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Randal "Randy" Hendricks (born November 18, 1945, in Kansas City, Missouri) is an American attorney and sports agent. [1] He was raised in Westwood, Kansas and is a 1963 graduate of Shawnee Mission North High School, where he was a finalist in the National Merit Scholarship Program. He is managing partner of Hendricks Sports Management, L.P., and managing member of Hendricks Interests LLC, both in Houston, Texas.
He practiced law with the Houston firm of Baker Botts out of law school. While there, he represented his first professional athlete in Elmo Wright and became an agent when he was 24. [2] In 1971, he joined with his brother, Alan, to form Hendricks Sports Management. Hendricks was involved in the movement for free agency, a change for professional athletes from the reserve system. Hendricks concentrated on this area until the players earned their free agency in the late 1970s. He continuously represented a significant number of professional athletes for over 40 years. They decided to focus their attention on baseball athletes in the 1980s as opposed to focusing on both baseball and football players. [3] [4]
The Hendricks brothers formed Hendricks Sports Management and built an agency which represented approximately 10% of all major league baseball players for nearly 20 years. In 1999, the Hendricks sold their company to SFX Entertainment for $15.7 million in cash with $5 million in deferred payments and the chance to earn additional bonuses (at the time, SFX was in the market for acquiring several sports agents prior to itself being acquired in 2000). Randy was later named Chairman and CEO of the baseball group. [5] [6] In late 2003, it was announced that the Hendricks brothers would re-form Hendricks Sports Management, which reestablished their profile as leaders in their industry. In 2013 Hendricks transitioned from the representation of active players to advising a number of retired players.
Hendricks is the author of Inside the Strike Zone, published in 1994 and nominated for the Casey Award for best baseball book for that year. Also in that year, alongside Tom Reich and Ron Shapiro, Hendricks was a back-channel negotiator during the league strike that lasted over eight months. [7] Hendricks has negotiated many record contracts, including several for Roger Clemens and his $28 million one-year contract for Roger Clemens was the highest in the history of baseball. The Hendricks brothers negotiated a five-year contract worth over $30 million for pitcher Aroldis Chapman, although the methods in luring him away from being represented by Athletes Premier International led to a lawsuit and a subsequent out-of-court settlement. [8]
On January 10, 2017, Hendricks was busted in a sting operation targeted at soliciting prostitution carried out in Houston. [9]
Hendricks was appointed as a member of the Houston/Harris County Public Sports Advisory Committee in 1995 by Houston Mayor Bob Lanier. Hendricks wrote the election day editorial for the Houston Chronicle in favor of the referendum for new sports stadia in Houston and Harris County, Texas. The measure passed in a close vote and led to the construction of new sports facilities for professional teams, including Minute Maid Park for the Houston Astros, NRG Stadium for the Houston Texans and Toyota Center for the Houston Rockets.
William Roger Clemens, nicknamed "Rocket", is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 24 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), most notably with the Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, and New York Yankees. He was one of the most dominant pitchers in major league history, tallying 354 wins, a 3.12 earned run average (ERA), and 4,672 strikeouts, the third-most all time. An 11-time MLB All-Star and two-time World Series champion, Clemens won seven Cy Young Awards, more than any other pitcher in history. Clemens was known for his fierce competitive nature and hard-throwing pitching style, which he used to intimidate batters.
A split-finger fastball or splitter is an off-speed pitch in baseball that looks to the batter like a fastball until it drops suddenly. Derived from the forkball, it is so named because the pitcher puts the index and middle finger on different sides of the ball.
Andrew Eugene Pettitte is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), primarily for the New York Yankees. He also pitched for the Houston Astros. Pettitte won five World Series championships with the Yankees and was a three-time All-Star. He ranks as MLB's all-time postseason wins leader with 19.
Sam Houston State University is a public research university in Huntsville, Texas. Founded in 1879, it is the third-oldest public college or university in Texas. It is one of the first normal schools west of the Mississippi River and the first in Texas. The school is named for Sam Houston, who made his home in the city and is buried there.
A sports agent is a legal representative for professional sports figures such as athletes and coaches. They procure and negotiate employment and endorsement contracts for the athlete or coach whom they represent. In addition to contract negotiations, sports agents may also help their clients with financial planning, legal issues, and marketing. They may work closely with financial advisors, lawyers, and marketing professionals on behalf of their clients.
Koby Aaron Clemens is an American former professional baseball infielder and outfielder. He later served as a coach in the Houston Astros farm system. He is the eldest son of former Major League Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens.
Scott Dean Boras is an American sports agent, specializing in baseball. He is the founder, owner and president of the Boras Corporation, a sports agency based in Newport Beach, California, that represents roughly 175 professional baseball clients.
Randall Christopher Wolf, nicknamed "Wolfie", is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, Miami Marlins, and Detroit Tigers.
Jeffrey S. Moorad is an American businessman and investor. He began his career as a sports agent, before serving as General Partner and CEO of MLB's Arizona Diamondbacks, and Vice-Chairman and CEO of MLB's San Diego Padres.
Drayton McLane Jr. is an American billionaire businessman. He is chairman of the McLane Group, a holding company with a portfolio of various diverse enterprises. He was, until 1990, the CEO of the McLane Company, a grocery and food service warehouse, supply, and logistics firm, and was, from 1993 until 2011, the chairman and CEO of Major League Baseball's Houston Astros. As of October 2021, his net worth was estimated at US $2.9 billion.
Arn Herschel Tellem is an American sports executive who is the vice chairman of the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA). From 1981 to 2015, he was a sports agent best known for his representation of basketball and baseball players. Tellem was vice chairman of the Wasserman Media Group, a global sport and entertainment marketing agency headed by Casey Wasserman. From 2009 to 2010, he wrote a semi-weekly sports column for The Huffington Post. He has also written for Sports Illustrated, the op-ed page of The New York Times, Grantland, Detroit Free Press, The Hollywood Reporter, The Japan Times and The Detroit News.
Christopher John "C. J." Nitkowski is a left-handed former professional baseball pitcher and current baseball broadcaster. A first-round draft choice of the Cincinnati Reds in 1994, he played in the major leagues for the Reds, Detroit Tigers, Houston Astros, New York Mets, Texas Rangers, Atlanta Braves, New York Yankees, and Washington Nationals. He has also played in Nippon Professional Baseball for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, and in the KBO League for the SK Wyverns, Doosan Bears, and Nexen Heroes. Nitkowski currently works as a broadcaster for the Atlanta Braves and SiriusXM's MLB Network Radio.
David B. Falk is an American sports agent who primarily works with basketball players in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He began his career representing professional tennis players for Donald Dell's ProServ and is best known for representing sports icon Michael Jordan for the entirety of Jordan's career. Besides Jordan, Falk has represented more than 100 other NBA players, and is generally considered to be the most influential player agent the NBA has seen. During the peak years of Falk's career in the 1990s, he was often considered the second-most powerful person in the NBA behind Commissioner David Stern, and in 2000 he had at least one client on all but two NBA teams. He was listed among the "100 Most Powerful People in Sports" for 12 straight years from 1990 to 2001 by The Sporting News, and was also named one of the Top 50 Marketers in the United States by Advertising Age in 1995.
The 2004 Houston Astros season was the 43rd season for the Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise in Houston, Texas. Five years removed from opening Minute Maid Park, the Astros hosted the All-Star Game, which was the first held in Houston since 1986. Having limped into the All-Star break with a 44–44 record, Phil Garner was named to replace Jimy Williams as manager. The Astros finished second in the American League Central and captured the NL Wild Card. The Astros won a postseason series for the first time in franchise history by defeating the Atlanta Braves in the National League Division Series (NLDS), scoring an NLDS-record 36 runs. Roger Clemens won the NL Cy Young Award, becoming the fourth pitcher to win the award in both leagues, and the only one with seven overall.
Albertín Aroldis Chapman de la Cruz is a Cuban-born American professional baseball relief pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Cincinnati Reds, New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, Kansas City Royals, and Texas Rangers and in the Cuban National Series for Holguín. Chapman bats and throws left-handed, and is nicknamed "the Cuban Missile" or "the Cuban Flame Thrower".
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Collin Alexander McHugh is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Mets, Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros, Tampa Bay Rays and Atlanta Braves. Listed at 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) and 191 pounds (87 kg), he throws and bats right-handed.
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