Corey Hart

as told to C. J. Carlson by Brad Del Barba, former scout

As a scout, you try to put together the entire picture of a player. We would go to the ballpark early to watch batting practice, give eye and personality tests and even hold special workouts. The player was watched from the time he stepped off the bus or out of the locker room as we looked for little mannerisms that will give an insight to the player. We tried to find out what makes the kid special enough to make it to the big leagues.

As an area scout for the Florida Marlins in the 1990s and early 2000s, I had the pleasure of scouting
Corey Hart. The future Brewer was a high school senior at Greenwood High School in Bowling Green, Kentucky during the Spring of 2000.

The gangly youngster was physically weak, but had quickness to his body and was a marvelous athlete standing 6-foot-6. He had a strong arm, could run like the wind (6.60 in the 60-yard dash) and had quickness to his swing. Seeing him swing through some pitches against the lesser competition of Western Kentucky high school baseball though raised some questions about his bat, but he did show power in workouts when he swung the wood bats.

In scouting circles, we referred to Hart as “The Skinny Hitter.”

Well, as my spring was winding down, I remember being at a night game at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, with plans to head back north to Cincinnati afterwards. Given the time zone change and the lateness of the game, I chose to pull off the road and grab a room at the Bowling Green Fairfield Inn.

As I exited I-65 at roughly 10:30 PM, I noticed that the ball field lights were glowing at Greenwood High, which was a stone’s throw from the interstate and my hotel. Filled with curiosity, I ventured over to the high school, thinking that maybe I had missed an opportunity for a Greenwood High School night game.

I pulled into the school parking lot on a ridge that overlooked the ball field, only to see Hart and two friends taking a late night batting practice.

The trio had been there a while and continued to hit until shutting it down at 11:30. I just sat in my car and watched “my private hitting session” with Hart from afar, as I didn’t want to interrupt Corey and his friends.

Most of all I was able to watch how much Corey loved baseball and that he would spend the extra time to work on his game. I could tell that there was something special about Hart.

In scouting circles we would often refer to the chart of “The Whole Ball Player”, where it lists skills and traits both those that can be seen and those that cannot. As a scout, we were to paint a complete picture of the player, which in present days the things you cannot see are not visible to the front office evaluators who only look at stats, video and measured readings.

While I had turned Hart in to the Marlins’ office as a potential draft in the rounds 8 thru 10, he slid some as players will do in the draft, before being plucked by Milwaukee in the 11th round. Corey had impressed the Brewers’ brass in a pre-draft workout at Miller Park just prior to the draft.

With no true desire to continue his education as he committed to play college ball at his hometown Western Kentucky University, Hart signed with the Brew Crew and just five years later he made his Major League debut. Twice, Hart would be named to National League All-Star squads, 2008 and 2010.

It wasn’t easy for Hart as he was moved from playing first base to third base to finally settling in as an outfielder in Triple-A, all while trying learning to hit the curveball in the minor leagues. Yet, he did it with the same work ethic and a passion for the game that I witnessed on a late May evening in 2000. In the end, the Skinny Hitter would bat .271 with 162 home runs during his 11-year big league career with the Brewers and Pirates.

With two daughters who played sports in high school, I would remind them to practice; that they need to “polish the star, if it is going to shine.” They have heard me tell the Corey Hart story dozens of times and call me corny, but there is a thread of truth that rings through.