Today in Philly Sports History: Boras Refuses Phils Offer for JD Drew, 1997

Back before he was the Baseball Anti-Christ that everyone knows and loves today, one of the key rungs on Boras's climb to sports supervillainy was in his handling of amateur baseball player JD Drew, who after setting the college world on fire with his play at Florida State (hitting .455 in 1997) was drafted by the Phillies with the second overall pick. Boras, however, demanded a $10 million plus signing bonus for his star pupil--a figure that seems almost quaint these days, but one which was nonetheless five times greater than that of Kris Benson, the previous year's #1 pick, who set a record with his $2 million signing bonus. The Phils thought $2.1 million was a more reasonable figure, and offered as much on June 17th, 1997. Boras respectfully disagreed: `The offer they made reflected a position that doesn't correspond with what is in good faith and what we advised them to do,'' said Boras, who had warned the Phils before hand of the amount it would take to land Drew should they decide to draft him.

Indeed, Drew would refuse to sign with the Phillies, eventually going to play for the St. Paul Saints in the independent Northern League, before being drafted again the next year, this time by the St. Louis Cardinals, who apparently provided more sufficient compensation. Drew would spend good years in St. Louis, and eventually some more in Atlanta, Los Angeles and Boston (where he won a World Series ring in 2007), but would never quite live up to the hype (which had him compared to Mickey Mante out of college), spending much of his career on the DL and occasionally being called out by his managers for a lack of effort. Meanwhile, in perhaps the truest example of Philadelphia never forgetting, Drew would be consistently booed (and often worse) for his greed and betrayal whenever he returned to the Vet or CBP with subsequent teams. Such was the scorn for Drew that his brother Stephen, a shortstop with the Diamondbacks, still receives much of the same treatment as big bro from Philly fans, merely for having the temerity to have been born from the same womb as JD.

And Boras? Well, now he's asking the Nats for $50 mil to sign Stephen Strasburg, the pitching phenom they selected #1 overall in this year's draft--a number which is sure to rocket even higher when all-around prodigy Bryce Harper goes on the market in a year or two. Cue the Bruce Hornsby, I suppose.