all those years. And I’d never met anybody like Father Raley in my life until I met Ron. There is an honor code about him that’s just above other men. I’ve never seen anybody so concerned about the other guy.”

“Ron was going to encourage you to do the right thing. It’s easy to be insulated and in a vacuum and just think about yourself. It’s easy to have someone tell you how great you are. But sometimes we have to take a step back and look at ourselves. Ron was always the voice of reason, which has gotten even more important as the money has gotten to where it is. You want an agent to not only get you top dollar but to lead you down the right road.”

“I always found Ron was a pretty levelheaded guy. He dealt in realities and tried to get his players to deal in realities. He was no pushover, that’s for sure. He knew what he wanted to get for a player. But like me, he knew when to compromise. And that’s a big thing. Some people’s idea of negotiating is to keep saying no. You don’t get very far doing it like that.”

“He represents players in their contract negotiations. But for many of his players he was a big brother, a wise uncle, I suppose in some cases even a loving father. And he played those roles with the same kind of zeal that he handled his negotiation responsibilities.”

“More than anything else, Ron’s way that he has about him is comforting. He’s objective. He comes from the outside. So he’s not emotional. The more that you can work unemotionally in a very emotionally charged business, the better off you are.”

“The contract negotiations and many other things that he did, taking me to different meetings and really going through the planning process of what a business would be, were all really helpful things in the next stage of your life. It put me in the company of highly successful people in higher-level negotiations. That gave me exposure and a perspective that I wouldn’t have had if it weren’t for Ron.”

“The tools and the skills that he gave to us could be applicable to anything you do. It didn’t matter if you were with the plumbers union trying to negotiate a deal or us negotiating with the Big Ten or Cal Ripken trying to negotiate a contract. You could use it in any kind of scenario. That’s why he’s been successful.”

“What you see is for real. Some people in their private dealings with others are impossible to deal with. The private Ron is the same as the public Ron. There are not two Ron Shapiros.”

“There’s no way we’d be close to where we are without him. He’s giving. He connects emotionally with what we’re trying to do. He’s tough, but fair. He’s got lots of demands on his time, but whenever he can say yes he does. That’s such a great lesson to all of us.”

“I always had an appreciation for my dad as a father, but it was as I got more responsibility that I came to appreciate what he’s accomplished. There is no accident to his success. He is driven. Disciplined. Focused. A masterful communicator. And yet he has never compromised his values.”