[majormet]

Al Stanton is not exactly a household name in baseball circles. A former small business owner from Queens who ran a predictive analytics business for 20 plus years on Long Island. Now at 54, Al has cashed out of his business and has become a sports agent. How does this type of career change take place?

It all started with AAU basketball in the late 2000s with Al's son Harris. Harris was a good point guard and played well on the city circuit but Harris got bored with the game. At the same time, Al was the general manager of the AAU team which had some great national success. He was able to take a lot of kids from broken homes and sponsor them as they became known to college scouts. The players that came out of his program mostly got division one scholarships and as they graduated from college, they turned to Al to help them.

NBA basketball is much harder to get noticed, but the real money was in European markets. He placed at least 4 of the players in various European leagues and became the agent for those players. Al enjoyed the gratification that being an agent brought to the table, and sold his business which was providing statistical and forecasting analysis for mail order companies.

One of the connection Al made over the years was with his old alma mater Hofstra. Al was a benchwarmer being a 6'2 power forward in the mid 1980's but never lost his love for sports, at the same time he used Hofstra as his "go to" to hire young statistical minds to work in his business. One of his former classmates, Kevin Gonzalez who now was the coach of the baseball team, recommended that he look into a young outfielder named Tate Redinger.

Al's first thought was, what the f**## do I know about baseball. But he met with Tate and recognized that Tate was a kid with heavy focus and as he watched more video and got to know Tate, he felt that he could help him, after all, Tate just needed to get good enough to get drafted.

The Long Island Ducks were holding a tryout and today was the day that Al was to meet with Tate, they were meeting at a trendy pizza place called Crust out in Southampton.

Tate was late and Al was sitting in his Range Rover blasting music out of his system and singing along "I don't need to save my soul... he's already in me...I wanna be Adored"

"Wow what kind of music is that" said Tate as he pulled up next to Al's car.

"Son that is the beginning of shoegazing music you have to listen to the Stone Roses, they were ensconced in time, that Manchester sound, you can't beat it.... now all you guys listen to is that ambient sound music and DJ's"

Tate laughed "Well you got me there, but good music still comes out today, you ever hear of the Winnetka Bowling League"

"OK that ain't half bad, that song CVS kind of derivative, so what are you up to this week"

"Been at the batting cage, watching film... do you really think I can make it in the big leagues after a year off" Tate inquired.

Al shrugged and put his hands up "Heck if I know I don't know baseball that much but 1200 players get selected in 20 rounds and there are 60 major league teams. I think you just have to get drafted and then it is negotiating after that"

They entered the restaurant and got a small seat in the back. This was the first week now in April 2021 that you did not need a mask to enter a restaurant

"I am telling you after over a year of these masks, I am starting to think women's lips are like private parts and that masks were the G-strings of the Covid era"

Tate laughed at the observation.

"Seriously did you ever noticed how some women look great from the nose up" Al was recently divorced after a 23 year marriage and was like a rabbit out of a cage.

"Bro, you kill me. The 2020's take buttaface to a new level. But what do you think, is it worth it for me to play on the Ducks. I mean their ace pitcher was a guy that works as a janitor at the Mercedes dealership"

Al looked hard at Tate and wondered what it would be like to be young and less hardened by the world. "Look if I were in your shoes.. I would value any chance to get be seen. Draft position is more volatile than a blackjack table at Foxwoods on a Saturday night. From what I see you have to have a place where scouts will see you. They just can't keep watching Hofstra highlights and form opinions off of that. They need to see that you stay in shape and crap like that"

"So did I make the team"

Al laughed "You are asking me if you made the team with the janitor ace, isn't that like asking Joaquin Phoenix if he was able to land the role of Willie Loman in a Paduch local theater production of Death of a salesman"

"I guess but in this world and this time period nothing ever makes sense, so what is my protocol" Tate wondered

"Kid it is simple you just have to report to Islip next week and you will be a Duck"

Tate nodded his head "Man I may disagree with you on this, something tells me my life would be better delivering Doordash"

"Doordash!!!! Sending Lobster rolls to young Brooklyn hipsters at 2AM that sounds like hell"

Tate laughed "I will be calling you on the road if they have me room with the janitor"

Al came back quickly with "at least your room will be clean, never met a messy janitor"

Both men then moved on to small talk and the next move is getting at bats in.