Steve Herz

More than three dozen suspected thieves have been cleaning out Manhattan health clubs, busting locks and snatching cash and valuables as victims work out, the NYPD says.

Victims include sports agent Steve Herz, who reps Mets GM Omar Minaya and whose $7,000 Panerai diving watch was swiped from the Reebok Sports Club on Columbus Avenue in May. [NYPost.com]

Good luck getting that watch back!  By the way, readers, IF Management has a very impressive list of News & Entertainment and Sports Broadcasting & Marketing clients.  Not all agents restrict themselves to representing professional athletes.  If you want to look into a different type of agency, I suggest taking a peek at IF Management’s website.

One company that has been particularly generous to Dynasty is America’s Bat Company.  The first step in building a relationship with the company was to have our clients test out their products.  It is important that new relationships are built with an understand of the quality of product being exchanged.  America’s Bat Company was willing to send many of our position players with a free bat (maple or ash – the choice of our players) to see if they enjoy the product.  Our boys just received their bats and will be testing them out now and in Spring Training.

What I really enjoy about America’s Bat Company are their competitive pricing and immense number of options.  There are a lot of models to choose from and multiple colors for each bat.

I hope that our clients enjoy the bats that have been provided to them.  We have some very talented position players and we are in talks to bring a few more guys into the fold.  I will report back with what our guys think of the product and hopefully will be able to announce some individual player deals with America’s Bat Company in the future.  At this point, I already heard from Tommy Johnson, who revealed that he is enjoying the bat he received.

So what exactly is the Motorola Endeavor HX1?  Don’t like the name fool you, this “endeavor” is the size of my thumb.  It happens to be the most comfortable, best audio, most non-douche-looking earpiece I have ever experienced in my life.  Since bluetooth earpieces hit the market, I have been one of its most stringent non-supporters.  Every time I talk to my mother and she is wearing her earpiece, I make her turn it off and call me back.  The quality is that bad.  But not with the Motorola Endeavor HX1.  Everyone hears me better than when I actually talk right into the phone.  And the quality on my end is outstanding.  Somehow, I even get better service in my own room (where I am known to drop quite a few calls), when I am wearing the earpiece.

My absolute favorite part about the Motorola Endeavor HX1, is that it fits my ear.  I have never been able to use Apple’s ear-buds.  I can’t wear any type of headphones that does not have some sort of apparatus that goes around my head.  I had no control over the size of my ear holes when I was born, but for some reason nothing ever fits in them…except for the Motorola Endeavor HX1.  And they take it a step further.  In the package, there is an additional attachment in case you have a different ear hole size than me.

The Motorola Endeavor HX1 is an excellent accessory for anybody that is constantly on the go.  Sports agents are traveling all the time…to the airport, to catch a game, to the office, to the gym, etc.  Athletes are always on the move as well.  Traveling from city to city to play their games.  And we are all very busy people.  Snap the Motorola Endeavor HX1 in your ear and life suddenly becomes much easier to manage.  An added feature is that the headset is a charm at noise cancellation, so if you are in a noise spot, the caller on the other end will only hear your voice.  And I promise, this headset does not scream “douchebag” like many competing products on the market.

For the official fact sheet and another picture of the headset, click here.

If you are interested in having your product reviewed on this website, please contact us for further information.

Are the NFL and its member teams a single entity or do all teams act in a joint venture (similar to a partnership)?  The NFL wants the Supremes to hold that the teams and the NFL as a whole, is a single entity for all purposes and exempt from Section 1, not just in the licensing of intellectual property.  American Needle wants the Court to hold that the teams do not act as a single entity, and should not be restrained from trade under Section 1 of the Antitrust Act.

I tried to wrap up the case in one paragraph, which obviously did not do justice to the breadth of the issue.  So luckily for everyone, one of our favorite Sports Law professors, Michael McCann, has put together a law review note to appear in a future edition of the Yale Law Journal.

The United State Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit has held that the NFL and its teams operate as a single entity when it comes to apparel sales.  Unless the U.S. Supreme Court reverses that decision, the holding will serve as solid precedent.  McCann believes that the Court should reverse and reject the NFL’s single entity defense.  As McCann notes in Part IV., A Recommendation to the United States Supreme Court,

The Court should reject a general availability of the single entity defense for professional sports leagues. Those leagues, however, should retain an opportunity to obtain exemption from section 1 in limited and carefully-defined circumstances.

Give the paper a read.  Do you agree?

How many guys do you know who can pull of the blue double breasted now-a-days?  The guy is dead sexy.  You need to vote Dildy.

And when the ladies are not staring at Tracy, Kareem is stopping people in their shoes.  Look how focused his player is on that grey suit.  Forget the play, that outfit is stunning, coach!

Waste no more time.  Submit your votes for Didly and Richardson.  Let’s get two from Dynasty into the Fashionable 4!  Click here to cast your vote for Dildy and Richardson.

Bryant, who already has deals with Coca-Cola Co. and Nike Inc., is now teaming up with Madrid-born watch-maker Ivan Castro to sell a Kobe-inspired line of Swiss watches for Nubeo, The Wall Street Journal reports.

A limited number of watches in The Black Mamba series will be produced with a reference to Bryant’s nickname. The high-end time pieces will range from $21,000 to $285,000 across three different versions: standard, ultimate, and MVP. There will be 810 standard version watches released, 240 of the ultimate, and 24 MVP watches with the two higher models adorned with a varying amount of black sapphires. The 810 release number is a reference to the 81 points Bryant scored against the Toronto Raptors in January 2006 and the 240 and 24 release numbers both allude to Bryant’s jersey number.

The line will hit the U.S. market in the fall, which will also be Nubeo’s first American appearance, coming at a time when global luxury consumption continues to drop. The company, though, is planning a series of print and TV ads that will run around the release date. The partnership between Bryant and Nubeo will extend until 2010, with the option to continue beyond that year.

Bryant, a watch enthusiast himself, has taken an involved stance in influencing the watch’s design. He feels that there are similarities between the watch and Bryant’s on-court play, in that there are many unseen intricacies.

Whether the line will find success remains to be seen, but Bryant’s partnership with a luxury item, which generally remains reserved for tennis and golf stars, proves his worth as a marketable athlete. Bryant has made a huge comeback following the trial of his accused felony sexual assault charge which saw Kobe lose many of his endorsements.

Bryant continues to make his mark as a trendsetter. How an NBA player’s influence will affect a declining luxury market is something to watch for and could dictate future deals for the international superstar.

Stephenson, a guard for Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, which is known for producing stars such as Stephon Marbury and Sebastian Telfair, is the ninth-ranked prospect in the class of 2009 according to Rivals.com.

Some insight into his recruiting situation first comes with the fact that Lincoln is an Adidas-sponsored program, but this arrangement doesn’t stop Stephenson from sporting his Nike produced Air Jordans each game. Despite his loyalty, Stephenson was not asked to participate in the Jordan Brand Classic at Madison Square Garden on April 18, some believe due to Lincoln’s deal with Adidas.

Stephenson’s recruiting trail heats up when his prospective schools are considered. The 6-foot-5 blue-chip prospect is considering St. John’s (a Nike school), Kansas (an Adidas school), and Maryland (an Under Armour school).

Recently, Stephenson’s shoe-deal entwined courtship became more muddled when he visited the Maryland campus and was given a tour of the Under Armour site, which is owned and operated by former Maryland football player and current Board of Trustee’s member, Kevin Plank. The Washington Post first broke the story of this potential recruiting violation and the school has been investigating.

It has been rumored that some top players may have been advised to consider Maryland because of the school’s ties with Under Armour, according to a source close to the situation.

Plank plans to unveil his line of basketball shoes in 2010, but has been building relationships with high school athletes that have been targeted as potential representatives of the product line, including Stephenson. Lincoln has also “wear-tested” several Under Armour products. Currently, Under Armour has deals with over 70 collegiate programs, including Auburn, Texas Tech, and South Florida, in addition to Maryland.

To say Stephenson will base the majority of his decision on the shoes a school wears is preposterous, but clearly it will be some-what of a factor in his choice, which says a lot about the current state of recruiting and the effects of school’s ties to company sponsorships. Many “one-and-done” basketball players may want to lock up a potential shoe deal early on, potentially having an immense impact on the recruiting process.

Stephenson is still looking at schools and has said he could announce his college commitment on March 21 after the PSAL championship game, which Lincoln has won the past three years, but his answer to where he will play in college may already be laced up.

Garrett is the founder of iFungo.com, which boasts “We Sell Pro Equipment”, prominently on its home page.  If you play the game of baseball or represent a baseball player, this site has it all.  Bags, gloves, bats, sunglasses, and more.  And almost every brand you can think of is listed on the site.  It is easy to use and the prices seem to be very competitive.

There are a couple of things to take away from Garrett’s story.

1. As an agent, you must prepare your client, even if he is drafted as high as the 2nd round, for life after his/her sport.  All it takes is one injury to end your client’s career.  What then?  Will he/she be ready to enter the world that the rest of us have to survive in?
2. There are opportunities out there for the well-known athletes and those who never make it to the peak of their sport.  Garrett is a perfect example.

I am going to go ahead and throw something out there that I doubt will be viewed favorably by most of the Sports Agent Blog’s readers.

America’s fascination with sports is severely sick and twisted.

Set fire to the stake, assemble the tar and feathers and send me straight to the guillotine, for I have finally said it!  America has a sick and demented obsession with their sports.

And believe me loyal readers, I say this with full admission of my own dependent addiction to the games and players that fill the void and act as an escape from the realities of my life.  I mean isn’t that what all drugs are meant to do?  Fill the emptiness of one’s life while simultaneously giving a glimpse of happiness and offering momentary escape through synthetic pleasure?

So if that is the case, then by the sports fans own admission, we are all metaphorical drug addicts.  Addicted to the perfect game, the next score, the championship, the players, the idea of next year and ultimately the feeling that even though we give our all to being a fan, the simple act of being a fan cannot control destiny.  Yes, America, as mentioned above, our obsession is a sick and twisted love affair, and we are all hopeless romantics.

With that being said, if sports are our drug, then Alex Rodriguez is most defiantly our heroin.

The most dangerous, addictive and mysterious drug there is, users have been known to go into shock and withdrawal when they do not have it until it finally gives them that feeling of bliss when it is once again reintroduced into their system.  If this horrid account of addiction doesn’t describe the juxtaposition of the public’s desire and the media’s coverage of the embattled Yankee third basemen, then nothing ever will.

For the record, my knowledge of this drug does not exceed multiple viewings of the films Trainspotting, Pulp Fiction, and Requiem for A Dream, all great films which show the perverse side of this terrible affliction.  But the correlation is all the same.  In the same way a junkie cooks up and prepares his next hit, the sports fan secretly wishes and waits for A-Rod to make his next slip up so they can call and cry into their favorite radio show, type a hateful comment on their fan message board or create that perfect blog entry.  You know the one.  It’s filled with just the right amount of statistics, sass and hate that will hopefully be that magical post that finally gets you discovered!

Am I defending A-Rod’s actions?  Absolutely not.  What he did was deplorable and an insult to the game of baseball.  I don’t care if this was the “culture of the time” in Major League Baseball,  Alex should have known that his raw talent and natural ability would be more than enough to break a plethora of records and walk right into the halls of Cooperstown.  If that wasn’t reason enough then he should have known that these drugs were illegal under federal mandates of the United States of America which Congress banned with the implementation of Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act in the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 1990.

Plain and simple, A-Rod was wrong.  He tarnished his legacy as well the purity and sanctity of the game of baseball.  Of all the steroid users, abusers and accusers, this admission in particular, is going to be the hardest to swallow as Alex Rodriguez represented the exception.  His superhuman statistics in conjunction with the pace that he has acquired them gave us hope that there was actually someone out there who could have achieved these things naturally and by the grace of G-d.

But this isn’t just one of your run-of-the-mill baseball players, this is the superstar of all superstars.  This man is so transcendent of the game of baseball that his divorce, celebrity dating habits and exploitations with muscular, Canadian strippers get front page coverage on several different days.  Predicted to not only surpass the home run record, but completely obliterate it, this is a man who can cause a 2 day discussion on the merits of saying “HA!” while rounding third base and draw merciless mockery after attempting to slap a ball out of a glove.  I MEAN, THIS IS A MAN who could quite possibly go down as the greatest right handed hitter in the history of baseball, but whose accomplishments, stellar play and unprecedented work ethic go overshadowed causing an entire stadium to boo because he decided to take his shirt off on a nice day while playing with his daughter in Central Park…

If a shirt can cause that much disdain and unwarranted discussion in the A-Rod crazed,  infatuated eyes of the public, he will never be able to publicly survive a steroid scandal.

And even though he has come clean and apologized, the fact that the American public has been nothing less then obsessed with this man since 2001, will only add to the scrutiny he will receive. From the talking heads on ESPN to the college kid blogging in his dorm and even to the housewife chatting it up with her girlfriends over a game of Mahjong, The Sports Nation will find their next fix in their addiction to A-Rod by knocking him off the proverbial pedestal.

This past Monday on his blog, Peter Abraham jokingly insinuated that Alex Rodriguez could single handily save the doomed newspaper industry.  He certainly has a point.  As long as A-Rod continues to live and breathe on Planet Earth, the masses are going to want to read articles on him using up too much oxygen.

It’s A-Rod’s world and we are all just addicted to it.  Am I a hypocrite for writing this and feeding into the very same issue I lampooned?  I sure am.

I can’t help it.  I’m addicted…

Professional firearm training is important for individuals that constantly find themselves in positions where their lives are in danger.  That is why it is understandable that all American diplomats get such training before starting their work in foreign countries.  There have been many attacks/planned attacks on American embassies overseas.  But what about professional athletes?  Are their lives so threatened that professional firearm training should be suggested to them?  Apparently, there is a market to train said athletes, even though up to this point, no athletes have signed up for the service.

Blackwater Worldwide has four locations within the United States; however, the athlete training program will take place in April at its Moyock, North Carolina compound.  The company cites the Plaxico incident and Sean Taylor’s death as reasons why the program is necessary for professional athletes.  I am not sure how Taylor’s death is applicable.  And yes, if Plaxico knew how to handle a gun correctly, he might have not shot himself.  But should professional athletes be carrying guns at all, especially if they have bodyguards with them?

Blackwater is a trusted company in the professional firearm training and safety community, but I am just not so sure that making the trip to Moyock, NC for a session is necessarily worth it for a player.  Additionally, I am not positive that I believe we should be promoting that athletes carry firearms on their person all the time.  In the heat of the moment, no matter what kind of training you have, you could use bad judgment and let the gun off in a club.  Why have that additional responsibility in your pocket?

“I don’t see any negative in learning more,” said Bob Myers, a sports agent with Los Angeles-based WMG, who estimated that up to half of the 14 NBA players he represents have guns and has at times suggested they seek out training in how to safely use and store them. “I certainly don’t think you can get enough training in that respect.”

I’ll agree with Bob that if your client is already carrying a gun around, you might as well promote this program to him.  But if your client has no intention of ever carrying around a gun for protection, I am not sure that pitching Blackwater to him is a great idea.