AN AGENT WITHOUT A CLAUSE : Prospects Are Good for Kevin Jacobson, Who Plays This Field Without All the Legal Jargon

When Oakland A’s rookie Mike Warren pitched a no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox in 1983, Kevin Jacobson’s reaction was a mixture of fantasy and reality.

Knocking in the winning run or preserving the no-hitter with a dazzling play at third base was Jacobson’s wish. He had played third in back of Warren in Class-A ball at Modesto three years before, so the fantasy wasn’t far-fetched.

In reality, Jacobson backed Warren with his brain instead of his bat or glove. The 26-year-old was Warren’s agent, and he used the no-hitter as a bargaining chip in contract negotiations the following year.

Two years later, Jacobson, 28, would still rather be battling on a ball field than bantering with executives over contracts. But the intensity with which the Thousand Oaks man played the game has been redirected into his new career.

“All I wanted was to be a big league ballplayer,” Jacobson said. “I never got there. Now, no matter how long it takes, I’m going to be the best agent around.”

Jacobson doesn’t have a college degree or a law background, but the players he represents say he holds his own in contract negotiations.

“It doesn’t bother me that Kevin isn’t an attorney,” said Craig Gerber, a California Angels rookie and Jacobson client. “He has excellent contacts and is really organized. One conversation with him and you can tell he won’t be intimidated in negotiations.”

The Mercedes-Benz that Jacobson says he’ll be driving may be a long way down the road, however.

His five major league clients--the Angels’ Stu Cliburn, Tony Mack and Gerber, and the A’s Mick Tettleton and Steve Kiefer--are either at or just above the major league minimum salary of $40,000. Warren, his highest-salaried player, three weeks ago was sent by the A’s to Triple-A Tacoma after inconsistent outings ballooned his earned-run average to 6.61.

Jacobson’s claim, though, is that most of his 26 players are on the fast track to big salaries in the big leagues. And the agent is learning his trade at a similar clip. He makes better pitches than Warren did on the night of his no-hitter.

“My guys are some of the best young players in the game,” Jacobson said. “Some are taking their lumps, but you watch, they’re gonna be stars.”

Thirteen players Jacobson represents are bubbling just below the big leagues in Triple-A. Occasionally, one surfaces. Mack and Kiefer were called up last week.

Jacobson knows all about the rugged road through the minors. Only 5-9, 160, he played five years of professional baseball, never advancing beyond Class-A.

Ralph Nelson, vice president of the San Francisco Giants, says Jacobson’s playing experience makes him unique among agents.

“Everybody and his brother is an agent these days,” Nelson said. “But Kevin is the first ex-player that I know of who is doing reasonably well.

“Five years ago, it was rare for a minor leaguer to have an agent. Now, it seems like every top prospect is represented.”

Tom Reich is a Los Angeles attorney and agent who represented eight players in this season’s All-Star Game. He likened the job to that of being a big-league baby-sitter.

“If negotiating contracts were all it took, this would be the easiest job on earth,” Reich said. “To perform the function properly, you must deal with personal problems, domestic problems, chemical problems, stress issues.

“It is a very complex and specialized job. It’s mighty tough and mighty cold out there.”

Jacobson negotiates salaries for all his clients, but he makes a 6% commission only on those in the big leagues. A portion of his cut is paid to consultants--an attorney and an accountant.

Minor leaguers are represented free of charge by Jacobson. Consider his time an investment. In a couple of years, he says, Triple-A clients like Dale Sveum of the Vancouver Brewers and Mike Woodard of the Phoenix Giants should be in the majors making six-figure salaries.

Baseball America magazine this season listed Sveum, a third baseman, as the No. 2 prospect in the Brewers’ farm system. Woodard, a second baseman, is hitting .344.

For now, Jacobson massages a demoted player’s ego and badgers a team to advance a hot prospect. He says these are the chores of an agent building a business in the bush leagues.

Jacobson was lauding a client more than usual in late June. The player had made it to the majors.

“He’s got awesome stuff,” Jacobson said. “The hardest breaking curve in baseball. Confidence oozes from this guy.”

The agent was praising Robert Bush Sebra, 23, a right-handed pitcher promoted to the Texas Rangers from the team’s Triple-A affiliate in Oklahoma City where he was 5-3 with a 2.39 ERA.

Sebra’s first major league decision came on July 2 against the Angels. It was also his first major league loss. Reggie Jackson hit run-scoring doubles off the rookie in each of the first two innings. In 1 innings, Sebra allowed seven earned runs on six hits.

After four outings, he was 0-2 in 15 innings with an 8.79 ERA.

Two weeks ago, Sebra was stripped of his Rangers uniform and sent back to Oklahoma City to earn more stripes.

But Jacobson’s enthusiasm for the pitcher hasn’t diminished. He strokes Sebra’s self-esteem the way a jockey strokes a race horse after it finishes out of the money.

“He’s gonna win 20 games in the majors some day,” Jacobson said. “He’ll be back.”

Mitch Zwolensky is another Texas long arm who has needed some of Jacobson’s support. Zwolensky hasn’t been to the big leagues yet, and naturally, Jacobson believes he’s received short shrift.

“After great years in Double-A and Triple-A, Mitch made the 40-man roster this spring,” Jacobson said. “I thought he’d get a shot at sticking with the Rangers.”

Zwolensky’s patience wore thin during the spring, however. According to Jacobson, Zwolensky didn’t pitch a single inning and Texas Manager Doug Rader didn’t speak a single word to him.

Said Jacobson: “On the last day of spring, Rader walked up to Mitch and spoke his first words to him. He said, ‘Here’s your ticket to Oklahoma City.’ ”

That’s where Zwolensky had spent 1984. The 24-year-old figured he was in a rut with the Rangers and he asked Jacobson to arrange a trade. The team assured Jacobson it would try, but said it might take some time.

Before Zwolensky got out of his rut, however, he stepped in a pot hole, fell, and broke his arm. Trade talks were cast aside.

Zwolensky shouldn’t feel like the lone Ranger if he believes he’s been treated unfairly, Jacobson says.

Woodard, the second baseman playing for the Phoenix Giants, has 27 stolen bases and is leading the Pacific Coast League with 152 hits. Jacobson, who has represented Woodard for three years, believes his client should be playing second for San Francisco.

“The Giants are in last place,” Jacobson said. “Manny Trillo is 35 years old. He’s in the last year of his contract and he’s hitting .240.

“I overheard some scouts talking last week when I was in Phoenix. They said Woodard is the best second-base prospect in the game today.”

Jacobson recently phoned Nelson about the possibility of promoting Woodard and batting him second in the lineup.

“I told him, ‘I don’t want to stir things up, but have you considered hitting Woodard behind Dan Gladden,’ ” Jacobson said. “He’s a left-handed hitter who rarely strikes out.”

Jacobson hasn’t been able to convince Giants’ brass of Woodard’s value--yet. The agent has proven more persuasive with the A’s.

Tim Lambert, a pitcher who has won six straight games for Oakland’s Triple-A team in Tacoma, said he feels indebted to Jacobson.

“Kevin battled and got me a $450-a-month raise last winter,” said Lambert, who supports a wife and three children on $10,200 for the six-month season. “I’m looking forward to the day I can earn enough to repay Kevin for sticking with me on the way up.”

At this point, Jacobson has to be content with pulling off those kinds of small miracles. He admits that his modest income, at times, forces him to draw on savings. The average major league salary is $363,000. Combined, Jacobson’s 26 players don’t make much more.

Reich, the veteran agent, spoke of the job’s increased complexity as players climb into copious cash country.

“As the stakes get higher,” he said, “judgements you make affect a player’s whole career. Negotiations become multidimensional and painstaking.”

Jacobson said dealing with front offices has been surprisingly easy.

“When I call, I have something to say,” Jacobson said. “I don’t want them thinking, ‘That pest Jacobson is on the line again.’

“Front office people aren’t stupid. They know what their players are doing.”

Said Nelson, the Giants’ vice president: “I think Kevin and I wrapped up our first negotiation in about 15 minutes. He knows that the minor league salary structure is based more on years of service and position within the organization than stats.

“Down the road, Kevin’s lack of training may hinder him. Negotiations get more complex as a player establishes himself in the major leagues. Don’t underestimate him, though. Kevin has great rapport.”

In addition to negotiating salaries, Jacobson has arranged contracts worth up to $10,000 with shoe and bat companies (he gets 6%) for major and minor league clients. On occasion, a player will turn down a deal.

Sometimes, superstition supersedes silver.

“Cliburn turned down a deal to wear Mizuno shoes,” Jacobson said. “He’s going good, and didn’t want to take the chance of changing shoes and getting rocked.”

Placing players on winter league teams in Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic is also part of Jacobson’s job.

He even allows players to call him collect--to a point.

“The only client I’ve dropped is a pitcher in Triple-A,” he said. “He tagged me with $700 in phone bills. I told him, ‘Keep the money.’ It was a symptom of what would happen down the line.”

For the most part, Jacobson’s clients warrant his support. Although Warren has fallen on hard times since pitching his no-hitter, Tettleton worked his way through the minors and is having a good season at Oakland.

The catcher is batting .270 and recently became the team’s starter. Two weeks ago, on the NBC Game of the Week, Tettleton had two hits off Toronto ace Dave Stieb which brought superlatives like “a pleasant surprise,” and “great potential” from broadcasters Bob Costas and Tony Kubek.

Jacobson, at home with his wife, Lisa, and infant son, Robert, was buoyant as he watched the game.

“Mick Tettleton--what a name for a major leaguer,” he said. “He’s only scraped the surface of his ability. He’s gonna be a great one.”

Mention Angels rookie pitcher Stu Cliburn’s name in Jacobson’s presence.

“Cli’s gonna be a star,” he said. “Here’s a guy who was in the minors for nine years. He gets a shot, and he’s in the top 10 in ERA.

Cliburn laughed when told of Jacobson’s hyperbole.

“He can judge talent, I’ll say that,” Cliburn said. “He might not have the law degree, but he consults with good people on taxes and investments. Most of all, I trust him.

“Kevin is a guy I can be personable with. That’s a big reason I went with him.”

Added Sebra, the pitcher with Texas: “When I decided on Kevin, I visited him for three weeks. We played Nerf basketball in the living room and Nerf football in the front yard. Now, he’s like a brother.”

Earning money--and lots of it--was the practical end of Jacobson’s decision to become an agent. A deeper reason, he says, is his love of baseball.

He couldn’t stick as a player.

“Everyone was going by me during my fifth year in the minors,” he said. “I made the Class-A all-star team three years in a row and I couldn’t get promoted.”

Even a determined guy like Jacobson had reached his limit--he quit.

“I visited my friends on the Angels at their hotel about two months later (in 1982),” Jacobson said. “Dick Schofield, Craig Gerber, Ron Romanick--I had played with these guys.

“An agent walked in, suit and tie, talking about fiduciary clauses and using all this legal jargon. The players rolled their eyes.”

During the drive home, Jacobson decided he would become an agent. He knew his playing experience would be a plus. “Look at the first-hand garbage I’ve been through,” he thought.

Attorney John Kohlbrand and accountant John Foster, both of Thousand Oaks, agreed to work as consultants.

All Jacobson needed were customers.

He wrote 65 letters to minor leaguers he wanted to sign. “I hand wrote each one,” he said.

Only Dave Meier, now an infielder with the Minnesota Twins, replied, and that was to say thanks, but no thanks.

“It discouraged me enough to motivate me,” Jacobson said. “As a player, I went against the odds my whole life.”

Rather than take any player who would take him, the fledgling agent said he established standards.

“I want guys who are exactly like me,” Jacobson said. “Guys who breathe baseball.

“The only difference is, they’ve got to have major league talent.”

Growing up in Ventura, one of Jacobson’s neighbors had big-league talent. His name is Brook Jacoby and he plays third base for the Cleveland Indians.

“I don’t represent Brook because he’s happy with who he’s got,” Jacobson said. “But we’re still great friends.”

When the Indians visit Anaheim, Jacobson often attends. Although he may be embarking on a career as lucrative as Jacoby’s, Jacobson delves in another bit of fantasy about what might have been.

“I see the J-A-C-O-B on the back of Brook’s jersey while he’s cranking balls out of the park during batting practice and think to myself, ‘That’s me.’ ”

KEVIN JACOBSON’S TOP CLIENTS *

NAME TEAM POS. AB R H HR RBI Craig Gerber Angels SS 59 5 14 0 3 Mick Tettleton A’s C 119 16 32 3 8 Steve Liddle Edmonton, AAA (Angels) C 68 12 23 2 13 Mike Woodard Phoenix, AAA (Giants) 2B 442 73 152 3 52 Bob Bathe Tacoma, AAA (A’s) 3B 252 32 61 8 30 Steve Kiefer Tacoma 3B 313 37 83 12 54 Mike Martin Vancouver, AAA (Brewers) C 204 20 48 1 18 Dale Sveum Vancouver 3B 319 30 72 6 40

NAME AVG. Craig Gerber .237 Mick Tettleton .270 Steve Liddle .338 Mike Woodard .344 Bob Bathe .242 Steve Kiefer .265 Mike Martin .235 Dale Sveum .226

PITCHERS TEAM W-L ERA SV IP H BB Stu Cliburn Angels 4-2 2.32 2 54 50 22 Mike Warren A’s 1-4 6.61 0 49 52 38 Tony Mack Edmonton 7-9 4.35 0 124 136 60 Scott Oliver Edmonton 2-0 3.96 1 77 105 25 Jeff Blobaum Phoenix 3-1 4.15 4 43 56 16 Chuck Hensley Phoenix 3-1 3.21 0 53 53 17 Tim Lambert Tacoma 7-8 4.60 0 125 120 61 Bob Sebra Okla. City, AAA (Rangers) 6-5 3.43 0 94 80 37 Mitch Zwolensky Okla. City 3-1 3.52 1 46 50 18 Bert Bradley Columbus, AAA (Yankees) 1-7 4.83 0 54 68 15

PITCHERS SO Stu Cliburn 19 Mike Warren 48 Tony Mack 60 Scott Oliver 34 Jeff Blobaum 20 Chuck Hensley 34 Tim Lambert 49 Bob Sebra 59 Mitch Zwolensky 28 Bert Bradley 11

* Through games of July 31

Steve Kiefer was called up to the A’s on Monday; he has 1 hit in 1 at-bat. Mike Warren was sent to Tacoma last month; he is 0-0 with a 17.18 ERA after 3 innings. Tony Mack was called up to the Angels on July 25; he is 0-1 with a 15.43 ERA after 2 innings. Bert Bradley was sent to a Double-A team in Albany tree weeks ago; he is 0-1 with a 9.00 ERA after 9 innings.