"Chatter Up!" – Bob Fontaine Jr., Legendary Scout and "Baseball Gypsy" (3/17/22) скачать в хорошем качестве

"Chatter Up!" – Bob Fontaine Jr., Legendary Scout and "Baseball Gypsy" (3/17/22)

On this episode of JapanBall's #ChatterUp!, Bob Fontaine Jr. joins host Shane Barclay. Fontaine spent 50 years "beating the bushes" and finding prospects around the globe for various MLB organizations. The list of players Fontaine signed includes Tony Gwynn, Randy Johnson, and Ozzie Smith! Recap: https://japanball.com/articles-featur... Full Transcript: https://japanball.com/articles-featur... Bio: A native of San Jose, California, Bob Fontaine Jr is a baseball lifer. His baseball story starts with his father, Bob Sr., who played in the minor leagues for the Brooklyn Dodgers and eventually became one of General Manager Branch Rickey’s most trusted scouts. Rickey eventually left for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and took Bob Sr. with him, and they built another World Series champion franchise. As a kid and teenager, Bob helped out in the clubhouse and served as a batboy, but eventually, Bob Sr. took advantage of the privilege that comes with being a trusted front office member of a storied franchise: he got young Bob his first real job in baseball...as a peanut vendor at Forbes Field. After high school, Bob joined the FBI, but he was drawn to the baseball field. He decided to dedicate himself to the craft of scouting, just as his dad did, and joined the Padres as a scout in 1973. And so began his life as a “baseball gypsy” as the title of his book puts it. Bob has spent the last five decades as a baseball scout and executive, compiling a track record that is matched by few. He has held the role of Scouting Director, Player Personnel Director, and Minor League Director for the San Diego Padres, Montreal Expos, Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays, Chicago White Sox, and Major League Scouting Bureau. He has signed or supervised the signing of 114 Major League players, a list that includes three hall of famers - Tony Gwynn, Randy Johnson, and Ozzie Smith - and 14 MLB All-Stars. Some of the other guys you may have heard of that Bob signed are: Jim Abbott, Garrett Anderson, Jim Edmonds, Darin Erstad, Bob Geren, Troy Glaus, Ozzie Guillen, Troy Percival, Francisco Rodriguez, and Tim Salmon. And now, Bob has a new title: author. His book, "In Search of Millionaires (The Life of a Baseball Gypsy): The Bob Fontaine Jr. Story," was recently released. He and coauthor Taylor Blake Ward wrote a memoir that not only humbly documents Bob’s incredible baseball life, but also serves as an ode and written record to traditional scouting – an endangered craft - and old-school scouts – dying breed.