Who was the first agent in baseball history?

[TigerNation]

Who knows?

[Brooklyn]

Curt Flood

[TigerNation]

I'm not looking for the first free agent player, I'm looking for the first person to represent in contract negotiations.

[RuthMayBond]

Who knows?

Dick Moss filed the suit for Messersmith but I don't know if he was an agent

[Brian McKenna]

The question is complex. Two ways to look at it.

1) looking for the first agent/representative to directly negotiate with a major league team

2) looking for the first agent/representative to significantly influence a player's approach at negotiation time

Of course, the distinction here is that the agent would have to be paid one way or another.

I think in both cases a third party has aided in negotiation process since the days of Jim Creighton. It may be subtle but there were a lot of intermediaries throughout the history of the game. There had to be with no telephones and not always direct access to ballplayers in all corners of the country. Who's to say that a few players didn't actually initiate the process, asking a third party to help them find a job somewhere (perhaps they did so for some sort of compensation).

Most of these intermediaries probably received some sort of stipend from the ball club rather than the player. However, as ballplayers became more affluent, they were in a position to speak to a lawyer. There are many cases in early major league history where lawyers were directly involved in "legal battles" between a ballplayer and a club. It's not a stretch that a few of the ballplayers sought additional "advice" from one of those lawyers or his associates.

Pinpointing direct cases from above is difficult if not impossible. But frankly I have no doubt that they occurred, even back in the 19th century.

Here are some areas of interest in a more traditional sense:

1) Christy Walsh
2) Mashy Murakami - who negotiated for him?
3) Who negotiated for other early foreign players?
4) Frank Scott
5) J. William Hayes
6) Bob Woolf
7) Martin Blackman