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Glen Van Proyen has been in and around baseball for more than 50 years, since he grew up in the Roseland/Pullman area on Chicago's South Side in the 1940s. He coached baseball at Maine South for 21 years, including a state runnerup in 1966, and scouted for the Los Angeles Dodgers for 35 years before joining the Chicago Cubs as a special assignment scout in 2000.
From time to time, as the 2007 major league baseball season winds down, Van Proyen will respond to questions about the game. Is the game better today? Why are fewer kids playing on sandlots? What about fundamentals? Why can't major leaguers execute a sacrifice bunt? What does it take to be a major leaguer? Do you have what it takes?
What is the biggest change in baseball over the last 40 years?
The game has changed from essentially an all-American game to a world-wide game. American kids still have the same opportunities but there are fewer jobs available to them because they don't have the same work ethic for the game as kids in other countries--Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Venezuela, Japan, Australia, Korea, China, Italy and the Netherlands. We have scouts in all of those places.
The next biggest change?
When I started scouting in 1965, to my recollection, there were no agents. Maybe there were some advisors, but no agents. Now agents are powers in baseball. They don't control the game but they are a big influence in what happens, even with amateur players.
The next biggest change?
In a subtle way, the game has changed from speed and arm to the point where power is at the top of the list of five tools (power, hitting, running, fielding, throwing) that scouts look for in a prospect. If you can hit, we will find a place for you to play. Many years ago, kids with heavy-body types weren't sought after. Now, when you see them, you know they are in the game for one reason: to hit. And they are valuable.
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