Baseball through the ages: From left, Ron Shapiro, Caden Shapiro and Mark Shapiro. (Hillel Kuttler)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The site for the tournament \u2013 a complex of beautifully maintained fields \u2013 was named for Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, the most recognizable client of his dad, an eminent sports agent.<\/p>\n
At 11, Caden is the latest Shapiro drawn to baseball, a chain emanating from the 1950s, when Ron\u2019s immigrant father, also named Mark, took his young son by train from their home in Philadelphia to a World Series game at Yankee Stadium in New York<\/p>\n
Ron and Mark Shapiro have combined for 62 years of baseball-related employment that began when the Orioles\u2019 then-owner, Jerry Hoffberger, asked Ron, a lawyer friend, in 1975 to assist Brooks Robinson with financial problems the team\u2019s All-Star third baseman was experiencing.<\/p>\n
It launched Ron Shapiro into a lucrative career as an agent representing athletes in contract negotiations.<\/p>\n
The work appealed to Mark Shapiro, too, but he blazed a different path to his baseball life. In 1991, he took an entry-level job with the Indians that included chauffeuring prospective free agents such as pitchers Sid Fernandez and David Wells from the airport.\u00a0 From there he would serve as director of player development, assistant general manager and general manager before being promoted to president four years ago.<\/p>\n
Their jobs, at least occasionally, would have pitted Shapiro the agent against Shapiro the executive. Instead, they recused themselves from face-to-face involvement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it came to doing contracts, he delegated and I delegated,\u201d Mark Shapiro said. \u201cIt just seemed like the right way, the honest way, to handle it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ron Shapiro said he\u2019s heard plenty of kind words around baseball about Mark\u2019s integrity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does a father feel other than unbelievable pride?\u201d he said. \u201cI look at Caden looking at his father, and the relationship continues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark and Ron Shapiro see each other five or six times a year \u2013 they had been together a month earlier at the New Jersey bat mitzvah of Mark Shapiro\u2019s niece — but speak by telephone several times a week.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing happens of major importance where we don\u2019t talk to each other,\u201d said Ron Shapiro, 71.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes me happy to see kids play and parents and kids interacting around baseball,\u201d said Mark Shapiro, 47.<\/p>\n
It was Mark Shapiro who co-founded the Spiders \u2013 a name the Indians had used in the late 19th century \u2013 two years ago to imbue youth baseball with values that he thought were missing.<\/p>\n
In youth baseball, \u201cthe overarching opportunity is character development,\u201d Mark Shapiro said, sitting with his father in the shade following Caden\u2019s game. \u201cCharacter is how do you respond to adversity [and] setbacks? Being a great teammate, showing respect \u2013 that\u2019s at the core of what this experience provides for us as coaches and as fathers.\u201d<\/p>\n
They have the perfect role model in Ripken. The Orioles former star infielder, baseball\u2019s ironman, had stood with Ron Shapiro not far from here surveying the acreage that would become a stadium and complex for the minor-league Aberdeen Ironbirds and youth leagues to draw the next generation of players.<\/p>\n
At the Ripken facility, Mark Shapiro called over former major-league first baseman Sean Casey to address the Spiders. Casey, coaching his son Jake\u2019s Pittsburgh club, stood beside his own father, Jim, who had enlisted Ron Shapiro as his son\u2019s first agent upon his being drafted by the Indians in 1997.<\/p>\n
Jake and Caden\u2019s teams would square off that afternoon. Close friends Casey and Mark Shapiro would be in the coaching boxes.<\/p>\n
\u201cTake it easy on us,\u201d Casey told the Spiders.<\/p>\n
Coaching the Spiders helped Mark Shapiro overcome the temptation to attend the Indians-Orioles series. So was visiting with his father and stepmother, Cathi, at their suburban Baltimore farm.<\/p>\n
Father and son exude warmth. Ron Shapiro, unable to stay for the afternoon game, told Mark upon departing, \u201cGive me a kiss and a hug,\u201d and through their embrace the men uttered their mutual love.<\/p>\n
Their personal-baseball time together here was a weekend to savor.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, baseball has always been relational \u2013 and nothing is more relational than family,\u201d Mark Shapiro said. \u201cMy love for baseball has always been tied to my father. And to be able to see that relationship and love for the game shared with my son, and to have my dad here, is incredibly special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caden gets the whole baseball-family thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool, passing down baseball generation to generation,\u201d he said, grasping the white sphere. \u201cIt\u2019s a great experience I\u2019m living with my father and grandfather. Baseball just runs in our family. I\u2019ll pass it on to my grandkids.\u201d<\/p>\n
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