Scout Who Discovered Pujols Now Works at Walmart
| 12
|
Dave Karaff used to be a baseball scout for the St. Louis Cardinals. He used to nomadically roam the United States looking for undisovered baseball talent. Today, Karaff stocks grocery shelves at a Wal-Mart in Hot Springs Village, Ark.
Why? Because the St. Louis Cardinals dismissed him as an area scout three years ago.
So, why are we talking about Karaff? Because he signed Albert Pujols. Karaff, a former baseball coach at Hickman Hills High School filed the reports on Pujols, a hulking shortstop at Fort Osage High School in Independence and Maple Woods Community College, and signed him in 1999 after St. Louis took him in the 13th round of the June draft.
"I felt he was going to be successful, but I didn't know how successful," Karaff said. "I don't think there's any way we could have seen all these things." Incredibly, Karaff had one reservation about Pujols. "My one fear was whether he was going to hit, if you can believe that," Karaff said. "If we all felt he could hit consistently, he would have been a first rounder and got his $3 million bonus.
"He still does some of the things that I feared, but he has the ability to make adjustments, and that's something I never saw. When you watch him, when he's going bad, he's out on that front foot . . . He was a power guy, he had great hands, great arm. I felt he could play third base."
Source
Date
Tue 05/23/06, 4:23 pm EST
