>And just for the record, scouts are salaried employees. There are also 'bird dogs' who operate on a fee basis. They're usually working for a scout and they work a particular area of the country (or another country). They aren't on salary, but they get paid for finding players who the scout feels are worth paying for.
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>Right, yes. I'd love to have a job like that, though I'm sure that kind of job has tremendous pressures.

It's a tough job alright. They only get paid if the prospect really looks good to the scout, so they can't just grab decent players, recommend them, and hope to get paid. When I was playing ball here in Toronto, we didn't have any scouts that I know of, but we did have 3 or 4 bird dogs hanging around all the time. There was one guy, a bird dog for the Yankees, who used to come out early and hit grounders. He would get me to stand about 40 to 50 feet from him and he'd try to hit them by me. He wasn't gentle, but it was fun.

>Between innings, my friend and I tried to strike up a conversation with one of the scouts, but he basically wouldn't talk to us.

Yeah. They're pretty intense doing what they do.