When Scott Boras speaks, baseball listens

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LAS VEGAS -- President-elect Barack Obama showed up at baseball’s winter meetings here Wednesday, and ....

Oops, wait a minute. It wasn’t Barack Obama, it was Scott Boras.

But in this setting, one could argue that Boras is actually more powerful

The normally media-friendly Boras, who represents former Dodger free agents Manny Ramirez and Derek Lowe (as well as the Angels top free-agent priority, first baseman Mark Teixeira) has kept a low profile through much of the four-day meetings.

So when Boras agreed to talk with reporters Wednesday afternoon, he walked into the media workroom at the Bellagio trailing a rabid pack of more than 50 journalists.

To accommodate the crowd, Boras stepped up on a chair. And with his face bathed in TV lights some nine feet in the air, the agent looked more than a little superhuman -- which, in a sense, he is this time of year.

In the back of the room, managers of the 30 major league teams were holding their own news conferences with reporters -- though none could compete with Boras.

So pity poor Don Wakamatsu, first-time manager of the Seattle Mariners. When an MLB media relations worker announced that Wakamatsu was in the back of the room to take questions, none of the reporters around Boras moved.

When one TV cameraman finally pulled away from the crowd, he shook his head in wonder, saying: ‘This is worse that the Super Bowl. Seriously.’

Stay tuned for details on what Boras had to say.

-- Kevin Baxter