Baseball's Endangered Species

Inside the Craft of Scouting by Those Who Lived It

By: Lee Lowenfish

Narrated by: Marlin May

Scouting has been called pro baseball’s personalized way of renewing itself from year to year and a pathway to the game’s past. It takes a very special person to be a baseball scout: normal family life is out of the question because travel is a constant companion. Scouts have the difficult task of not only discovering and signing new players but envisioning the trajectory of raw talent into the future. But the place of the traditional scout has become increasingly dire.

In Baseball’s Endangered Species Lee Lowenfish explores in-depth how scouting has been affected by the surging use of metrics along with other changes in modern baseball business history: expansion of the Major Leagues in 1961 and 1962, the introduction of the amateur free agent draft in 1965, and the coming of Major League free agency after the 1976 season.

With an approach that is part historical, biographical, and oral history, Baseball’s Endangered Species is a comprehensive look at the scouting profession and the tradition of hands-on evaluation. At a time when baseball is drenched with statistics, many of them redundant or of questionable value, Lowenfish explores through the eyes and ears of scouts the vital question of “makeup”: how a player copes with failure, baseball’s essential, painful truth.

The book is published by University of Nebraska Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

©2023 Lee Lowenfish (P)2024 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

“Scouts are like the blues musicians of baseball, whose stories reveal the heart of the game. Lee Lowenfish has dug deeply to bring these tales back to life.” (Dusty Baker, manager of the Houston Astros)

“This book is a pure love of baseball...ardent research and affectionate writing.” (Kevin Kerrane, author of Dollar Sign on the Muscle)

“Who better than Lee Lowenfish to write about those who have always been at the heart of our game?” (Joe Maddon, former Major League Baseball manager)