THE MECK REPORT --- THE MECK PODCAST: Gary Carter’s Signing Was the Product of a Scout’s Scheming - NYTimes.com - John Klima - The ploy was simple. Zuk loved Carter, but he did not want anybody else to know how much he loved him. So while Carter played that spring, Zuk spied on him. He ordered his associate to no longer attend his games. Instead, Zuk scouted Carter with binoculars in his car or hid in the bushes and trees, careful not to let his cigar smoke give him away. Now he hoped Carter would fall to the Expos in the June draft.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Gary Carter’s Signing Was the Product of a Scout’s Scheming - NYTimes.com - John Klima - The ploy was simple. Zuk loved Carter, but he did not want anybody else to know how much he loved him. So while Carter played that spring, Zuk spied on him. He ordered his associate to no longer attend his games. Instead, Zuk scouted Carter with binoculars in his car or hid in the bushes and trees, careful not to let his cigar smoke give him away. Now he hoped Carter would fall to the Expos in the June draft.

excerpt ..

When Carter was a senior at Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton, Calif., most scouts had given up on him. He was a three-sport standout considered a top college football prospect with a scholarship offer to play quarterback at U.C.L.A. He had sustained a knee injury the summer before his senior year. When baseball season began, Zuk, like many other scouts, took one look and decided Carter was a nonprospect with a bad knee.

But Zuk was lying.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/sports/baseball/wily-baseball-scout-schemed-to-sign-gary-carter.html

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