{"id":20727,"date":"2019-06-04T16:36:06","date_gmt":"2019-06-04T20:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/?p=20727"},"modified":"2019-06-04T16:36:06","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T20:36:06","slug":"old-school-scout-rusty-gerhardt-72","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/old-school-scout-rusty-gerhardt-72\/","title":{"rendered":"Old-School Scout: Rusty Gerhardt &#039;72"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><blockquote>\n<p><strong>Old-School Scout: Rusty Gerhardt &#8217;72<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/section><br \/>\n<div   data-size='extra_large'  data-lightbox_size='large'  data-animation='slide'  data-conditional_play=''  data-ids='20873,20874,20877,20876,20878'  data-video_counter='0'  data-autoplay='false'  data-bg_slider='false'  data-slide_height=''  data-handle='av_slideshow'  data-interval='5'  data-class=' avia-builder-el-1  el_after_av_textblock  el_before_av_textblock  '  data-el_id=''  data-css_id=''  data-scroll_down=''  data-control_layout='av-control-default'  data-custom_markup=''  data-perma_caption=''  data-autoplay_stopper=''  data-image_attachment=''  data-min_height='0px'  data-default-height='100'  class='avia-slideshow avia-slideshow-1  av-control-default av-default-height-applied avia-slideshow-extra_large av_slideshow  avia-builder-el-1  el_after_av_textblock  el_before_av_textblock   avia-slide-slider '  itemprop=\"image\" itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\" ><ul class='avia-slideshow-inner ' style='padding-bottom: 133.333333333%;' ><li  class=' slide-1 ' ><div data-rel='slideshow-1' class='avia-slide-wrap '   ><img src='https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/Rusty_2-1125x1500.jpg' width='1125' height='1500' title='Rusty_2' alt=''  itemprop=\"thumbnailUrl\"   \/><\/div><\/li><li  class=' slide-2 ' ><div data-rel='slideshow-1' class='avia-slide-wrap '   ><img src='https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/Rusty_4.jpg' width='460' height='640' title='Rusty_4' alt=''  itemprop=\"thumbnailUrl\"   \/><\/div><\/li><li  class=' slide-3 ' ><div data-rel='slideshow-1' class='avia-slide-wrap '   ><img src='https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/IMG_6314.jpg' width='1000' height='1333' title='IMG_6314' alt=''  itemprop=\"thumbnailUrl\"   \/><\/div><\/li><li  class=' slide-4 ' ><div data-rel='slideshow-1' class='avia-slide-wrap '   ><img src='https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/IMG_1504-844x1500.jpg' width='844' height='1500' title='IMG_1504' alt=''  itemprop=\"thumbnailUrl\"   \/><\/div><\/li><li  class=' slide-5 ' ><div data-rel='slideshow-1' class='avia-slide-wrap '   ><img src='https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/IMG_3896.jpg' width='1000' height='1333' title='IMG_3896' alt=''  itemprop=\"thumbnailUrl\"   \/><\/div><\/li><\/ul><div class='avia-slideshow-arrows avia-slideshow-controls'><a href='#prev' class='prev-slide' aria-hidden='true' data-av_icon='\ue87c' data-av_iconfont='entypo-fontello'>Previous<\/a><a href='#next' class='next-slide' aria-hidden='true' data-av_icon='\ue87d' data-av_iconfont='entypo-fontello'>Next<\/a><\/div><div class='avia-slideshow-dots avia-slideshow-controls'><a href='#1' class='goto-slide active' >1<\/a><a href='#2' class='goto-slide ' >2<\/a><a href='#3' class='goto-slide ' >3<\/a><a href='#4' class='goto-slide ' >4<\/a><a href='#5' class='goto-slide ' >5<\/a><\/div><\/div><br \/>\n<section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">&#8220;You&#8217;re going to be a pretty good pitcher someday, kid!&#8221; Pete Rose told Rusty Gerhardt as he walked off the practice field.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Someday?&#8221; Rusty thought.\u00a0\u201cI got your butt out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The night before, Gerhardt was pitching for the San <span class=\"s1\">Diego Padres and got Rose, famed switch-hitter for the Cincinnati Reds, <\/span>to hit into a double play.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">\u201cI never got him again,\u201d Gerhardt laughs. \u201cIf you look at all his base hits, <\/span>my name\u2019s in there quite a bit. He had me figured out after that first at-bat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Raised in Baltimore, Gerhardt found his way onto Clemson\u2019s baseball team at age 17 in 1968 thanks to a recruiter and the offer of a partial scholarship. <span class=\"s1\">His first morning on campus, he showed <\/span>up to the dining hall\u2019s training table, a spread specifically for athletes, which was laden with steaming grits. \u201cIs it like <span class=\"s1\">oatmeal or something?\u201d he asked his <\/span>teammates. The response was a mixture of humor and alarm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Gerhardt was a productive pitcher at Clemson, and after four years, he <span class=\"s1\">signed with the Padres. \u201cI bet I pitched <\/span>over 300 innings that year,\u201d he says. \u201cThinking back, I probably ripped <span class=\"s1\">something in [my arm], but they didn\u2019t fix you back then like they do now.\u201d He played six more years with the Padres, <\/span>even though his arm \u201cwasn\u2019t ever the same.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In the MLB, it was a natural progression from player to coach to manager for Gerhardt. Then, in 1989, he was hired by the MLB Scouting Bureau and was mentored by one of the great scouts at the time, Jim Walton.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThis guy worked with me,\u201d Gerhardt says. \u201cThis guy traveled with me for the first couple of years, just <span class=\"s1\">trained me the right way \u2014 to know <\/span>what to look for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">What to look for, according to Gerhardt, are similarities between a prospective player and a big leaguer. With a vast mental library filled with player idiosyncrasies, he traveled across the country watching high school, college and minor league games looking <span class=\"s1\">for Eddie Murray-like swings and Dave Stieb-like sliders. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">\u201cThere are certain things that <span class=\"s1\">aren\u2019t coachable,\u201d he explains. \u201c[Only] <\/span>guys who are exceptionally strong or exceptionally quick can overcome mechanical faults.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Two years before he was set to retire, the MLB dissolved its scouting bureau, leading some teams to start scouting players using analysts and number crunching. Gerhardt understands this shift in the industry but sometimes <span class=\"s1\">worries about all-stars falling through the computational cracks: \u201c[MLB teams] <\/span>don\u2019t make a move unless the analytics say you should do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Despite the changes, Gerhardt still keeps his hand in the game. When he\u2019s not taking vacations away from his New London, Texas, home with his wife or his old Clemson teammates, he\u2019s scout<span class=\"s1\">ing for Program 15, a baseball program <\/span>for young players run by scouts, instructors and coordinators, many of whom Gerhardt worked with in the MLB.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">\u201cThe more things change, the more things stay the same,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><br \/>\n<div  class='av-buildercomment   '><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":20874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21],"tags":[321,1891,2549,2784],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-20727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumniprofiles","tag-baseball","tag-mba","tag-scout","tag-summer-2019-alumni-profiles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/05\/Rusty_4.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20727"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=20727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}