Great draft story

The start of this year’s draft reminded me of a great draft / scout story I heard this year.  This past winter I spoke at a coaches clinic and the guest speaker to kick off the event was Howie Bedell, a former major league player who spent time with the Milwaukee Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies.  He also spent many years a coach in professional baseball and was the Cincinatti Reds’ farm director from 1990-1991.  When he spoke to the coaches at the clinics, he gave a great story about prospects and scouts from his days with the Phillies.

Throughout the 1970’s, Dallas Green was the farm director and then scouting director for the Phillies.  He apparently was not very happy with the quality of “prospects” the Phillies organization had.  After one season, he gathered all the “prospects” on one field for a few days for some workouts.  He had all the scouts who recommended them/signed them attend the workouts as well.  The scouts were excited at the recognition until they showed up at the field and saw what Dallas Green had done.  Instead of having the player’s names on the back of their uniforms, Green had the scouts names who recommended/signed them on the back of the jerseys. 

Instant accountability!  He went on to fire most of them.

Draft day is certainly not an exact science.  1st rounders never pan out and guys never drafted become hall of famers.  Sometimes you never know.