SCOUTS' HONOR IT'S HIGH TIME THE HALL OF FAME RECOGNIZE THE INVALUABLE CONTRIBUTIONS SCOUTS MAKE TO THE GAME.

Byline: JOHN KLIMA

BASEBALL

If you picked up a bat and a ball in Los Angeles anywhere in the past 40 years, thought yourself to be a high school or a college player with a chance to play professionally, made yourself good enough to get a look, then chances are that scout George Genovese gave you one.

"I lived by one rule," Genovese, 85, said. "If I made a mistake on a player, I wanted it to be my own. I didn't want to be influenced by anyone else. I wanted my decision to be my own call. I wanted to stand with that, no matter what kind of player the kid became."

Genovese was right at least 35 times, and the players he signed, mostly for the San Francisco Giants, have hit some 2,400 major-league home runs. As baseball celebrates the Hall of Fame inductions of Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. today, the Hall of Fame continues to miss the call on scouts, neglecting a crucial part of the game and contradicting their own mission statement.

Good scouting is all about what everyone feels is lost in baseball. A good scout engenders trust -- in the players and in his employer. A good scout is honest and loyal.

A good scout can't cheat. No drug can make you a better talent evaluator. It's attention to detail. It's respect for the game -- long hours spent on the road, at the park, in front of the laptop filling out hundreds of reports a year, on the phone, stuck in a hotel room. It's a life where an off day might mean an eight-hour drive between parks.

This is not to imply that all scouts are saints, but then again, some Hall of Famers aren't either. Some scouts don't work hard. Some of them act like the ballplayers they cover. Some claim credit for players they had little to do with. Some younger ones see scouting amateur players as a climber's path to becoming a general manager.

They scout amateurs off magazine lists and Web site rankings. They look at radar gun readings instead of movement, differentiation and character. They look for power hitters and overlook skill. They seek the safest bet. They ask others out of fear that their own judgment might be flawed. They commit the high sin of letting high school and college coaches evaluate for them. It is an imperfect business of big egos.

Some are better politicians and self-promoters than they are evaluators. It is up to the club to weed out the workers from the work-shirkers.

For the clubs that downplay the significance of scouts and characterize them as a bunch of lazy bums who like to abuse their expense accounts, well, maybe the problem isn't the scouts. Maybe it's the ones who were hired to replace the ones who were fired. A computer cannot tell teams anything about a player's totality.

There are clubs that consider character, yet are won over by talent. They pay the price when that player has a mug shot in the newspaper or ends up languishing in the minor leagues. Once a club hires good scouts, it should listen to them before it listens to agents. Don't overspend for that 'once-in-a-decade' player and learn two years later that he's soft.

As the game has moved from family ownership to corporate ownership over the past 30 years, scouts have become a bigger target than ever. The days before the draft began in 1965, when they were essentially assistant general managers with autonomy and power, are long gone. To the uninitiated, scouts are paper chasers and extra expenses. Why hire more people when the sports rags and the Web sites will do it for you?

Long a target for clubs to cut costs, scapegoats for bad playoff outings, targets of anger and frustration when something goes awry with the big club, scouts have always been the key to what is essentially an information business. Even as technology has multiplied, baseball's 162-game grind keeps it an honest human endeavor.

A wise, old minor-league catcher once said that if he could invent a machine that would measure a player's heart and commitment, that it would make him a millionaire. Until that happens, a team's best bet to ensure that its money is spent wisely is to invest in scouting and to develop scouts as it would develop players.

A Hall of Fame award for scouts would validate the profession on a historic scale. The Hall needs to dispense with the autocracy of arrogance and recognize scouting. Since change in baseball doesn't happen as quickly as global warming, here are some suggestions:

Buy a large plaque.

Mount it on the wall.

Engrave three new names a year.

You don't need a new building, just an award. That's all it takes.

Segment that scouting award into threedivisions: amateur, international and special achievement. Devise some basic criteria. Create guidelines.

Here, let me help:

The amateur scout award should focus on pre-draft (1965) scouts, but since most of them are dead, start with Genovese, who came in the year the draft began and has scouted the Valley ever since.

That way, legendary ivory hunters such as Hugh Alexander would be honored, as would modern-era scouts such as Bob Zuk, who would finally get the last laugh on every club that ever fired him.

Since many amateur scouts today want to do a two-year hitch and move on, any scout honored in any category should have 20 years devoted to one of those threespecialties. You won't get many new guys, but you will get the worthy lifers.

Howie Haak would be a good start for the international scout award. Joe Cambria can go next.

The special achievement award would focus on professional coverage and administration. Behind every great trade is a great report, the heart of pro coverage. Longtime Dodger Clyde Sukeforth comes to mind. This category would also allow for baseball men such as scouting director Paul Snyder of the Atlanta Braves, one of the great baseball minds of the past 60 years, to be honored. It would open the door for scouting executives such as Roland Hemond and Jack Schwarz.

Do the homework. Bring in experts. Don't omit guys who should be there. Don't pull another Buck O'Neil. In fact, since you missed Buck once, he'd be a great pick for special achievement because he had a hand in every aspect of scouting.

This will always be a grass-roots effort, and the heart of the effort is in Los Angeles. Credit Dennis Gilbert and Hemond for founding the Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation, which gives back to scouts the way many clubs never do, with a helping hand for those who really needed it.

The foundation created an award named after Genovese for scouting achievement, and until Cooperstown does more than collect random artifacts, this is the closest thing to a scouting award, a Hall of Fame, that there is.

Gilbert isn't afraid to wield his financial clout. Hemond uses his baseball influence to garner support from clubs to support the old-timers the game abandoned.

The foundation isn't going away, does much of its charity work under the radar and isn't about putting the attention on itself.

That is what scouting is about. It's a low-paying, abusive, selfless occupation, which is why so few guys want to spend their careers doing it. Scouts are the real baseball writers, the reporters who know who can play, who cannot and where the bodies are buried.

The Hall's mission statement says it is "dedicated to fostering an appreciation for the historical development of the game." Scouts have become the new Negro Leaguers, whom the Hall ignored for decades. Only yelling will open the doors to recognize a group that deserves it. It's time for the Hall of Fame to validate what people inside the game have known for years.

As Genovese wisely believes, make the call.

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SEEDS ON THE DUGOUT FLOOR

Another way to evaluate the New York Yankees' acquisition of backup catcher Jose Molina from the Angels is in light of the Yankees angling to sign closer Francisco Rodriguez away from the Angels in the offseason. Rodriguez had his locker next to Molina for several seasons. It's the oldest trick in baseball: If you want a player, sign his buddy.

Joe Thatcher, one of the three minor-league pitchers acquired by the San Diego Padres in exchange for right-hander Scott Linebrink, has a survival story. He was a undrafted free agent after college who hooked on with an independent club in the Frontier League. The Milwaukee Brewers, one of the few teams that has a scout assigned to coordinate and exclusively cover the independent leagues, signed him. Thatcher is a sidearm sinkerball pitcher who doesn't throw hard. He got a look in big league camp this spring, began the season in Double-A and was promoted to Triple-A, where he had a 2.40 ERA.

When Alex Rodriguez hit his 35th home run of the season and his 499th career home run Wednesday, he became the first player in major league history to compile at least 35 home runs and 100 RBIs in 10 consecutive seasons. He joined Babe Ruth as the only player with 35-100 in 11 separate seasons.

The Yankees have beaten up on Tampa Bay, Toronto and Kansas City to revive hope, coming out of the All-Star break with a 12-3 record to lead the majors. They lead the American League in nearly every significant category since the break, including average (.326), home runs (25), hits (177) and RBIs (110).

Remember former Dodger Dennis Reyes? The left-handed reliever has been a bright spot for the Minnesota Twins out of their bullpen. Since returning from the disabled list, Reyes has not allowed an earned run in 17 games. He had stranded 22 of the first 26 runners he inherited this season.

Twins reliever Pat Neshek, who has emerged as one of the best middle relievers in the AL, allowed three runs, two hits and two walks Wednesday. It was only the second time this season that he has given up three runs in an appearance and the first time since April 19 against Seattle.

When Detroit Tigers outfielder Curtis Granderson gets his 30th double this season, he will become only the second player in club history to have 30 doubles, 15 triples, 15 home runs and 10 stolen bases in a season. Hall of Fame second baseman Charlie Gehringer did it in 1930, finishing with 47 doubles, 15 triples, 16 home runs and 19 stolen bases.

The Tigers hope that the return of reliever Fernando Rodney, who has been bothered by arm injuries for most of this season, will provide the arm that they need to fortify their bullpen for the stretch run. GM Dave Dombrowski said before Friday's game the Tigers would prefer to get Rodney back rather than make a deal.

Since May 25, the top five hitters in the National League are Chase Utley (.371), Dmitri Young (.365), Miguel Cabrera (.350), Albert Pujols (.348) and Brewers rookie Ryan Braun (.346). Utley played at UCLA, Young is a Rio Mesa of Oxnard grad and Braun is a Kennedy High of Granada Hills alum.

Seattle closer J.J. Putz blew his first save of the season last week for the struggling Mariners. It snapped a club record for consecutive saves (31) and consecutive saves to start a season (29). Putz still had 36 saves entering the weekend and can catch Kazuhiro Sasaki's club record of 45 set in 2001.

-- John Klima

SEVENTH-INNING STRETCH

Red Sox-Indians pitchers' duels make history

When Cleveland and Boston exchanged 1-0 victories this week, it was the first time the Indians had been involved in consecutive 1-0 games in 65years. On Tuesday, Boston's Daisuke Matsuzaka and two relievers outdueled C.C. Sabathia and a reliever. On Wednesday, Cleveland's Fausto Carmona and Joe Borowski combined beat Josh Beckett to return the favor. The last time the Indians played consecutive 1-0 games was April 17 and 18, 1942. In the April 17th game, Hall of Fame left-hander Ted Lyons of the White Sox beat Mel Harder on a seven-hitter. Dario Lodigiani had the RBI single. On April 18, the Indians returned the favor when Jim Bagby threw a four-hitter to defeat Eddie Smith and the White Sox.

Colorado's Cook gives lesson in efficiency

There's something to be said for keeping it short. The complete game Colorado's Aaron Cook pitched against the Padres Wednesday required only 74 pitches. According to STATS, Inc. it is the lowest pitch count in a nine-inning complete game since the company began tracking the stat in 1988. It was the first time any pitcher has thrown fewer than 100 pitches in a complete game at Coors Field. Greg Maddux needed 94 pitches to carve up the Rockies in a 13-0 Braves victory at Mile High Stadium in what became the last game of 1994 before the labor dispute wiped out the season and kicked the steroid era into full gear.

Lil' Garciaparra showing glove

Minor-league shortstop Michael Garciaparra, playing for Double-A Reading in the Phillies' organization, might not have statistics that blow you away, but he's winning points for being a skilled baseball player. One scout who saw Garciaparra, the younger brother of Nomar Garciaparra, said he is vastly improved from his early days in the Mariners' organization, for which he was a first-round pick in 2001. The scout said Garciaparra is a major-league defensive player right now and can turn the double play from both sides of second base. He's a plus runner, doesn't botch routine balls and makes consistent contact despite a .250 average entering the weekend. He has limited power, but can be an ideal No. 2 hitter with his ability to work counts, bunt, and hit behind runners.

-- John Klima

CAPTION(S):

4 photos, 3 boxes

Photo:

(1) Aaron Cook

(2) Michael Garciaparra

(3) no caption (scouts)

(4) - Tony Gwynn on his induction into the Hall of Fame today.

Box:

(1) SEEDS ON THE DUGOUT FLOOR (see text)

(2) SEVENTH-INNING STRETCH (see text)

(3) DAILY NEWS POWER RANKING

- John Klima