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Writer's pictureMaine Baseball HOF

Scott, Dick (2011)


Scott, Dick A's

One of Maine’s finest three-sport high school athletes ever—soccer, basketball, and baseball—Dick Scott chose a career in baseball. The New York Yankees drafted him soon after his graduation from Ellsworth High School in 1981, and he has been engulfed by the game for some thirty years since. The Yankees sent him first to the Gulf Coast League, a Florida rookie league, where his teammates included future major leaguers Fred McGriff and Phil Lombardi, and he hit .235 under Manager Carlos Tosca. He was on his way. What followed was a ten-year minor league career: eight years in the Yankee system with Fort Lauderdale (A), Albany‑Colonie (AA), and the Columbus Clippers (AAA) managed by Bucky Dent; and two years with the Oakland A’s affiliate Tacoma Tigers (AAA) in the Pacific Coast League.

In May 1989, the A’s called him up to Oakland, a call up that Scott says “was one of my three top moments in baseball.” Manager Tony La Russa put him in at shortstop three times and he accumulated two at bats before being sent back to Tacoma and the Tigers. But Scott calls the trip to Oakland “a dream come true.” He was a big leaguer. The A’s won the World Series that year, too, and Scott received a World Series ring for his role on the team, another of his top moments in baseball. After one more year in Tacoma as player‑coach—he hit .308 at shortstop—he retired as an active player. He had appeared in 800 minor league lineups, accumulated more than 500 hits, and been to the big leagues.

Scott moved to player development; he became an instructor, a coach, a teacher. The A’s made him a minor league manager, and he earned Manager‑of‑the‑Year honors for his work with the Arizona League A’s in 1991, the Northwest League A’s in 1993, and the Modesto A’s of the California League in 1994. In Modesto he also earned Baseball Weekly’s Minor League Manager‑of‑the‑Year award.

In 1997 he joined the Arizona Diamondbacks as manager of the South Bend Silver Hawks of the Midwest League (Class A). His success as manager—three of his Silver Hawks made it to the 2001 D’backs—and as D’backs’ advance scout preparing D’backs’ game plans in 1998‑2001 was key to the Diamondbacks reaching the 2001 World Series. Scott, who also helped prepare the World Series game plan against the Yankees, was present in the Arizona clubhouse during the post-seventh game celebration (“very exciting,” he says) and later received a second World Series ring for his contribution to the Arizona championship, completing his three top moments in baseball.

In 2002 Scott joined the Toronto Blue Jays as Director of Player Development under General Manager J.P. Ricciardi. There he directed the turnaround success of the Blue Jays’ minor league system: three individual batting titles, one earned run average title, two most valuable players, two managers-of-the year, and three playoff teams, all in the first two years. He spent eight years with the Blue Jays looking after everything minor league—200 players, 40 staff, and the budget—before moving to the Houston Astros for a year as their minor league Field Coordinator. In 2011 the New York Mets named Sandy Alderson, whom Scott had worked with for seven years in Oakland, their General Manager, and Scott moved to the Mets. He is now the Mets’ Field Coordinator.

Scott lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, now, with, he says, “a great wife named Kristin who really understands the whole baseball life … and keeps it all in balance.” Their oldest son Ryan starts at catcher for the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and their younger, Zach, is the starting shortstop for his high school varsity under coach Bill Swift (Maine Baseball HOF 2000). Player, manager, and administrator, Dick Scott is good for baseball.





Mets name Dick Scott as new bench coach

https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/mets-dick-scott-new-bench-coach-article-1.2468023



Scott, Dick (11) bench coach


Scott, Dick Mets



Dick Scott 1

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Bases Jammed
Bases Jammed
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Bases Jammed
Bases Jammed
Feb 15


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