Scott Boras is still baseball’s premier agent. No representative hits more home runs for his clients. And no agent lands as many blue-chip prospects coming into the sport.

But his last year has been trying. Alex Rodriguez went around his back and negotiated his own deal to return to the Yankees.

Tigers pitcher Kenny Rogers fired him and re-upped in Detroit. And now Tigers outfielder Gary Sheffield ripped into Boras about their ongoing litigation, calling him a “bad person” and some other stuff during a spring training diatribe.

“My family has been trying to get me to walk away for a while now because they don’t like the negative stuff that comes my way. I love it,” Sheffield said. “I try to explain it to them, but they think that’s some psychotic thing.”

Sheffield says he negotiated his own deal with the Yankees. Boras claims he was the agent of record, so he wants his fee.

“Nothing happens,” Sheffield said of their dispute. “Then, he comes back, ‘I want some more money.’ That’s basically the way he’s acting. I don’t know why. It’s probably personal with him. But when it’s done, it’s going to be personal with me.”

Here were a few snippets from Sheffield:

“It ain’t going to be pretty. No fine is going to be big enough. No suspension is going to be long enough.”

“It’s going to be the ugliest thing you’ve ever seen because certain people you don’t mess with. And I guarantee you, I’m one of them.”

“I shouldn’t have ever introduced myself to him. Period. Bad person.”

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while Andy Murray tries to refocus the Blues for their daunting challenge in Anaheim:

• How will Ryan Howard spend that $10 million arbitration award? And what will the Phillies have to spend to lock him in to a long-term deal?
• How does Larry Hughes feel about his abrupt divorce from LeBron James?
• After signing for $1 million in homer-happy Cincinnati, does Josh Fogg regret turning down a $5 million to stay in pitching friendly Colorado?

THE PERILS OF STINKING

Richie Sexson made $14 million last. For that, he hit .205 and heard a LOT of boos.

“I think a lot of people like to boo,” Sexson observed. “They want to sometimes see failure. It makes them feel better about themselves. The ‘95 and ‘01 (Mariners) teams are the only people exempt for life from getting booed. Everyone else is fair game.”

QUIPS ‘R US

Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:

Mark Kriegel, FoxSports.com: “Darrell Waltrip says every time he thinks of Dale Sr. at Daytona, ‘I cry like a rat eating an onion.’ How come they can’t talk like that in the other sports?”

Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle: “Impossible to win 19 games in the NFL? That’s what the experts say now that the Patriots were stopped one game short. But 19 wins is do-able. The Raiders over the last five seasons have won exactly 19 games.”

Greg Cote, Miami Herald, on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s team switch: “Hendrick Motorsports now has the most popular driver in Earnhardt, the greatest driver of this generation in Jeff Gordon and the best driver today in defending NASCAR champ Jimmie Johnson. If this was any more a monopoly, each guy would get $200 every time he passed Go.”

Steve Rosenbloom, Chicago Tribune: “Some people are asking how the White Sox’s alleged signing of Bartolo Colon might hinder the progress of kid pitchers John Danks and Gavin Floyd. But that not the question. That doesn’t matter. Winning matters. So, the real question is whether Colon would make more trips to the mound than the buffet or the emergency room.”

Jay Mariotti, Chicago Sun-Times, bidding farewell to Bulls big man Ben Wallace: “Dollar for dollar, inch for inch, Wallace leaves as the biggest and most uninspiring bust in the long, gnarly history of Chicago sports. Maybe he wasn’t as infuriating as Cade McNown, infamous as Ernie Broglio or butt-cleavage underachieving as Eddy Curry, but for a flat $60 million, he was purchased to elevate a promising, young team into the NBA elite. Instead, he dragged down a master plan, challenged the organization over a headband, hastened the demise of a good coach, never met his Fear The ‘Fro hype as a four-time Defensive Player of the Year, had much more hair than game and was exposed as a vastly overpriced role player without the comfort zone of his talented Detroit cast.”

MEGAPHONE

“Talking about last year is not going to change anything. Obviously, if somebody invented a time machine, I would go back and try to change a couple of things. But talking about it changes nothing. My goal this year is to stay in the present . . . and just enjoy life.”

Golfer Michelle Wie.