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A collaborative project of the Baseball
Reliquary and the John F. Kennedy Memorial
Library at California State University, Los
Angeles
PROJECT NARRATIVE
In the history of the national
pastime, baseball scouts have been, and remain,
the most anonymous and unappreciated subculture.
Although major league baseball could not exist
without scouts, and its clubs rely heavily on
them for discovering and evaluating young
players, the impact of scouts on both the game‘s
evolution and the high quality of play on the
diamond has been largely neglected. This
project, one of the first major surveys on
baseball scouting, will provide the public with
a unique entrée into a previously inaccessible
world and will allow for a greater understanding
and appreciation of baseball
– indeed, for some, it will result in an
entirely new way of looking at the national
pastime.
While the project will present an
historical overview of baseball scouting,
including its origins in the early 20th
century, special emphasis will be placed on the
so-called "golden age
of scouting" from
World War II through the mid-1960s, a period
which featured many colorful personalities and
was marked by more intuitive and individualistic
approaches to evaluating talent. This period
will be compared to and contrasted with the
current era, which finds some professional
baseball clubs placing a greater emphasis on
technological and computer-based methodologies
for player evaluation and analysis.
The project, Eyes for Talent: The
Art & Science of Baseball Scouting, will
feature three primary components:
1) Oral Histories
– A special topics
course, entitled "Baseball
Scouts Oral History,"
will be offered through the Department of
History at California State University, Los
Angeles in the Fall Quarter 2007. The course,
taught by Professor Francisco Balderrama,
explores the critical significance of baseball
scouts to the national pastime from an oral
history perspective with attention to theory as
well as practice.
2) Exhibition
– An exhibition, to be
presented at the John F. Kennedy Memorial
Library on the campus of California State
University, Los Angeles, will be held in the
Spring Quarter 2008 (March-June 2008). The
exhibition will examine the history and
evolution of baseball scouting and will include
photographs, artifacts and documents, and
artworks. The oral histories conducted by
students enrolled in Professor Balderrama‘s
course will also be incorporated into the
displays.
3) Special Collections
– The interviews
conducted by students in Professor Balderrama‘s
course, "Baseball
Scouts Oral History,"
will form the foundation of a baseball scouts
archive to be housed in the Special Collections
department of the John F. Kennedy Memorial
Library. In addition, the archive will include
exhibition documentation and a variety of
research materials, all of which will be
available for access by the general public and
the academic community.
CONTACT
For further information on Eyes
for Talent: The Art & Science of Baseball
Scouting, contact Terry Cannon, Executive
Director of the Baseball Reliquary, at P.O. Box
1850, Monrovia, CA 91017; by phone at (626)
791-7647; or by e-mail at
terymar@earthlink.net.
PROJECT PERSONNEL
Project Director: Terry Cannon, Executive
Director, The Baseball Reliquary
Librarian: Alice K. Kawakami, University
Librarian, John F. Kennedy Memorial Library,
California State University, Los Angeles
Advisory Committee:
Francisco E. Balderrama, Professor of Chicano
Studies and History, California State
University, Los Angeles
Francisco Balderrama was selected
Outstanding University Professor at California
State University, Los Angeles in 1997. He
served as Chair of Chicano Studies from 1984 to
1993 and 1997 to 1999. He also has held faculty
and administrative appointments at Texas Tech
University, Adams State College, and The
Claremont Colleges. Balderrama is a Chicano
historian with a special interest in the
American West, particularly California and Los
Angeles. He offers a variety of courses in
Chicano History for the Chicano Studies
Department and the American West for the History
Department. Balderrama serves as an advisor for
"Mexican-American Baseball in Los Angeles: From
the Barrios to the Big Leagues," an ongoing
collaborative project of the Baseball Reliquary
and John F. Kennedy Memorial Library, California
State University, Los Angeles. In addition, he
has taught two oral history seminars related to
this project. He will also teach the oral
history course for the current project, "Eyes
for Talent: The Art & Science of Baseball
Scouting." Balderrama’s degrees are in History:
a B.A. from Loyola University of Los Angeles,
and an M.A. and Ph.D. from UCLA.
Cesar
Caballero, Dean and University Librarian, John
M. Pfau Library, California State University,
San Bernardino
Cesar Caballero earned a degree in
Business Administration in 1972 at the
University of Texas at El Paso. In 1973, he
enrolled in the Graduate School of Library and
Information Science at the University of Texas
at Austin, completing his M.L.I.S. the following
year. He has worked in many capacities as a
professional librarian, including Associate
University Librarian for Public Services,
University of Texas at El Paso, 1995-2002, and
Acting University Librarian, California State
University, Los Angeles, 2004-2006. In the
latter position, Caballero was instrumental in
organizing and developing the collaborative
project, "Mexican-American Baseball in Los
Angeles: From the Barrios to the Big Leagues."
Effective July 1, 2007, Caballero assumed the
position of Dean and University Librarian at the
John M. Pfau Library at California State
University, San Bernardino.
Dennis
Gilbert, Special Assistant to the Chairman,
Chicago White Sox
After building his insurance
business, Dennis Gilbert began his baseball
career as an agent in 1980 when he represented
Hall of Famer George Brett and later formed the
Beverly Hills Sports Council. In November 2000,
he joined the Chicago White Sox as a special
assistant to Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, assisting
the team in contract negotiations as well as
consulting on other baseball-related issues. In
January 2003, he co-founded, with Roland Hemond,
Dave Yoakum, and Harry Minor, the Professional
Baseball Scouts Foundation, a nonprofit
organization established to assist scouts who
have experienced financial or medical setbacks.
Prior to joining the White Sox, Gilbert was
involved in building a top-flight baseball
stadium at Southwest College in South Central
Los Angeles that serves as the home field for
Major League Baseball’s RBI (Reviving Baseball
in the Inner Cities) program. The ballpark,
Dennis Gilbert Field, was opened on January 20,
2002. In 2004, Gilbert was awarded an honorary
Doctor of Humane Letters degree from William
Howard Taft University, Santa Ana, California,
in recognition of his philanthropic efforts in
support of inner city youth and the welfare of
former baseball scouts. Gilbert continues his
successful insurance practice in Beverly Hills,
California.
Pat
Gillick, General Manager, Philadelphia Phillies
A graduate of the University of
Southern California, Pat Gillick pitched for the
1958 Trojan baseball team which won the NCAA
championship. Following a five-year playing
career in the Baltimore Orioles minor league
system, Gillick began his front-office career in
1963 when he became Assistant Farm Director for
the Houston Colt .45s, eventually working his
way up to a position as the team’s Scouting
Director. As General Manager of the Toronto
Blue Jays, Gillick led the club to five division
titles (1985, 1989, 1991, 1992, and 1993) and
two World Series championships (1992 and 1993).
In 1995, Gillick was named General Manager of
the Baltimore Orioles, guiding the club to two
playoff appearances in 1996 and 1997. Gillick
then became General Manager of the Seattle
Mariners and helped build one of the strongest
teams in the American League during his tenure
from 2000 through 2003. The Mariners reached
the American League Championship finals in both
2000 and 2001, with the latter team posting a
phenomenal 116-46 record, tying the Major League
Baseball record for wins in a season. Gillick
was named Baseball Executive of the Year for
2001. The Philadelphia Phillies hired Gillick
as General Manager in November 2005, and he
continues in this position.
Roland
Hemond, Executive Advisor, Chicago White Sox
One of the most respected and
experienced executives in baseball, Roland
Hemond rejoined the Chicago White Sox as an
executive advisor in November 2000. A
three-time recipient of Major League Baseball’s
Executive of the Year award, Hemond has well
over fifty years of professional baseball
experience, including 23 seasons as General
Manager of the White Sox (1971-1985) and
Baltimore Orioles (1988-1995) and five years as
a senior executive vice president with the
Arizona Diamondbacks (1996-2000). Hemond has
served as president of the Association of
Professional Baseball Players of America, a
nonprofit organization that helps former and
current players and baseball personnel in need.
Along with Dennis Gilbert, Dave Yoakum, and
Harry Minor, Hemond co-founded the Professional
Baseball Scouts Foundation to provide assistance
to long-time scouts who are in need of financial
support. Three annual awards are named in
Hemond’s honor: the Roland Hemond Award,
presented by the White Sox in honor of those who
are dedicated to bettering the lives of others
through extraordinary personal sacrifice; the
Baseball America Award, presented to the person
who has made major contributions to scouting and
player development; and the Society for American
Baseball Research (SABR) Award, given to the
executive who has displayed great respect for
scouts.
Jeff
Kaley, Filmmaker and Producer
Jeff Kaley begins his twelfth season
with the Los Angeles Dodgers, working in the
merchanising department. A baseball enthusiast
of the highest order, he produced and hosted his
own weekly baseball show, The Seventh Inning
Stretch, for Time Warner Cable in 2002-2003.
A graduate of the Los Angeles Film School, Kaley
has filmed many special events for MLB.com, the
Scout of the Year Foundation, and Reviving
Baseball in the Inner Cities (RBI). He has
collected 100 hours of film footage and
interviews with baseball scouts around the
country for a forthcoming documentary, and has
also begun to chronicle the rich history of
inner city baseball in Los Angeles.
Kevin
Kerrane, Professor of English, University of
Delaware
A member of the University of
Delaware faculty since 1967, Kevin Kerrane
(Ph.D., University of North Carolina) has edited
several anthologies of drama and has co-edited
(with Ben Yagoda) The Art of Fact: A
Historical Anthology of Literary Journalism.
He is the author of Dollar Sign on the
Muscle: The World of Baseball Scouting,
selected by Sports Illustrated in 2002 as
one of "The 100 Best Sports Books of All Time."
Kerrane often teaches study-abroad courses in
England and Ireland, and much of his current
research deals with Irish drama. He is also
finishing a book begun by the late Robert Hogan,
a distinguished University of Delaware
professor. Hogan’s The Presidential Voice
will analyze the rhetorical styles of the
twentieth-century presidents, from Theodore
Roosevelt to Bill Clinton.
Roberta
Mazur, Executive Director, Scout of the Year
Program & President, Scout of the Year
Foundation
Roberta Mazur serves as Executive
Director of the Scout of the Year Program, which
was founded in 1984 by Tony Pacheco, Jim Russo,
and Hugh Alexander to bring positive recognition
to the profession of scouting and to honor
scouts who have devoted time and energy to, and
have shown professionalism in, the scouting
field. Mazur also serves as President of the
Scout of the Year Foundation, which was
officially formed in 1998 to raise funds to
establish a permanent exhibition on scouting at
the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in
Cooperstown, New York.
Phil
Pote, Scout, Seattle Mariners
A professional baseball scout for
over four decades, Phil Pote is one of the truly
legendary figures in Los Angeles baseball
history. A graduate of Los Angeles State
College of Applied Arts and Sciences (now
California State University, Los Angeles), where
he received his B.A. in Physical Education, Pote
was a pitcher and outfielder for the college
baseball team from 1954 to 1956, before playing
professionally in the Pittsburgh Pirates minor
league organization. After his playing days
were over, Pote returned to Los Angeles, where
he coached at Fremont and Locke High Schools and
later at Los Angeles City College. He promoted
interest in baseball by teaching and counseling
young players, increasing their self-esteem and
encouraging them to stay in school and off the
streets. Among the future major leaguers Pote
helped develop were Bobby Tolan, Willie
Crawford, and Bob Watson. With the demise of
inner city baseball in recent years, Pote has
worked closely with the RBI (Reviving Baseball
in the Inner Cities) program in organizing youth
clinics and raising funds to build and maintain
ball fields, hoping that the neighborhoods of
Los Angeles will once again produce major league
players. Currently a part-time scout for the
Seattle Mariners, the tireless Pote has also in
recent years campaigned for the inclusion of
scouts in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in
Cooperstown, New York.
Tracy
Ringolsby, National Baseball Writer,
Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colorado
A native of Cheyenne, Wyoming, Tracy
Ringolsby has covered baseball for over 30
seasons, both as a beat reporter and as a
national writer. He has worked for the Rocky
Mountain News in Denver since 1992 and has
covered the Colorado Rockies since they began
play as a National League expansion franchise in
1993. Ringolsby was elected the 2005 recipient
of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award in balloting
conducted by the Baseball Writers Association of
America and was presented the award, given
annually to a sportswriter "for meritorious
contributions to baseball writing," at the 2006
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
induction ceremony. In addition to being a
consummate beat writer, Ringolsby was one of the
first baseball writers to concentrate on
scouting and player development. His focus on
these vital areas, which largely had been
overlooked, enabled Ringolsby to provide more
depth to his beat coverage. In 1981, he helped
found Baseball America, a publication
which was initially devoted almost exclusively
to amateur and minor league baseball and matters
related to player development.
Jim
Sandoval, Scouts Committee Co-Chairman, Society
for American Baseball Research
Jim Sandoval co-chairs the Society
for American Baseball Research’s Scouts
Committee, which was formed in 1994 to compile a
complete roster of scouts with biographical and
career information for each and a listing of
major league ballplayers signed. The committee
is also in the process of developing and writing
a book on the history of scouting. Since 2001,
the committee has recognized a baseball
executive who has made significant contributions
to the scouting community with the Roland Hemond
Award. Past recipients have included Roland
Hemond, Bob Howsam, Pat Gillick, Paul Snyder,
Paul Beeston, and Bob Fontaine.
John
Schuerholz, Executive Vice President and General
Manager, Atlanta Braves
A native of Baltimore and graduate
of Towson University, John Schuerholz began his
front-office career in 1966 in the Baltimore
Orioles organization. He moved to the Kansas
City Royals two years later, where he held
various positions for 13 years, before being
named Executive Vice President and General
Manager of the Royals from 1981-1990.
Schuerholz has been the Executive Vice President
and General Manager of the Atlanta Braves since
1990 and during his 16-year tenure, the Braves
have had the best record in baseball, winning 14
straight divisional titles, five National League
pennants, and one World Series. Much of the
Braves’ phenomenal success has been attributed
to Schuerholz, a staunch advocate of scouting
who built one of professional baseball’s
preeminent farm systems. In 2006, Schuerholz
published a book, Built to Win, which
chronicled his tenure with the Braves and shed
light on some of his most important moves as a
general manager.
Mark
Shapiro, Executive Vice President and General
Manager, Cleveland Indians
A native of Baltimore, Mark Shapiro
played four years of football for Princeton
University, graduating in 1989 with a degree in
History. Following graduation, he worked in the
real estate development industry in Southern
California before joining the Cleveland Indians
organization in January 1992 as an assistant in
Baseball Operations. He was promoted to
Assistant Director of Minor League Operations in
1993, then to Director of Minor League
Operations from 1994-1998; in the latter
position, he oversaw all aspects of the Indians’
player development system and Latin American
operations. Following a stint as Assistant
General Manager, Shapiro was elevated to the
position of Executive Vice President and General
Manager of the Indians in November 2001. During
his tenure, he has reconstructed the major
league club and revitalized its player
development system through a series of shrewd
trades, strong drafts, and resourceful free
agent signings. The fruits of Shapiro’s labor
paid off in 2005 when the Indians won 93 games,
and both The Sporting News and
Baseball America named him Executive of the
Year.
Mark
Winegardner, Professor of English, Florida State
University
Mark Winegardner (MFA, George Mason
University) specializes in writing both fiction
and non-fiction. He has received numerous
grants and fellowships and his books have been
chosen as among the best of the year by the
New York Times Book Review, the New York
Public Library, the American Library
Association, and USA Today. His book
Prophet of the Sandlots: Journeys with a Major
League Scout (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1990)
chronicled the season he spent traveling through
the ballparks and back roads of the Midwest in
the company of Tony Lucadello, one of the
greatest baseball scouts of all time. In 2002,
Winegardner was named the Janet Burroway
Professor of English at Florida State University
and was chosen by Random House to write the
sequel to Mario Puzo’s The Godfather;
that novel, The Godfather Returns, was
published in 2004.
John Young, Founder, Reviving Baseball in the
Inner Cities (RBI)
A former Major League Baseball
player and scout, John Young founded the highly
successful Reviving Baseball in the Inner Cities
(RBI) program in Los Angeles in 1989 to provide
disadvantaged youth an opportunity to learn and
enjoy the game of baseball. Now in its 19th
season, Young’s concept grew from a local
program for boys in South Central Los Angeles to
an international campaign encompassing more than
200 cities and as many as 120,000 male and
female participants a year. The RBI program has
been administered by Major League Baseball since
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