Renowned scout George Genovese, who worked 31 years as a scout for the San Francisco Giants died on Sunday at the age of 93.
A New York Native, Genovese worked his way through every level of professional baseball. He reached the Majors in 1950, appearing in three games with the Washington Senators.
Branch Rickey convinced Genovese it was time to retire in 1952, and named him manager of a Pittsburgh Pirates Minor League affiliate. It wasn’t until 1963 that Genovese made the transition to scouting.
Among his successes of signings with the Giants are Bobby Bonds, George Foster, Jack Clark and Matt Williams. After a career in identifying talent for San Francisco, Genovese joined the rival Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995 as a scouting consultant.
Former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda mourned the loss of his close friend, via Mark Langill of Dodger Insider:
“George was one of the greatest scouts there ever was,” said Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda, a Dodger scout between 1960 and 1965. “I scouted against George and I scouted with George. He put a lot of guys in the big leagues. He was an exceptional man and one of my best friends. I’m going to miss him.”
Lasorda wrote the foreword in Genovese’s autobiography, “A Scout’s Report: My 70 Years in Baseball” that released in 2015. Genovese was honored by The Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation in 2003, as they named its lifetime achievement award after him.
