What were they thinking?—KEVIN STOCKER, the shortstop traded by the Phillies … for Bobby Abreu Some people are born deal-makers. Like that kid flipping baseball cards who knows Dwight Gooden is your favorite player. Sure, you can have the card in his right hand, the really cool one with Gooden firing his trademark fastball. Just give him that Rickey Henderson card, and maybe that card in your dad’s closet—you know that really old one? With Nolan Ryan’s signature on it? You remember them. Later in life they’ll sweet-talk Dad into lending his ’Vette, cajole a college admissions board into early admission. They’ll memorize Alec Baldwin’s “Always Be Closing” speech from Glengarry Glen Ross. Make the most deals and you win a Cadillac. Finish second, steak knives. Third prize is you’re fired. Deal-makers pursue careers that reward their skills. Wall Street is built on them: bond traders and commodities traders, market makers and merger-and-acquisition specialists. A few of these deal-makers make it all the way back to their roots, going from swapping cardboard likenesses of major league players to trading the genuine article, the kinds of transactions that can win or lose pennants, make a baseball team millions of dollars or lose tens of millions.
