Go Down Swingin'

They are known as the five tools. Scouting baseball, rating, judging, assessing a player’s talents and projecting them to provide a future return on investment, carries with it the success of an entire franchise. Without a constant stream of fresh talent arriving each year in rookie camp, the chances of any team reaching .500, let alone getting into the post season, is remote. The ability of a scout to see potential is like Michelangelo seeing a beatific sculpture hiding inside a block of marble. It is an incredible gift, it takes years of experience and could even be called a sixth sense. As an example, if you like a good challenge, take an afternoon and go watch a varsity baseball game at your local high school. Once settled atop your uncomfortable aluminum bench seat, take out your scorebook and being the esoteric nomenclature of keeping score, but noting the individual athletic characteristics of each of the 18 players assigned starting duty that day. Your mission is to fined ONE player that has a combination of the five tools, or one in dominating fashion, and recommend him or her, up the chain of command. Please keep in mind that there will be other representation evaluating the same players, others scouts from competing teams all wanting the creme del la creme for their teams. There will be little margin for the E6.

A quick review of the five scouted tools. On the scale of 1-5, with 5 being a sure entry into the Hall of Fame and a 1 being a cup of coffee, how do they:

1) Hit

2) Hit for power

3) Run

4) Throw

5) Catch

My downfall was two-fold. While I could hit, run, and catch, at 5’ 9” and 165, I had little power and limited arm strength. I was a solid shortstop with a Pete Rose attitude but my off-field discipline was lacking, a area that might very well be considered the sixth tool. Intangibles; Character, dependability, honesty, reliability. I was 18 year old kid in 1972, immature, confused and stressed over life’s seemingly relentless and overwhelming challenges. I made mistakes and paid the price. 

Today, having spent the better part of the 46 years since I was scouted as ‘not strong enough to play every day’, I can reflect and critically evaluate the errors I made in that crucial situation. Many of the guys I played with would go on to stellar careers in the Show, one, Georgie Ballgame, making it to the HoF. While always morose that I had performed so miserably in the clutch, a part of me always appreciated the things that I was able to accomplish after the game had passed me by, or passed on me. 

I bring this up today because I feel a comparison is appropriate. Keeping the baseball metaphor, we get three strikes with each at-bat right? If I am here and you are here, the worst it can be is 0 and 2. We have another pitch left. 

If there is one thing that I truly appreciate about the game above all the other Zen nuanced minutia, it is this: 

IT IS NEVER OVER TILL IT’S OVER. (Go down swingin’).