...check in with the office, and yes, catch the Weather Channel before calling it a day for work.
THE NIGHT
Life on the road is lonely. If you have family, a call to check in with them may be the only interaction with your wife and children..
You have meetings for work with prospects and coaches from time to time as you continue to assess and refine your picks for the upcoming amateur draft, Rule V draft, or the other minor milestones. We don’t work all of the time, though, and we find we have more than a bit of time to kill now and again.
THE ‘FAMILY’
Scouts tend to stay in the same hotel. If you find yourself in the company of other scouts, you might share an evening just hanging out, watching more baseball on TV or catching a movie.
What do scouts do when they get together? You talk about a great game or a particularly memorable play. We talk a little shop, talk about other guys in the business that we know, about family, and this and that. We cover a lot of the same talent, so you keep your opinions on players under evaluation a bit closer to the vest.
In the international market, it can get a bit more cutthroat. Finding that promising player in a little backwater town means working sources. You don’t necessarily like to see another scout at your hotel. They may be after the same prospect.
THE TIME
You have a lot of free time on your hands. If the weather gods are not smiling upon you, and you hit a particularly bad bout of rain, or, in a few territories early in the year, snow, the day slows down. That’s not bad when you are home, but when you are on the road, and stuck in a hotel, waiting, it can be a real drag.
With spare time come choices, some good, and some bad. Most scouts use their free time on the road positively. You catch a little TV, watch a movie, surf the web, or work on that baseball book you’ve been meaning to write all these years. A very few scouts fall into the scouting clichés: Drinking too much or looking for company wherever they can find it.
If you don’t maintain some self-discipline, and respect, your time as a scout will be short. Too many people count on you to deliver critical information on players in your turf. If you don’t, you are easily replaced.
THE PROS
Most area scouts will also do some professional scouting, which is a whole other ballgame.
The pro scout is responsible for reporting on every player on a major or minor league club. Each report gives the scout’s Major League general manager and his staff a picture and opinion of the player.
The job of pro scouting has grown dramatically in the past decade. While developing players is one way of obtaining talent, scouting another team’s major and minor league players is another way to make the club...
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