“Jackson High School graduate working his way up the baseball ladder” |
| Jackson High School graduate working his way up the baseball ladder Posted: 28 Oct 2010 06:07 PM PDT
Jackson High School graduate working his way up the baseball ladder Wade sets sights set on being a big-league GM SEATTLE It's been the dream of many a boy and we've all heard it: "When I grow up, I want to be a major-league baseball player." Then he grows up and reality hits. He might have been the best player in Little League, in high school, and in college. But only a few ever get the opportunity to play the game for money. And only a select few ever have the privilege to play the game for big money. Kenny Wade had that big-league dream. But it died early — when he couldn't make his Jackson High School baseball team. The dream of playing the game professionally might have been squashed, but his love of baseball remained very much alive. And so, at the start of his junior year in college, he set a new goal for himself: If he couldn't make plays on the field, maybe he could make deals in the front office. He would work toward becoming a big-league general manager. "I said, 'I would like to run a team. And I want to take a team to the World Series. And to win.'" Go ahead, chuckle if you want. But in 1986, a 19-year-old kid joined the New York Yankees organization as an intern. Twelve years later, five months shy of his 31st birthday, that kid — Brian Cashman — became senior vice president and general manager of the Yankees. That year, 1998, the Yankees won the first of three consecutive World Series championships under Cashman. Wonder if he dreamed big when he was a Yankees intern serving coffee and donuts to a bunch of junior-college coaches gathered in the depths of Yankee Stadium to pick a league all-star team? "He went around asking if the coffee was warm and the donuts OK," said Tom McNamara, one of those junior-college coaches and now the director of amateur scouting for the Seattle Mariners. McNamara remembers that some things stood out about Cashman: He was bright, he was energetic, he had a good attitude. And it'd be a pretty good bet that tumbling around in Cashman's head were thoughts of someday becoming a GM and winning a World Series. Just like Kenny Wade. Wade, 24, started out the same way as Brian Cashman. A graduate of the University of Washington, Wade got an internship with the Mariners in scoreboard operations in April 2007. A little more than a year and a half later, he became a full-time employee in the amateur scouting department. His boss was Tom McNamara. McNamara noted some things that stood out about his young protege: He was bright, he was energetic, he had a good attitude. Hmmmm. And he was also, as McNamara put it, "a sponge." Put another way, Wade soaked up everything he could about whatever situation he was in. He picked that up from Pedro Grifol, the Mariners' director of minor league operations. "He said, 'You always want to learn everything you can about the position you're in before you move on,'" Wade recalled. In his first year with the Mariners, Wade didn't serve donuts and coffee to his bosses, but he did run in-house cameras and scoreboard animations, he acted as a baby-sitter in the players' Family Lounge, he worked in the Children's Playfield, he ran the speed-pitch game, he dressed up as Lenny the Latte mascot. In short, he did "anything they asked me to do," and he did it with diligence. Since moving into amateur scouting, Wade has once again demonstrated that given a task, he doesn't need someone looking over his shoulder to make sure it gets done right. "If you give Kenny a project, he'll take the ball and run with it," McNamara said. "When it comes back, it's usually first class. "He's not high maintenance. Quite frankly, he doesn't work for me, he works alongside me. He's a breath of fresh air." Some of Wade's duties in the scouting department include administrative work. "The area scouts come to me with questions and I help them out," he said. "I process medical, psychological and eye tests. The area scouts do all the work, they get all the credit, but then they send it all to me, and I log and process the information, and send it to people we need to send it to to get it analyzed. This is for all the high school and college players who are going to be eligible for this coming year's draft." Wade has gotten to see some of these kids play, accompanying area scout Joe Ross, a former Washington assistant coach, to games. What are they looking for? "For kids who can play in the major leagues," Wade said. "Kids that have some sort of standout tool, some major-league average tool that we can build off of." You might say that Wade got his undergraduate degree in communications, but he's getting his masters in baseball. And he's getting it from experts, with years of experience in the baseball business, both in the front office and on the field. In September, the Mariners sent him to Scout School, a two-week session in Arizona where he watched young minor-league players perform mostly in Instructional League games and then wrote up reports on them. Two players a day, pitchers one day, position players the next. "You try to paint a picture and make the report flow," he said. "The hardest thing was writing a summation. At first, I struggled with it, but as I went on, I think I did really well." General managers work hard. They live baseball. As Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik once said, "I'm pretty much a 24/7 guy. I even dream baseball." Wade already understands the time baseball demands, whatever the job. After a day of work, he watched every one of the Mariners' 81 home games the past two seasons in the scouts section behind home plate. "It's a great perk," he said, laughing. "Lots of hours. That's baseball." As Wade recalled Mariners president Chuck Armstrong telling him, "It's a lifestyle." To learn, Wade realizes he has to immerse himself in the game. And to be that totally committed, you have to love the game. And you have to love going to the ballpark "because it's going to be your home and the people around you are going to be your family for the season. "I love everything about it." What's not to love? "I get to go to a ballpark every day. What's better than going to a major-league ballpark?" he asked rhetorically. "Walking in there every day, seeing the field, whether the park is empty or full. Walk into your office, well, to my desk anyway." He has no five-year plan, just a day-to-day plan. "To get better at what I do, and right now it's what can I do to make the amateur scout's life easier or what can I do to make Tom's life easier and how can we be more efficient in this department. "I really just want to nail it." If he nails it big time, McNamara mused, "maybe someday he'll hire me." 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