When you attend five games in three days and spend seven hours at the stadium for the Home Run derby, All-Star game and rain delay, people start asking questions. When your husband takes copious stats and writes down all of the wacky things you observe, and you shoot with a telephoto lens attached to a somewhat cool-looking monopod, people really start to ask questions. And that’s exactly what happened as our time at Mulcahy Stadium wore on. Throw into the mix all of the MLB scouts in and around the stands, and people thought we were movers and shakers. Jamie was a scout, I was his interested wife (there are no female scouts in MLB), and we were just there for the showcase weekend. But after chatting with a few inquiring locals and even a few more inquiring scouts (you’ve picked up on the fact that I like to talk to strangers), our story of coming to Anchorage just to watch baseball traveled through the Anchorage Pilots’ baseball community faster than we ever expected.
“All the way from San Francisco to watch baseball?”
“This is for a class? There are classes on baseball? And you chose Alaska?”
“You’ve been watching just as many games as we have and just because?”
Yes, yes and more yes. So it was on our final day in Anchorage at our final ALB outing that we were welcomed into the pack of MLB scouts with excitement and glee. Before I knew it I was shooting radar behind home plate with the Cubs’ scout, laughing with the Diamondbacks scout about how much he loves to fish (that’s the real reason the scouts enjoy coming to Alaska), trying to convince the Red Sox scout that just because my rain coat was red didn’t mean I was a fan, listening to the Central Scouting agent explain the ins and outs of how no team can dominate the scouting season because MLB looks under ever rock and in every town.
I learned how to scout (newer scouts actually go to scout school; I just went to Alaska). It’s all a numbers game: 4.3 seconds from home to first for a right handed batter (4.2 for a lefty), 2 seconds to make the throw from home to second, 1.2 seconds for a pitcher’s delivery in the stretch, 87 mph average for all pitches. You clock the first three innings of a starter, and move quickly with each reliever. Size and bulk matter, but speed rules. Get out of the batter’s box quickly, and you’re a threat no matter how or where you hit the ball. Best speed ever seen by the Cubs’ scout: Mickey Mantle (I need to check this as I didn’t think Mantle was a speedster). I’m sure these metrics are available on all sorts of websites, but it was behind home plate at Mulcahy Stadium that I saw the game not as a fan or as a teacher or even as a former player, but as a business woman looking for a new employee. It was awesome.
The Home Run Derby and All-Star Game were fabulous as well. I can now say I’ve been to an All-Star game, a Home Run Derby and a World Series in one summer. And for the bargain basement price of $45 total. Not bad.
In all, the ALB was everything I had hoped for and more. I got to watch engaged athletes loving their game. I got to experience a baseball community unlike anything I’ve ever been a part of. And I got to learn lots of cool stuff about life on the road and on the field through the eyes of someone looking for the next great player.
Get yourself to the ballpark, observe the game and the life of the stadium and let me know what you find … I am truly hooked on all that baseball brings into not only my life and community but also yours.
Thanks for reading.
Number of ALB players likely to get drafted: 3
Best thing to happen to the ALB in years: Texas league went under
Home Run Derby Winner: Adam Martin of the Mat-Su Miners
Coolest new must-have toy: radar gun
Favorite player to watch: Aaron Judge (Fresno State – check him out; scouts like him too)
Funniest thing the scouts talked about: “Unbelievable Alaskan falafel!”
Daily calorie need of a Grizzly Bear: 30,000
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