Luck plays factor when it comes to the Draft

Baseball’s annual Draft begins Thursday night.

Teams have had scouts checking out players across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, looking for those prospects they feel will help a franchise contend.

They have watched them play games. They have talked to them about their life goals. Players have taken tests that are supposed to determine aptitude and toughness.

For all the preparation and planning, however, good fortune becomes a factor when it’s time to make a selection.

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In the spring of 1965, baseball was preparing for its first Draft, and the process was nowhere as sophisticated as it is today.

Billy Capps, a former Minor League player and long-time scout, was scouring his territory in north Texas and Oklahoma when he happened upon a game in Binger, Okla., a town with a population of 600 or so, located where U.S. 281 and Oklahoma Highway 152 cross.

Capps stopped to watch a few innings, but he stayed the entire game. Capps was awestruck by the high school catcher. The next morning, Capps put in a call to Cubs scouting director Gene Lawing to sing the praises of Johnny Bench. Lawing didn’t have any information on Bench, so he decided to touch base with his friend Jim McLaughlin, who was the Reds’ farm director.

McLaughlin didn’t have any information on Bench either. McLaughlin quickly dispatched a scout to check this unknown phenom, and in baseball’s first Draft, it was the Reds who used the 36th overall pick to call the name of Bench.

The third team was the charm for the Rockies and Todd Helton. Helton was a second-round Draft choice of the Padres out of high school in 1992, and he appeared ready to sign with San Diego. Scouting director Reggie Waller, however, showed up at Helton’s home with a contract that was $50,000 less than the figure that had been discussed. Waller initially blamed it on a clerical error. He then offered to race Helton in a 60-yard dash for double-or-nothing on the difference. Waller may have said it in jest, but Helton didn’t see it that way. He asked Waller to leave and followed up on his commitment to play quarterback and baseball at the University of …

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