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The Sit-Down: Dennis Gilbert, founder, Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation

Before he formed the Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation, Gilbert once defused a tense meeting with Jerry Reinsdorf by performing magic tricks.

B eing a scout is sort of like being king. It doesn’t train you for anything else, any other industry.

We have the support of everybody who put a uniform on,
and everybody in a front office and Major League Baseball itself.

I don’t think there’s anybody who hasn’t supported this cause. It’s all about the game. That’s the best part, and that’s what makes me feel so good.

We gross about a million [each year with the annual foundation fundraising dinner and auction in Los Angeles] and net about half that.

Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
Right now we have about 20 or 30 people under claim where we’re taking care of them each month. Most of the people we take care of are retired or out of work.

Perhaps the best part of our dinner each year is watching the scouts greet each other. They don’t shake hands. They hug.

Larry King has come every single year and given his time and never once has asked for anything. Larry just loves the game so much and has such a passion for it.

When I was trying to buy the Dodgers, Larry King got [Mexican business magnate and billionaire] Carlos Slim to fly in and have dinner at his house. We invited Barry Bonds, who came to the dinner, and Ernie Banks. So we had Ernie Banks on one side and Carlos Slim and Barry Bonds on the other. And all they were doing was talking baseball. Carlos Slim said he was a Yankees fan. Larry, he knows everybody, and he had Wolfgang Puck in his kitchen cooking dinner. It was an incredible night.

It’s my understanding that Rob Manfred’s first mission is to speed the game up, and he’s got a committee working on that already. I tip my hat to it, but I have to tell you I’m on the other side. I’m the type of person who would gladly watch a 14-inning, four-hour game and hope the game stays tied so I could be there another hour.

Since the time I was an agent, I think I’ve met with at least one young person every month, just talking to them about a career in baseball, whether it be on the agent side, the management side, coaching, scouting or whatever. I ask them a lot of questions about themselves, see where their passions lie, and try to direct them toward where I think they’d be a good fit.

I met Jerry Reinsdorf in 1984. I was representing Ozzie Guillen as his agent, and the White Sox had just traded LaMarr Hoyt to San Diego for Ozzie. Ozzie had not yet played in the major leagues, and the White Sox offered him the minimum salary. I said the heck with that, they just traded a Cy Young Award winner for Ozzie. I told them I’m not going to accept the minimum. I told the general manager at the time, Roland Hemond, I was going to come to Chicago and convince them.

Roland was nice enough to pick me up at the airport, and he said the owner would like to speak to me. He takes me back to old Comiskey Park, we’re sitting in a little conference room, and in comes Jerry. I told him I was working on my new hobby, magic, which has since become a real passion of mine, and I start doing tricks for about 20 minutes.

It completely changed what was initially a very intense type of meeting to a much more relaxed feeling. And we ended up doing a very special deal for Ozzie, a very interesting contract that had options, a real interesting compromise, and paid him for performance. He ended up being Rookie of the Year in 1985 and got all his bonuses, but it was a very good deal for both sides.

I now consider Jerry one of my very closest friends in the world. I love him and respect him.

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