A Scout's Report: My 70 Years in Baseball by George Genovese, with Dan Taylor (review)

When Pat Gillick was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010, the longtime general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays praised the numerous scouts with whom he had been affiliated over the years. Those individuals, many of whom were unfamiliar to the average fan, were responsible for constructing the foundation that brought two World Series championships to the "Queen City" in 1992 and 1993. Gillick, who had been a scout for the Houston Astros, had a reverence for the special talent and unique insight it took to determine if a teenager from the United States or Latin America had the ability to perform at the highest levels of Major League Baseball.

One of the figures Gillick would have certainly acknowledged, had he been successful in hiring him in 1978, was longtime scout George Genovese. While Genovese (1922–2015) spent much of his early career as a player and manager for a variety of organizations, including the St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Washington Senators, the role that proved to be most successful and rewarding was the more than four decades he spent as a scout for the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers. Over the course of his career, Genovese signed dozens of players, many of whom went on to have significant major league careers. The author relates those experiences and more in his highly entertaining memoir A Scout's Report: My 70 Years in Baseball.

A lifelong baseball fan, Genovese, who grew up in a working-class background on New York's Staten Island, became a fan of the national pastime from an early age. As one who aspired to play in the major leagues, Genovese's dream became reality when the St. Louis Cardinals offered him a contract in 1940, following his graduation from high school. As he began his tenure in the Cardinal organization, Genovese came into contact with the great Stan Musial, Cardinal general manager Branch Rickey, and other baseball luminaries.

Despite being a confident shortstop with an above-average throwing arm, Genovese's athletic ability was not enough to allow him to achieve lasting success as a major league player. But what the hard-charging infielder lacked as an athlete he was able make up in intellect. While he continued to play in the minor leagues for more than a decade, it was his relationship with Rickey that can be credited with allowing Genovese to transition from player to manager and then ultimately to one of the game's premier scouts.

In having Rickey as his mentor, Genovese was able not only to develop an expertise as a manger but also learn how talent was developed. Over the course of his apprenticeship, Genovese spent time watching and listening as the man who broke baseball's color line instructed him and others in the fundamental tactics and skills that had allowed the Cardinals and Dodgers to achieve a large portion of their success. Throughout the narrative, Genovese discusses how Rickey had him run baseball camps in different parts of the country that allowed the former shortstop to hone his skill at evaluating talent and ascertaining what it took to achieve greatness at baseball's upper echelons. The memoir is filled with tales of players like Roberto Clemente, Maury Wills, and Willie Mays, as well as what it was like to manage teams and deal with players at all different levels of the sport.

The most interesting part of the book was Genovese's unique ability to spot talent in young players whom his colleagues believed did not have the ability to succeed. Time and time again during his career as a scout for the Giants and the Dodgers, Genovese frequently found athletes who, despite having great raw talent, had been dismissed by other members of the scouting department because it was believed they did not possess the drive, discipline, or other skills...