A tuna fish sandwich. And a cold can of Coke.
In 1981, when a young Cal Ripken Jr. was casting about for just the right sports agent to negotiate his future with the Baltimore Orioles, he was wined and dined and dazzled from one end of the country to the other — until he met up with Ron Shapiro.
Shapiro, an attorney-agent from Baltimore who already represented several of Ripken’s teammates, invited the future Hall of Famer to his office for lunch. No limos. No entertainment. No fancy restaurants. No paparazzi.
Just a wrapped tuna sandwich and a can of Coke, laid out on the table in Shapiro’s office.
Before lunch was over, the deal was signed.
“And people think you have to have flash and dash to be a sports agent,” Shapiro said.
One of baseball’s most respected and successful agents, Shapiro was in Muskegon Thursday night to give a special lecture on baseball — and other art forms disguised as sports and negotiation skills — at the Muskegon Museum of Art. His speech was part of the ongoing exhibition, “We Are The Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball,” original paintings by Kadir Nelson, on display through March 13.
Shapiro (pronounced Shap-EYE-ro) was invited to speak by Joseph Schulze, the former Muskegon Public Schools superintendent, who has been an integral part of the art exhibit framed his talk. The two attended Haverford College, just outside Philadelphia together, in the early 1960s before Shapiro went to Harvard Law School.
Shapiro insists he never aspired to be in baseball, and yet, he has represented more Hall of Famers than any other agent. He was the ninth sports agent on the scene in 1975 when baseball players were given the right to be free agents.
“The ninth one,” Shapiro said Thursday night. “Now there are more agents than there are players.”
During his career, he’s negotiated more than a billion dollars in contracts for a who’s-who of sports celebrities, including five Hall of Famers: Ripken, Jim Palmer, Brooks Robinson, Kirby Puckett and Eddie Murray. He also represents Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer, who just signed an eight-year $184 million contract.
Shapiro has gained a reputation as a “win-win” negotiator.
“I don’t do adversarial, kick ‘em in the teeth negotiations,” he told the audience gathered in the art museum’s auditorium.
“In order to get what you want, help (the other guys) get what they want,” he said.
In 2008, Shapiro wrote “Dare to Prepare: How to Win Before You Begin” which made it onto the New York Times Best Seller List.
“Negotiations is not about talk,” he said. “It’s about listening.”
He has handled corporate and securities law matters, and negotiated everything from corporate disputes to an orchestra strike — but his reputation is built on baseball.
“Circumstance got me into baseball,” Shapiro said, adding his is a story of “luck and circumstance.”
Actually, it sort of started in Fenway Park’s bathrooms. When
Shapiro was earning his way through Harvard Law School, he went to the legendary Boston Red Sox ballfield and applied for a job. He was “handed a bucket and told to clean the latrines.”
But when a member of the ground crew was ill, Shapiro stepped in for him. Later, he filled a vacancy in the press room where he served members of the Kennedy family and high-powered officials.
“I heard them debate whether the World Series should be played at night,” he said.
Shapiro sprinkled personal anecdotes throughout his speech, reflecting on a 40-year career, looking at how the game of baseball has changed since the days of Negro League Baseball.
In 1947, when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier and signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers — the first black man to make it in the majors — he earned $600 a week. In the 1980s, Shapiro was able to negotiate a contract for $3 million a year for Kirby Puckett of the Minnesota Twins.
“In this imperfect nation of ours, things got a little bit better,” he said.
But Shapiro is worried about baseball: the sport, the business, the future. He’s especially worried about how few African-Americans play — and watch — the game.
In 1970, 23 percent of the players in Major League Baseball were African-American. By 1975, the number peaked at 30 percent. Today, that number has slumped to 9 percent.
“We aren’t reaching the kids,” he said. “Baseball is competing in an age of high-speed sports. That’s the nature of sports today. ... and it’s the slowest televised sport in the world.”
Shapiro was on a panel recently at Haverford College, talking about how to appeal to the next generation of baseball fans.
“We may have to make some fundamental rule changes,” he said Thursday night. “The challenge is how to produce a good show and a great game.”
“We Are The Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball,” which will be in Muskegon only eight more days, has had “a remarkable” run, Hayner said. Attendance reached 5,980 from its opening on Jan. 13 through the end of February. In addition, 2,500 students will see the show before it closes March 13.