As a free agent, he earned millions of dollars in salary for his players. His clients include Sammy Sosa, Ken Griffey and Dock Ellis.
Tom Reich, a player agent, became one of the most powerful figures in baseball when negotiating multimillion-dollar contracts in the 1970s and 1980s. For many of the early free agent game superstars, he died in Los Angeles on Friday. He was 82 years old.
His wife PK Fields Reich said the cause was pancreatic cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
Mr. Reich (pronounced RICH), a native of Pittsburgh, graduated from the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne Law School, served as a clerk for federal judges, and then opened a corporate law firm îne, Sam.
Although Mr. Reich is a determined businessman, he has always been passionate about sports. He recalled in an interview with LI News Radio on Long Island in 2019: “When I was a little boy in Pittsburgh, I had always been a fan of them, and they were a losing team.”
When did it start? In 1969, Mr. Reich met the pirate pitcher Dock Ellis, when baseball’s long-term retention clause tied players to their team until they were traded, sold, or released.
Ellis, a handsome pitcher, was ultimately best known for claiming that he was affected by LSD when he hit the San Diego Padres in June 1970, and that he was dissatisfied with the management of the Buccaneers. Mr. Reich said he would negotiate his next contract for free.
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In addition to’Ellis, Mr. Reich has represented the pirates Dave Parker, Manny Sanguilen, Al Oliver and John Candelaria as well as Joe Morgan, George Foster and Ken Griffey of the Cincinnati Reds.
When Peter Seitz arrived, players and agents ushered in a period of prosperity. The arbitrator of baseball ownership disputes and the players union ruled after the end of the 1975 season that the retention clause in each player’s contract only created “one-year renewal rights.” , Not a permanent right required by the owner.
Since his first clients were mainly blacks and Latinos, Mr. Reich became the agent of choice for many minority players, including JR Richard, a young and powerful pitcher for the Houston Astros.
After the 1979 season, Mr. Reich persuaded Tal Smith, general manager of the Astros, to give Richard a new five-year contract with a basic annual salary of $200,000 plus bonuses.
But a few weeks later, another famous agent, Dick Moss, prompted the Astros owner John McMullen to give the Los Angeles Angels’ Nolan Ryan, the future Hall of Famer With the most intimidating pitcher in baseball, he signed a three-year free agent contract with the Astros, each with a guaranteed amount of $1 million.
“At that moment Reich heard about the deal with Ryan, he called Smith and started yelling at him until GM agreed to renegotiate JR Richard,” John Helyar wrote in “The Lord” (1994) , His story about the business
A few weeks after the deal with Richard was reached, Mr. Reich and astronaut Smith met McMullen, and McMullen agreed to provide Richard with a guarantee of US$800,000 per year for four years. Richard had a car accident v In July 1980, the cerebrovascular system fired again. But the money is his.
In February 1982, Mr. Reich negotiated with the Mets a five-year contract worth at least $10 million for George Foster and the Mets. The average annual amount is second only to Dave Winfield of the Yankees. . Mr. Reich’s other clients include Sammy Sosa, Mo Vaughn and Jack Clark. Reich is a recognizable figure in baseball circles because his curly beard extends to his curly hair, and he also started playing hockey in the late 1980s. His NHL is the most famous. The client was Mario Lemieux, the star of the Pittsburgh Penguins. He represented him as a player and then led him to become part of the team’s owner with businessman Ron Burkel, thus saving the financially troubled team.
Mr. Reich’s brother Sam defended many cases that have entered arbitration proceedings. The still-existing arrangement adopted during the offseason of 1973-74, in which players who did not qualify as free agents could be exchanged with management after reaching a specified number of major leagues. Salary recommendations. The arbitrator chooses between two numbers.In many arbitration cases, Sam Reich relies on data
Bill James
The data provided represents the player’s defense of his case. Tom Reich believes that this has been over for many years, and the best player as a free agent has received a good salary, so it has become more difficult to bring an overwhelming case in arbitration. “The people negotiating for the team are very sophisticated now,” he said in 2019.
Thomas Reich was born on March 15, 1939. His father was Jack and Esther Landau Reich. His father owns a marketing business and a furniture business.His mother helps young people
In addition to his third wife PK Fields Reich and brother Sam, Mr. Reich’s survivors also include his daughter Shannon Reich married to his second wife Judy Coy; his son-in-law Zachary and Montgomery Qi Montgomery Zimmerman comes from his marriage to Mrs. Fields Reich and a granddaughter. After he married his first wife, Carole Davis Reich, his son David died in 2019.His two previous marriages were
In a radio interview two years ago, Mr. Reich noticed how “when I started, players had no rights-until the time of Marvin Miller.”
“I need to take a sedative to discuss the unfairness of his absence from the Hall of Fame,” he said.
Mr. Miller changed the landscape of baseball by fighting for the rights of executive directors of the union for players from 1966 to 1982.
Died in November 201 2.
After being rejected by Hall many times, he was finally selected for the Cooperstown 2020 class.
