Anthony Lucadello (July 30, 1912 – May 8, 1989) was a professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement **Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom **Scouts BSA, sectio ...

for the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...

(1943–1957) and

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

(1957–1989). During his career, he signed a total of 52 players who made it to the Major Leagues, most notably Hall of Famers

Ferguson Jenkins Ferguson Arthur "Fergie" Jenkins CM (born December 13, 1942) is a Canadian former professional baseball pitcher and coach. He played Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1965 to 1983 for the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers and ...

and

Mike Schmidt Michael Jack Schmidt (born September 27, 1949) is an American former professional baseball third baseman who played his entire 18-season career in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies. Schmidt was a 12-time All-Star and a ...

. His total number of Major League signings is considered to be unsurpassed, and some have called him perhaps the greatest scout ever.

Early life

Lucadello was born in

Thurber, Texas Thurber is an unincorporated community in Erath County, Texas, United States (near the Palo Pinto county line), located 75 miles west of Fort Worth. It was, between 1888 and 1921, one of the largest producers of bituminous coal in Texas and th ...

to native Italian parents, but grew up in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, Illinois, where his family moved so his father could work in the area's coal mines.

From player to scout

In 1936,

Branch Rickey Wesley Branch Rickey (December 20, 1881 – December 9, 1965) was an American baseball player and sports executive. Rickey was instrumental in breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier by signing black player Jackie Robinson. He also creat ...

established a new Class D team – the Fostoria Redbirds – in

Fostoria, Ohio Fostoria (, ) is a city located at the convergence of Hancock, Seneca, and Wood counties in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. It is approximately south of Toledo and north of Columbus. The city is known for its railroads, as app ...

as part of the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals hav ...

system and the

Ohio State League The Ohio State League was a minor league baseball league that operated in numerous seasons between 1887 and 1947, predominantly as a Class D level league. League franchises were based in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. Histo ...

. Lucadello travelled to Fostoria to try out for the team and ended up spending two years as a shortstop and player-manager in the league with the Redbirds and the Tiffin Mud Hens. Never a major league prospect as a player, Lucadello eventually took a factory job with the Fostoria Screw Company, met his future wife and settled down. In 1942, however, he returned to baseball as a part-time scout for the

. He began running tryout camps, assembling teams and borrowing equipment to outfit them, and playing his finds against some of the best amateur talent in the Midwest. He was offered his first full-time scouting position by Cubs owner

Philip K. Wrigley Philip Knight Wrigley (December 5, 1894 – April 12, 1977), often called P. K. Wrigley, was an American chewing gum manufacturer and a Major League Baseball executive, inheriting both of those roles as the quiet son of his much more flamboyant fa ...

after bringing two pitchers in two years to the attention of Cubs manager

Charlie Grimm Charles John Grimm (August 28, 1898 – November 15, 1983), nicknamed "Jolly Cholly", was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman, most notably for the Chicago Cubs; he was also a ...

who were signed immediately to the Major League roster. After seeing the second pitcher, Bob Rush, throwing at a tryout at

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago Wh ...

, Wrigley told Grimm, "Before you sign this pitcher here, if you want him that bad, you better sign that young man right there," and pointed at Lucadello. As he left Grimm's office, Wrigley said of Lucadello, "This young man was born to be a scout".

Scouting fundamentals

Lucadello worked without a radar gun or stopwatch and believed in dubious but unimpeachable homespun theories, such as the idea not to sign any players who wore glasses. Unlike nearly all other scouts, Lucadello almost never watched a game from behind home plate. Rather, he moved from place to place around the field: a short way up the baseline (to see the batter's face), behind first or third base (to judge the arm strength of both infielders and outfielders), and halfway up the line (to watch pitchers). Lucadello claimed that the key to identifying a prospect was to focus on the player's body control and footwork, saying, "Eighty-seven percent of the game of baseball is played below the waist." The four kinds of scouts, according to Lucadello, start with the letter 'P': * Poor -- wastes time looking for games rather than having a planned itinerary * Picker -- emphasizes a player's one weakness to the neglect of all strengths * Performance -- bases his evaluation on what a player does in his presence * Projector -- envisions what a player will be able to do in two or three years. He estimated that five percent of scouts were poor, five percent pickers, 85 percent performance scouts and five percent projectors. Lucadello's credentials as a "projector" were most clearly demonstrated in his vision for Hall of Fame

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

Mike Schmidt. As a high school senior with two bad knees, Schmidt hit only .179 with one home run, but Lucadello had been watching him since Little League and still saw his potential. "I felt...that Mike was a late bloomer", he explained years later. He tried to keep his interest in Schmidt from other scouts by hiding behind dugouts or bushes or watching from a nearby rooftop. "I watched one game from the back of a station wagon in the parking lot", Lucadello said. According to Schmidt, "Without Tony Lucadello, I wouldn't have been a Philadelphia Phillie. He scouted me from the time I played

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The Lucadello plan

Like many scouts, Lucadello believed that modern players were weak in the fundamentals of the game. In 1987, Lucadello told ''

The Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' that players were no longer developing in the United States because athletes were no longer growing up learning the game on sandlots. For many years he had proposed that young players could constantly improve their skills by using concrete walls to work on their arms and take ground balls at the same time, with or without supervision, similar to the way young basketball players spent hour after hour shooting at a basket. With the help of some high school coaches who worked as part-time scouts for him, he developed and published a series of training drills using the walls in a booklet called "The Lucadello Plan" that he believed could help change the game. In 1984,

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

president Dr. Bobby Brown, also believing the game's skills were in decline among its young players, began seeking a low-level way to reverse the trend. Among the ideas he received from major league baseball scouts was Lucadello's description of his "plan." With encouragement from former Phillies manager Dallas Green, who had seen clinics run by Lucadello in

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

, Major League Baseball created an instructional video in 1987 called, "A Coaching Clinic," that demonstrated the drills. Orders for the video came from all over the world, and it was given to officials from the former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

who visited spring training in 1988 in preparation for the creation of an Olympic team. The Lucadello Plan lists six rules for young players to follow to maximize the benefit of practicing with the wall: # Learn to position your feet for ground balls # Keep your head and glove down # Grip the ball across the seams # Throw with a strong, over-the-top delivery # Take 100 grounders off the wall every day # Play with enthusiasm

Major League signees

In the early 1940s, scouting for the Chicago Cubs, Lucadello covered nine states and parts of Canada, logging some 70,000 miles a year in his car. In his later years, with the Phillies, he concentrated on Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, his home state, spreading the gospel of the game to promising young athletes. Lucadello claimed, along with many of the coaches and part-time scouts he worked with, that his success in signing players was due largely to the close relationship he built with prospects and their families while he scouted them, sometimes over a number of years. “He would sell what it’s like and explain it all and really educate you about the minor leagues,” said

Steve Phillips Stephen Francis Phillips (born May 18, 1963) is an American baseball analyst and former baseball executive. He served as the general manager of the New York Mets from 1997 through 2003. He worked as a baseball analyst for ESPN from 2005 until h ...

, the former Mets general manager, who was scouted by Lucadello as an amateur player in Detroit. “The number of times he must have done that in his life — to go into those homes and have the exact same conversation — but he made it fresh, he made it real.” Lucadello would write regular letters to his signees as they made their way in the pros, and scour box scores every morning looking for their names. His trusted network of bird dogs — part-time scouts — gave him tips on players to follow. Ferguson Jenkins said, "I signed with the Phils because they had worked with me for three years...and 'cause I became real good friends with Tony Lucadello. He came down every weekend to watch me play." In one case, Lucadello was able to sign a player who had offers of at least $100,000 from seven other teams while all Lucadello could offer from the Cubs was $4,000. Lucadello had been watching the player,

Dick Drott Richard Fred Drott (July 1, 1936 – August 16, 1985) was a Major League Baseball player who pitched for the Chicago Cubs and the Houston Colt .45s. Drott, nicknamed "Hummer", started his major league career in 1957 with the Cubs. He won 15 game ...

, since he was fifteen. On the night of Drott's graduation, the earliest time he could sign a high school player, Lucadello, Drott and both of his parents were in tears about their decision when the mother said, "I don't want the money....Over my dead body is my boy going to sign with anyone but Tony." These are the Major League players who were originally signed by Tony Lucadello (by ML debut date): :For the Chicago Cubs ''(Note: * All-Star, + Hall of Fame)'': *

Johnny Lucadello John Lucadello (February 22, 1919 – October 30, 2001) was an American professional baseball player. Primarily a second baseman, he appeared in 239 Major League games for the St. Louis Browns (1938–1941; 1946) and New York Yankees (1947). T ...

Hank Edwards Henry Albert Edwards (January 29, 1919 – June 22, 1988) was an American professional baseball outfielder. He played 11 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) between 1941 and 1953 for the Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn Dodgers, Cinc ...

Ed Hanyzewski Edward Michael Hanyzewski (September 18, 1920 – October 8, 1991) was an American professional baseball player, a right-handed pitcher who worked in 58 games (25 as a starting pitcher) in the Major Leagues between 1942 and 1946 for the Chica ...

Russ Kerns Russell Eldon Kerns (November 10, 1920 – August 21, 2000) was an American Major League Baseball player who played in one game for the Detroit Tigers on August 18, . He went hitless in one at bat In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is ...

* Bob Rush * * Wayne Terwilliger *

Harry Chiti Harry Dominic Chiti Jr. (pronounced ) (November 16, 1932 – January 31, 2002) was an American catcher in Major League Baseball. He appeared in 502 games over all or parts of ten seasons between and for the Chicago Cubs, Kansas City Athletic ...

* Bob Kelly * Fred Richards * Don Elston * * Duke Simpson *

Jim Brosnan James Patrick Brosnan (October 24, 1929 – June 28, 2014) was an American baseball player and author who played in Major League Baseball in 1954 and from 1956 through 1963. A right-handed pitcher, he appeared in 385 games, largely in relief, ...

Bob Speake Robert Charles Speake (born August 22, 1930), nicknamed "Spook", is an American former professional baseball player. He was an outfielder for the Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a ...

* Bob Anderson *

Eddie Haas George Edwin Haas (born May 26, 1935) is a former outfielder, coach, manager and scout in American Major League Baseball. Haas spent 14 years as a skipper in the farm system of the Atlanta Braves and replaced Joe Torre as Atlanta's manager after ...

Gordon Massa Gordon Richard Massa (September 2, 1935 – July 16, 2016) was an American professional baseball player who appeared in eight games as a catcher and pinch hitter for the 1957–1958 Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball. A left-handed batter who t ...

Gene Fodge Gene Arlan "Suds" Fodge (July 9, 1931 – October 27, 2010) was a pitcher in Major League Baseball who played briefly for the Chicago Cubs during the season. Listed at , Weight: 175 lb., Fodge batted and threw right-handed. He was born in ...

Footer Johnson Richard Allan "Footer" Johnson (born February 15, 1932) is a former Major League Baseball player. He appeared in eight games for the Chicago Cubs in , five as a pinch hitter and three as a pinch runner. He did not have a hit in his five at-bats ...

Don Eaddy Donald Johnson Eaddy (February 16, 1934 – July 9, 2008) was an American baseball, football, and basketball player. He played Major League Baseball for the Chicago Cubs in 1959. He played college baseball, football, and basketball at the Unive ...

* Ed Donnelly * John Goetz *

Lou Johnson Louis Brown Johnson (September 22, 1934 – October 1, 2020), nicknamed Sweet Lou, was an American Major League Baseball outfielder. Johnson's professional baseball career lasted for 17 seasons, and included 8 years in the majors: parts of 1960� ...

:For the Philadelphia Phillies'' (Note: * All-Star, + Hall of Fame)'': * George Williams *

John Herrnstein John Ellett Herrnstein (March 31, 1938 – October 3, 2017) was an American baseball and football player. He played Major League Baseball from 1962 to 1966 for the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, and Atlanta Braves. He also played co ...

Alex Johnson Alexander Johnson (December 7, 1942 – February 28, 2015) was an American professional baseball outfielder, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB), from to , for the Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, California An ...

* (

Batting champion) * Grant Jackson * *

*+ (

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

Cy Young Award The Cy Young Award is given annually to the best pitchers in Major League Baseball (MLB), one each for the American League (AL) and National League (NL). The award was first introduced in 1956 by Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick in honor of Hall ...

winner) * Billy Sorrell * Terry Harmon * Clarence Jones * Mike Marshall * (

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

winner) * John Upham *

Larry Hisle Larry Eugene Hisle (; born May 5, 1947) is an American former professional baseball player and hitting coach. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as an outfielder for the Philadelphia Phillies (1968–71), Minnesota Twins (1973–77), and M ...

* *

Steve Arlin Steven Ralph Arlin (September 25, 1945 – August 17, 2016) was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the San Diego Padres and Cleveland Indians for six seasons. College star Born in Seattle, Arlin was a collegiate star at ...

Toby Harrah Colbert Dale (Toby) Harrah (born October 26, 1948) is an American former professional baseball player. He played as a shortstop and third baseman in Major League Baseball from to . Harrah played the majority of his career for the Texas Rangers f ...

* * Dave Roberts *

*+ (

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

Most Valuable Player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

; All-Century Team) * Larry Cox *

Jim Essian James Sarkis Essian, Jr. (born January 2, 1951) is an American former professional baseball player, coach, and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a catcher for the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago White Sox, Oakland Athletics, Sea ...

Tom Underwood Thomas Gerald Underwood (December 22, 1953 – November 22, 2010) was an American Major League Baseball pitcher. His younger brother, Pat was also a pitcher, and made his major league debut against Tom. It was the first time in major league histo ...

Dyar Miller Dyar K Miller (born May 29, 1946) is a retired professional baseball pitcher, coach and instructor. A product of Utah State, Miller pitched 13 seasons in professional baseball between and . He also pitched all or parts of seven seasons in Majo ...

Bill Nahorodny William Gerard Nahorodny (born August 31, 1953), is a retired professional baseball player who played in the Major Leagues from -. A catcher, he played for the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago White Sox, Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians, Detroit ...

* Fred Andrews *

Barry Bonnell Robert Barry Bonnell (born October 27, 1953) is an American former outfielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). After playing basketball and baseball for the Ohio State University (OSU), he played baseball for the Atlanta Braves, Toronto Blue Jays a ...

Todd Cruz Todd Ruben Cruz (November 23, 1955 – September 2, 2008), was an American former professional baseball shortstop and third baseman, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) between and with the Philadelphia Phillies, Kansas City Royals, Califo ...

Scott Munninghoff Scott Andrew Munninghoff (born December 5, 1958) is an American former professional baseball pitcher, who played briefly in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies during the season. Listed at , , he batted and threw right-hande ...

* Len Matuszek *

Scott Service Scott David Service (born February 26, 1967) is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played for several Major League Baseball teams, between 1988 and 2004. He also pitched one season in Japan, for the Chunichi Dragons in 1991. ...

Mickey Morandini Michael Robert "Mickey" Morandini (born April 22, 1966), is an American former professional baseball second baseman and coach, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, and Toronto Blue Jays. His car ...

* * Tom Marsh

Awards

Lucadello was inducted into the All Sports Hall of Fame in Chicago in 1976. He was named "Midwest Scout of the Year" by The Scout of the Year Foundation in 1986. He was inducted into the Ohio Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989.

Death

In the spring of 1989, at the age of 76, Lucadello was told by the Phillies that that year's draft would be his last for them. Apparently unable to cope with the impending loss of his work – "the fear of not being wanted," Mike Schmidt called it – Lucadello died by

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

by a gunshot wound to the head on May 8, 1989 on a baseball field in Fostoria. Lucadello was found by the local high school baseball team, who found him lying on the ground shortly after he had shot himself. The team knocked on neighborhood doors to call 911. After the ambulance took Lucadello away, the team resumed practice. The field, now named for Lucadello, features a monument honoring the former scout as "Baseball's Friend".

Notes

Sources

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