cover image Prophet of the Sandlots: Journeys with a Major League Scout

Prophet of the Sandlots: Journeys with a Major League Scout

Mark Winegardner. Atlantic Monthly Press, $18.95 (279pp) ISBN 978-0-87113-336-6

From 1942 to 1988, the late Tony Lucadello was a baseball scout. Working first for the Chicago Cubs and then for the Philadelphia Phillies, he signed up 50 players who went on to the major leagues, including such stars as Ferguson Jenkins and Mike Schmidt. Winegardner, who accompanied Lucadello during his last year on the job, depicts an uncommonly generous man who sat through hundreds of college, high school and sandlot games, ever on the lookout for young men with the ``right stuff'' to take them to the top--and always willing to help them. In illuminating Lucadello's life, which ended in suicide, Winegardner ( Elvis Presley Boulevard ) evokes the spirit of baseball. (Feb.)