Real Story on Mays ... Scout’s Honor
Willie Mays, who was honored at a benefit for baseball scouts Saturday night at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, told Morning Briefing last week that Eddie Montague, the scout who signed Mays, had worked for the Boston Red Sox but wasn’t able to sign him until he went to work for the New York Giants.
Steve Bitker, a Bay Area sportscaster and author, disputed Mays’ version of the story, saying in an e-mail that Montague was with the Giants when he first saw Mays play.
Baseball executive Dennis Gilbert, who organized the benefit that raised about $250,000, had a party for scouts Sunday at his Calabasas home, where the debate continued.
Mays stood by his story, saying that’s what he’d been told.
Dodger scout George Genovese, who worked for the San Francisco Giants from 1960 to ‘95, said the story he got from Jack Schwarz, the Giants’ longtime director of scouting, supported Bitker’s version -- that Montague, as a Giant scout, came to check about Birmingham (Ala.) Black Baron first baseman Alonzo Perry and ended up signing Mays.
Trivia time: Who was the first black player signed by the Red Sox, and in what year?
More Mays: Bitker, after re-reading Howard Bryant’s book, “Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston,” e-mailed again to say, “Red Sox General Manager Joe Cronin was tipped about Mays, so he sent a Texas scout named Larry Woodall to Birmingham to check him out.
“It rained the first three days Woodall was in Birmingham, and he refused to stay any longer, returning to Texas.
“Another Red Sox scout named George Digby went to Birmingham, saw Mays play and wrote a glowing report, which Cronin ignored.... So apparently Mays’ recollection is partially correct.”
More clarification: Reader Allen E. Kahn, in an e-mail, said that Mays, when in high school, played for the Birmingham Black Barons, not the minor league Birmingham Barons.
“The Barons and Black Barons were two totally different teams,” Kahn said. “The Black Barons were just that, black, and they played in the old Negro Leagues.
“If Willie ever attended one of the [white] Barons’ games, I’m sure he would have had to sit out in the left-field bleachers and not in the ‘whites only’ section. It’s amazing how far we’ve all come since those days.”
Say Hey says hey: Mays told the scouts at Saturday night’s function that because he received a $15,000 bonus when Montague signed him in 1950, he would donate $15,000 to their foundation, which helps scouts in need.
Trivia answer: Infielder Pumpsie Green in 1959, 12 years after the Brooklyn Dodgers had signed Jackie Robinson.
And finally: Jerry Greene, in the Orlando Sentinel, after the New York Times computer placed Maryland third behind USC and Louisiana State in its final college football rankings: “If NASA were using that piece of junk, the Rover would have landed in Cleveland.”
Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.