By Tim Sullivan

Scott Boras could crawl through the mud and emerge unstained. Slime doesn't stick to baseball's Teflon agent. Hypocrisy doesn't hurt him.

A New York Times story that describes Boras practicing some of the same player procurement practices he has decried was received with more resignation than rejoicing among Major League management.

Allegations that Boras has been turning Dominican teen-agers into indentured servants through loans that violate union rules have created the same shock value as a Gaylord Perry spitball, circa 1982.

"Boras is so powerful," one baseball executive opined Tuesday, "that small payouts to (Dominican) kids doesn't seem likely to even wrinkle his shirt."

The competition to represent baseball players at the bargaining table is sometimes likened to a snake pit and often ruinous to the reputation. San Diego agent Barry Axelrod so dislikes the recruiting process that he has come to depend almost entirely on referrals.

"Some general manager said I was his favorite agent," Axelrod said Tuesday afternoon. "And I said, 'Yeah, that's sort of like saying I'm your favorite form of cancer.'

"And it's not an unfair way of viewing it in the majority of cases."

Axelrod says he cannot recall ever lending so much as a penny to a client or a potential client, but that practice has grown common and increasingly compromising among agents. Through illicit payments and unauthorized benefits, agents and aspiring agents are rapidly replacing unprincipled coaches and overzealous boosters as the primary cause of NCAA violations.

Perhaps USC is overreacting in the wake of the Reggie Bush scandal, but the university suspended former Mission Bay star Dillon Baxter for last week's game against Oregon State after a university compliance officer spotted him riding in a golf cart promoting 1st Round Enterprises, a nascent agency presided over by another USC student, Teague Egan.

On its face, the infraction seemed trivial, but it was consistent with a pattern as old as the relationship between the pimp and the prostitute. First come the favors. Then follow the obligations. Then you're peddling your wares with a third party taking a percentage.

There are many skilled and honorable agents. You can shake their hands without fear that they'll take a finger. But the business also attracts a disproportionate share of disreputable sleaze. Those who set out to seduce college athletes do so with the knowledge that their activities imperil the eligibility of those athletes. Those who prey on the impoverished ballplayers of Latin America operate with a business plan strikingly similar to that of the narcotics trade: create a dependency, and then milk it.

Case in point: Dominican shortstop Edward Salcedo. According to the Times story authored by Michael S. Schmidt, Salcedo signed with Boras in 2006, accepted roughly $70,000 in loans and received a call demanding immediate repayment within days of enlisting the aid of a new Dominican trainer. Salcedo reconsidered and remained with Boras.

Since the Major League Baseball Players Association requires disclosure of agents' loans to players exceeding $500 per year, Salcedo's reported arrangement should have caused the union to question its propriety, provided that Boras filed the appropriate paperwork.

Without confirming the particulars, Boras issued a statement asserting that his company had helped the Salcedo family "in their time of need" and that this was "something that we've done for other clients in the past, always consistent with" union rules.

Maybe Boras was motivated by the player's need. More likely, he was motivated by an anticipated payoff. Salcedo signed with the Atlanta Braves for $1.6 million.

"I've tried to stay away from any kind of loans or perceived gifts to players because of the unknown," said John Boggs, who represents the Padres' Adrian Gonzalez. "It's borderline unethical, obviously, and in some cases illegal ... something, for the most part, that you try to avoid.

"Let's say you pay a player because his family needs the money. You pay the player X number of dollars, and then the player doesn't pan out. His ability to pay back that loan is based on his future earnings. It becomes a hammer over the individual player's head. It doesn't sound very sinister on its face, but you never know where it's going to lead."

As baseball's most successful agent, Boras has the means to take risks many of his rivals avoid. His commissions on Alex Rodriguez alone would enable him to extend hundreds of Salcedo-sized loans. Union efforts to tighten regulations, to broaden disclosure requirements and to make agents recertify themselves are unlikely to dent Boras' dominance.

Axelrod said the union's newfound vigilance has been prompted, at least in part, by the tendency of inexperienced agents to negotiate long-term, below-market deals as a way of preventing other agents from poaching their clients.

Scott Boras operates at the other end of baseball's spectrum. As the man who typically sets the market with record-breaking deals, he is more easily emulated than regulated.

Tim Sullivan writes about sports for The San Diego Union-Tribune.