Virginian-Pilot

DATE: Thursday, April 3, 1997               TAG: 9704030618
SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ROBIN BRINKLEY, STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   85 lines




SCOUTS JOCKEY TO CHECK OUT LOCAL TALENT THEY BRING THEIR OWN TOOLS: A RADAR GUN, A STOPWATCH AND A POCKET-SIZED NOTEBOOK.

You say you love baseball? Got a satellite dish, season tickets to the Tides and belong to not one, but two, Rotisserie leagues?

Gary York is not impressed.

York, an area scout for the Detroit Tigers, swallows his baseball like vitamins. He watches close to 750 games in the three months leading up to June's major league draft; that's more than one a day, if you're counting.

York, who quit a teaching job 16 years ago to pursue the nomad's life, put 45,000 miles on the old sedan between February and September of last year. At 22 cents a mile that comes to $9,900; try submitting that to your boss for reimbursement.

``We have to like this game in order to do it,'' York says, nodding appreciatively at the dozens of colleagues joining him behind the backstop Wednesday at First Colonial to record every mannerism of Great Bridge's John Curtice and Mike Cuddyer in their game against the Patriots.

Curtice, a lefthanded pitcher, and Cuddyer, a power-hitting shortstop, are considered potential high-round draft picks. Thus the unusual scrutiny.

The Florida Marlins have four scouts at the game: a part-time ``bird dog'' who works a narrowly-defined geographic area, an area scout, whose territory usually covers four or five states, and two crosscheckers.

Crosscheckers, who are cross only when called in to see mediocre players and may or may not like checkers, follow up on favorable reports filed by the area and region scouts.

If the crosschecker is impressed then the scouting director, the man who runs the entire scouting organization for a major league team, is summoned.

Jim Hendry, scouting director for the Chicago Cubs, is here Wednesday. He has an office at Wrigley Field but could rent it out so seldom is he there.

``I leave tonight for Mobile, Ala.,'' he says. ``I'll spend one day there, one day in Phoenix and one day in St. Louis before returning to Chicago for opening day. Then it's back on the road again.''

Hendry's appearance is a good sign for Curtice and Cuddyer. He scouts only players targeted for the first five to 10 rounds.

``I've seen Cuddyer two or three times,'' he says.

Hendry likes the 11 a.m. starting time.

``We can stay for the next game (at 3 p.m.) or head out of town for a night game,'' he says.

In assessing a player, scouts look for the five tools: fielding, arm strength, batting, batting with power and foot speed.

How many players possess all five tools?

``Not many,'' says Alex Smith, an area supervisor for the Seattle Mariners.

Area and region scouts have their own tools: a radar gun, a stopwatch and a pocket-sized notepad.

When Curtice pitches there are so many guns trained on the ball it resembles a state troopers convention. He starts slow, but fans First Colonial slugger Jeff Butler with an 88 mph fastball that draws approving nods from the scouts.

He eventually reaches the low 90s but is forced to leave after three innings when his left wrist is hit by a pitch.

For a scout who has driven 500 miles to just to see him pitch that can be a big disappointment. But Fred McAlister takes it in stride.

McAlister is a ``special assignment'' scout for the Cardinals with 53 years in baseball. He owns five World Series rings and today is wearing the one from 1982.

``It's the prettiest,'' he says.

McAlister is accompanied by area scout Tim Conroy, a former major league pitcher.

``My job is to look at the shortstop and that lefthanded pitcher,'' McAlister says. ``When I leave I'll have an idea whether I like them or not.''

Curtice's short stint doesn't bother him.

``Three innings is enough to show his best stuff,'' McAlister says. ``Apparently he didn't have his best stuff today, according to my scout.''

While the other scouts stand behind the backstop, jostling for position to point their radar guns, McAlister sits to the side, rarely rising from his lawn chair.

When Cuddyer is charged with an error after overzealously charging a ground ball McAlister is unfazed.

``That can be taught,'' he says.

Teaching patience is something else. But it might be the most important tool of a scout. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot

Baseball scouts had so many radar guns trained on Great Bridge

pitcher John Curtice Wednesday it resembled a state troopers

convention.



[home] [ETDs] [Image Base] [journals] [VA News] [VTDL] [Online Course Materials] [Publications]

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu
by CNB