Mark Pieper started his career as a baseball agent in the 1990s at Bronner & Gilhooley, a firm that subsequently was acquired by the old SFX Sports. In the summer of 2012, the baseball practice was acquired by movie studio Relativity Media as part of its launch of Relativity Sports. Pieper is CEO of Relativity Baseball, an agency that represents more than 70 major leaguers, including Madison Bumgarner, Yordano Ventura, Nelson Cruz, Miguel Cabrera, Justin Verlander and retired pitcher Mariano Rivera.
“
When I first started, I think I had a pager and people would have to page me, and I would have to pull over to a pay phone and call them. Now, with text messaging and cellphones everywhere, we can do work from everywhere, including on the plane. We are just more involved in every aspect of [player clients’] lives to the extent that they want us or need us to be.”
 |
Photo by: RELATIVITY SPORTS
|
About the free agent market: One of the biggest trends is the dollars: the amount of contract dollars, the length and the guarantee. Even within our own firm, you look at the [$292 million] contract that Fern [Cuza] and Diego [Bentz] did for Miguel Cabrera: If I think back 10, 15 years ago, I would not imagine people would be signing contracts of $300 million and upwards of $300 million.
The state of the business: The people who are making these decisions on the team side, they are businessmen, so if they didn’t think they could afford it or they didn’t think it was a wise business decision, they wouldn’t be doing it. ... The dollars are there because the revenue is there from the teams.
Challenges: The media involvement in what we do is so intense and is so different now from when we started. The need to get information out there, get it out there quickly, and be the first to get it out there — that’s a constant battle for us because, essentially, you kind of end up as an agent having to battle through negotiating in the media.
About Relativity Media: We are able to kind of create and do what we want, so if there is a player we want to pitch for an ad for a commercial for movies, we are able to do that.
Story he’s watching: Concussions: It hit me personally because I have Brian Roberts and Justin Morneau [as clients]. I went from knowing very little about concussions to a lot about concussions. ... Because they don’t have crutches or a cast on or anything, it’s hard for people to understand why they are out for so long. They don’t look any different, but believe me, they feel different. And they have to hear stories in the media about ‘Why are they not back out there?’ or questioning their ability or drive or their ability to get back out on the field, and it’s a very, very debilitating thing.
