Baseball scouts are often unseen, seldom recognized, and almost always 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 changing 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 40 years experience in scouting. They share their experiences as players, their development as scouts while the business and the game...

The 1957 PCL season faced uncertainty about the pending "invasion of major league baseball" in 1958. While the meetings, wheeling and dealing and politics took place off the diamond, the historic San Francisco Seals, a charter member of the Golden Era of the league, 1903-1957, played baseball and clinched the pennant two days before the season ended. We follow this team one game at a time as players faced historic rivals from spring training through the final game of the era.

Written from the heart, this book demonstrates Gib Bodet's 70-year love affair with the great game of baseball that goes back to his childhood in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, and carries through his 45-year scouting career with the Red Sox, Tigers, Expos, Angels, Royals, and 35 years with the Dodgers after playing ball in high school and the military, coaching youth and legion teams, and how he became a scout at age 38. In addition to memories and humorous stories about people he worked for and with like Peter O'Malley, Walter Shannon, Gene Autry, John Schuerholz, Al Campanis, and others, he...