'The Boras Bunch: Tigers Built a Winner on More Than a Hunch'--NY Times

'Now Leyland is the manager for three star players represented by Boras, who is considered the most powerful agent in baseball. In each of the past three winters, Boras has directed a different client to Detroit.

The Tigers, the team Boras helped sculpt, will face the Cardinals, the team that never promoted him past Class AA, in Game 1 of the World Series at Comerica Park on Saturday.

The Tigers have rested for a week; the Cardinals took until Thursday to finish off the Mets in New York.

It was a proud moment for Boras, who has played the team architect role before, with different results. The Los Angeles Dodgers never reached the playoffs after trying to build a rotation around Kevin Brown and Darren Dreifort, who were Boras clients. Two others, Alex Rodriguez and Chan Ho Park, could not help the Texas Rangers win.

• But this time, Boras’s strategy worked. The Tigers grew a core of talented young players, traded for reliable veterans like Carlos Guillén and Plácido Polanco, and the team owner Mike Ilitch supported that group by signing the Boras All-Stars.

(About his clients, Boras says,).. "the attitude, commitment, talent and ability will be there.’ ”

(For starters, Kevin Brown had a lousy attitude, no commitment, no talent and no ability when he stole the money from the Yankee fan. sm)

In a meeting with Ordóñez and Boras at a country club near Miami, Ilitch reached into his pocket and pulled out a Stanley Cup championship ring. He told Ordóñez that the one ring he always wanted was the one in baseball. Ordóñez, who had played eight years for the Chicago White Sox, was entranced.

“When the owner does that to you, he’s committed to you,” Ordóñez said.

The money behind that commitment was staggering: $75 million for five years, or about 5 million large Super Deluxe pizzas at Ilitch’s chain, Little Caesar’s.

Because Ordóñez had been recovering from a serious knee injury, the deal seemed to be another example of a desperate owner under the spell of a smooth-talking agent. Even Ordóñez admitted he was not expecting such a huge contract, which can grow to $105 million for seven years if he stays healthy.

• (WAIT--I HEAR EVERY DAY IT'S ONLY THE YANKEES WHO CAN AFFORD TO TAKE RECUPERATING PLAYERS AND WAIT IT OUT FOR THEM???)sm

“I was surprised, but I’m glad we did it,” Ordóñez said. “It was a really good deal for me and the team. It’s paid off.”

“The biggest part is he’s so prepared,” said the backup catcher Vance Wilson.

“There hasn’t been a whole lot of preparation with the pitchers that last couple of years. You don’t want to bash who was in here, but we didn’t have pitchers’ meetings and stuff like that.

• (WHAT? NO PITCHERS' MEETINGS? FOR YEARS WE HEARD IT WAS PUDGE WHO WOULDN'T GO TO THE PITCHERS' PREP MEETINGS. sm)

It is a team effort, after all, and though Boras is certainly not part of the team, his imprint is all over it. He brokered a sense of trust between an owner and his players. Ilitch kept putting up the money, and the players have rewarded him."

• (This is a sickening example of sportswriting. The writer barely mentions the numerous very bad and career-damaging deals Boras has "brokered").

From an article by Tyler Kepner, the NY Times, 10/21/06

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