Eye for Talent

Baseball scouts are often unseen, seldom recognized, and usually underappreciated by fans, but they have contributed enormously to the development and evolution of baseball at all levels, from the players they signed to the changes in the business climate of the game. This book presents original interviews with 19 baseball scouts.
In many cases, these veterans are a vanishing breed; among the most respected baseball men in the business, most have a minimum of forty years’ experience in scouting. They share their experiences as players, their development as scouts while the business and the game continually evolved, the players they signed and the ones that got away. Along with each interview is a list of the scout’s signed players who made it to the major leagues.

P.J. Dragseth is a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), a former secondary school teacher, and writer for a small local newspaper. She lives in Rogue River, Oregon.

Edited by P.J. Dragseth
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 251
Bibliographic Info: 32 photos, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2010
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4361-1
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5813-4
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vi

Foreword by Lenny Yochim      1

Preface      3

Introduction      5

THE INTERVIEWS

Hugh Alexander      19

Dick Egan      29

Jerry Gardner      41

Jethro “Jeth” McIntyre      52

Ellis Clary      62

Dick Wilson      74

Gene “Junior” Thompson      106

Bobby Mattick      116

Al LaMacchia      128

George Genovese      144

Julian Mock      160

Fred McAlister      171

Gib Bodet      187

Phil Rizzo      199

Cecil Espy      207

Bob Harrison      221

George Digby      231

Bibliography      235

Index      237

“these scouts are great company, and in Dragseth’s pages their humanity and optimism as well as their hard-headed realism shine through”—Nine; “17 skillfully-presented monologues…anyone who thinks scouts…are the unsung heroes of the game will treasure this book”­—Spitball; “a great introduction”—Reference & Research Book News.