Lonnie Murray is a

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB)

agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...

. She was the first Black woman to be certified as a player agent by the MLB Players Association.

Career

Murray says sports were a large part of her life, including playing sports while growing up, but she hadn't considered a career in it. She worked in the nonprofit sector, including for Coaching Corps. She met her partner, Dave Stewart, when he was on the board of a nonprofit. She joined the staff of Sports Management Partners, the San-Diego based agent firm founded by Stewart, helping run the business with him. In 2014, when Stewart became general manager of the

Arizona Diamondbacks The Arizona Diamondbacks (colloquially known as the D-backs) are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix. The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The ...

, he planned to transfer ownership to Dave Henderson, but Henderson's health problems limited his involvement. Murray became a player agent by the MLB Players Association in 2015, with restrictions in place to prevent a conflict of interest involving Stewart's team. As of 2020, she represented about 40 players, mostly minor leaguers. She has been vocal about the systemic racism in baseball. She represented Bruce Maxwell, the first MLB player to kneel for the national anthem. She is also supportive of efforts to increase the percentage of women who are sports agents. She supports other women to become sports agents. She represents Bianca Smith, the first Black woman to coach professional baseball. In 2021, she and Stewart were one of two Black-led redevelopment groups approved by the Oakland City Council to advance a bid to purchase the

Oakland Coliseum Oakland Coliseum, currently branded as RingCentral Coliseum, is a stadium in Oakland, California. It is part of the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Complex, with the adjacent Oakland Arena, near Interstate 880. The Coliseum is the home b ...

site.

Personal

She and Stewart live in

Poway Poway () is a city in San Diego County, California, United States. The unincorporated community became a city on December 1, 1980. Poway's rural roots influenced its motto "The City in the Country". The city has a population of 49,701 as of 2 ...

, California. She has a son named Tarik.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, Lonnie Living people American sports agents Women sports agents Year of birth missing (living people)