Gib Bodet’s 70-year love affair with baseball dates from his childhood in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, and it has carried him through parts of six decades as a scout with the Red Sox, Tigers, Expos, Angels, Royals, and Dodgers. He played ball in high school and the military, coached youth and legion teams, and finally made the game his profession at age 38. In this memoir, Bodet recalls humorous stories about people he worked for and with—Peter O’Malley, Walter Shannon, Gene Autry, John Schuerholz, Al Campanis and long-time friend Tom Lasorda among them—and describes his role in drafting and signing such players as Mike Piazza, Eric Karros, Todd Hollandsworth, Paul Konerko, Matt Kemp, Clayton Kershaw and Chad Billingsley.

Gib Bodet has been a professional baseball scout since 1969, and has been with the Dodgers since 1979. He lives in Southern California.
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.

By Gib Bodet as told to P.J. Dragseth
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 248
Bibliographic Info: 28 photos, index
Copyright Date: 2014
pISBN: 978-0-7864-7240-6
eISBN: 978-1-4766-1403-8
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents


Acknowledgments  vi

Foreword by Tommy Lasorda  1

Preface by Gib Bodet  3

Introduction by P.J. Dragseth  7

My Road to the Dodgers  13

The O’Malley Era  39

The Life of a National Cross Checker  49

It’s All Part of Scouting  57

Moneyball and Swiss Cheese: Both Full of Holes  75

Coverage of Amateur Players: Twelve Thousand Games, Six Million Miles  85

Is He Having Fun? Tips for Developing Young Players  99

Slumps, Streaks, Sliding, Stealing and Other “S” Words  108

When Junior Is a Prospect: Draft Guidelines  137

Off to the Races: An Inside Look at the Draft  161

Four Decades of Baseball Observations  180

My Two Cents  215

Epilogue  233

Index  235

“Written from the heart…honest, provocative, informative…a great read for all aspiring young baseball players and their parents”—A.T. Viglione, athlete and coach.