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USE CHANGEUP, TOO, JOCKS

New York Yankee relief ace Mariano Rivera is known for his 98-mph rising fastball, but his investment portfolio isn't as likely to sizzle.

You’d think a guy some 40 years shy of the typical retirement age who figures to be raking in seven figures within a year would invest 70% to 80% of his portfolio in stocks. But that’s not advisable for most athletes, whose peak earning years end a good three decades before they turn 65.

The 28-year-old Mr. Rivera, now earning $750,000 (plus as much as $200,000 more if the Yankees win the World Series next month), has unusual financial planning challenges that require more bond and money market mutual funds than you might expect.

“A lot of traditional financial planners who work with players are over-aggressive” in their portfolio recommendations, says Peter Smith, accountant and financial adviser to Mr. Rivera as well as to Boston pitcher Pedro Martinez and Texas Ranger slugger Juan Gonzalez.

Mr. Smith, a CPA at Chicago-based sports agency Speakers of Sport Inc., won’t discuss the details of his clients’ portfolios, but he will say that his goal is to get them 60% in stock mutual funds (mostly index portfolios), 30% in bond funds and 10% in cash instruments.

With baseball’s popularity resurgent these days, financial planning for ball players has become extra challenging. Players of the caliber of Mr. Rivera, whose team’s phenomenal season – along with the Sammy Sosa-Mark McGwire home run derby – has helped the national pastime regain the hearts and wallets of cynical fans, are likely to win a huge flush of money as their agents cut them new contracts.

Keeping a young ballplayer from spending more than he has is often a struggle. “A lot of times a guy will wait for next year’s contract to bail him out,” says Mr. Smith, who also works with Yankee reliever Ramiro Mendoza. “I tell the guys, don’t put off savings.”

In addition to the ephemeral nature of a baseball career, a player’s income-earning years can get cut short by injury. They have houses to purchase, kids to get through school. Many also have poor relatives they’re supporting – and most have lots of taxes to pay.

Ballplayers are easy targets for states that require any worker who travels a lot to file non-resident income tax returns. After all, notes Mr. Smith, “their name is on the page of the newspaper in a box score every day.”

They’re also particularly susceptible to scam artists, says Leland Faust, president of CSI Capital Management Inc. in San Francisco, which manages money for 100 athletes, including Yankee outfielder Paul O’Neill. Mr. Faust recalls a former Yankee who came to him after a previous adviser went to jail for stealing money from clients and a second declared bankruptcy.

The biggest issue: preventing players from spending what they don’t have. “Too many times an athlete says ‘Oh, I’m young; I can afford to take risk,’ ” Mr. Faust says. “More of my job is to slow people down in a sense and say ‘Let’s put in some boring bonds and blue-chip stocks.’ ”

Don’t think all ballplayers are dumb jocks, however.

During last month’s equities bloodbath, Mr. Smith says, he got calls from various clubhouses after batting practice, as players sought to get more cash into the stock market. “People,” he says with a laugh, “were trying to bottom-fish a little bit.”