Thursday, June 12, 2008

Jesus Told Josh Hamilton To Fire His Agent

Matt Sosnick, player-agent and the subject of Jerry Crasnik's License to Deal was recently canned by Josh Hamilton. Our friend Jason at IIATMS wrote about this last week. Today, Sosnick called Jason:
Matt was calling to thank me for my posting and support in the face of his abrupt and baseless firing. He doesn't so much care about his public perception, like any good agent, but the rationale and timing about his dismissal clearly bothered him and his partner, Paul Cobbe. The Sosnick-Cobbe firm has a handsome list of MLB players, but is really just a smaller player in the agent business so a loss of a guy like Hamilton (and his pending commissions) hurts not just on a professional level, but a personal one, too. Maybe moreso . . . Matt shared with me that Hamilton called him and told him he had a dream that "Jesus told him to switch agents."
Jason then fires off some righteous indignation at the way some of these guys get cast aside as their players climb the ladder towards bigger and bigger paydays. I don't know the details of the whole Hamilton-Sosnick affair -- maybe there's a whole subtext we know nothing about -- but Jason was left with the impression that he was talking to victim of a highway robbery, and from what I've read, I have no reason to say he's wrong.

The lesson: It's rough out there for a ten-percenter.

8 comments:

Jason @ IIATMS said...

For the record, Matt could not have been nicer, more approachable. He spoke with me as if we were longtime buddies. He shared maybe more than he should but I think that's a windown into how he deals with his clients.

Anonymous said...

nothing like trading one bs addiction for another

Ron Rollins said...

Isn't Jesus a 10-percenter also.

Anonymous said...

you hit the nail on the head anon (other)

Anonymous said...

I'm torn on this one. I will say up front that I'm a devout Christian, so you can take my comment for what it's worth.

On the one side, it’s very possible that Hamilton had a moment of spiritual epiphany. I know some people will, but having had those experiences myself, I am not willing to dismiss it entirely.

However, none of my spiritual epiphanies have ever resulted in someone completely getting the shaft like Matt Sosnick did. When God tells you to do stuff like this, there’s a reason. God does not work arbitrarily. If Hamilton came out and said why this change had to be made, that would go a long way toward validating his story. Especially in a case like this where the intuitive thing is that God would want to bless Sosnick for his effort in helping Hamilton, you’d think there is a clear reason.

I’m not sure “bs addiction” is quite the proper label for this. If Hamilton’s lying about his dream, it’s greed or ingratiousness. If he’s not lying, it’s his relationship with God, and I hope Sosnick is blessed in ways that he doesn’t foresee at this point.

bigcatasroma said...

Daniel, I believe it was because of a Jew/Christian thing, that was reported a week or so ago. I have no idea . . .

What I do know is:
1. Religion never has anything to do with making more money, otherwise a "devout Christian" would SURELY remember his Bible and not use belief as a reason to
a. Put someone out of a job
b. Become one of those Temple money changers a devout Christian so despises.

2. Of all the BS praise that goes towards J Hamilton, I mean, c'mon. Look, it's great, he's sober. He's not going to die of withdraw, and not draining a welfare system for morphine or something. I get it. But he didn't solve world peace, he didn't bring oil prices down, and polio has already been cured:
a. There are tens of thousands of people like him, who end up either dead, forgotten, or sober, but none get praise.
b. As per a Keith Law chat the other day, J Hamilton is "praiseworthy," but Barry Bonds is scum???

And we think we don't have a race issue in this country . . .

Unknown said...

One point that may not have anything to do with anything...like many addicts, Hamilton turned to faith to help him out. Of course, this is one of the basic tenets of many programs, including AA (the whole 'higher power' thing...I always wonder if this means that athiests aren't allowed to join).

Let's face it, a LOT of people use religion as a crutch to get through difficulty, and a lot of people also use religion to absolve themselves of all responsibility in their lives (which is really missing the point, read the Book again, people!). But in the case of addiction, it can be the only thing that gets some people straight (especially if they are very weak willed).

Of course, most of those programs also have a 'step' that involves making things right with people whom you have misused...one would hope that would mean that you no longer do that as well...

Anonymous said...

just my 2 cents on religion, but it is best in terms of bringing people together at times of tragedy and when one has really nowhere else to look, it can give them the will to move on, but also it seems like an organized attempt to take your money by making you believe in many things that are unproven, you basically give your loyalty, faith, and money