Baseball Players' Identities Stolen by Chicago Man

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Dec 22, 2006 1:15AM

Chicago resident David Dright, was charged by the Lake County state's attorney with identity theft after finding financial records in his west side home. Included in the stacks of stolen info were financial records for 80 major league baseball players, including the White Sox's Jim Thome and former Cub Juan Pierre.

We here in the Chicagoist sports offices immediately thought that the investigation must have started last summer -- what better way to explain Juan Pierre's sudden 120 point jump in batting average from May to July? So we were a bit surprised that the tip-off actually came from a 60 year old Lincolnshire man, who received a letter accepting his application for a credit card that he never applied for.

The investigation led police to Dright's apartment, where they discovered the baseball players' records that were apparently fished out of the trash from Northbrook-based SFX Baseball, the largest firm of agents representing Major League players. How can baseball players trust this firm to negotiate their seven and eight-figure contracts when they can't even figure out that it's probably a good idea to shred players' documents before tossing them.

However, this mess could just provide some player the perfect excuse when a $200,000 strip club tab becomes public.