Column: With a Panama hat, cigar and radar gun, scout Mike Brito was a Dodger Stadium fixture

He was the white Panama hat. He was the radar gun. He was the cigar. He was the heartbeat at the rear of household plate, regular, continuous, usually standing, often scouting, constantly there.

For decades, Mike Brito was a Dodger Stadium landmark, as exceptional as a Dodger Doggy, as sound as the San Gabriel Mountains, as comforting as a ninth-inning breeze.

You might not have identified his title, but you could not overlook his presence, and a piece of Dodgers record will be forever missing without having him.

Brito died Thursday at age 87 soon after a 44-12 months career as a Dodger scout who indelibly changed the group by turning a person not comfortable night time into an eternal legacy.

In 1978, the Dodgers sent Brito to the Mexican town of Silao to verify out a very hot-hitting shortstop in a Mexican rookie league. The night time he arrived, it was Holy Week, and all the nearby lodges were being booked. But Brito would not be deterred. He slept on 4 chairs in a bus station, painfully awoke the following day, hitched a journey to the field, and dutifully took notes on the shortstop.

In the very same recreation, he also observed a 17-year-previous pitcher who struck out 12 hitters. The kid was astounding nevertheless totally anonymous. Brito excitedly documented his results to general manager Al Campanis, and a yr later the Dodgers signed that oddly dazzling youthful lefty.

Identify of Fernando Valenzuela.

Brito’s involvement in the development of Fernandomania didn’t conclusion there. When Valenzuela joined the Dodgers organization, his greatness was solid when he figured out the screwball from fellow Dodger Bobby Castillo, a pitcher Brito had also signed amid unconventional situation.

Brito, a former slight league catcher who even now performed in his spare time, was struggling with Castillo in a semi-pro recreation in East Los Angeles. Castillo struck out Brito on a wicked whole-depend screwball. Brito was marketed. Castillo was signed. Valenzuela finally had his tutor. The Dodgers had been in no way the similar.

“Mike Brito’s means to appear outside of the clear altered the direction of the franchise and baseball historical past,” stated Mark Langill, Dodgers historian. “Whether it was discovering Bobby Castillo in a semi-pro sport on Tuesday night in Los Angeles or finding Fernando Valenzuela in the Mexican League, he never ever adopted the crowd.”

Dodgers scout Mike Brito appears to be like on as pitcher Fernando Valenzuela celebrates with teammates in the clubhouse following winning the 1981 Entire world Collection against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium.

(Jayne Kamin-Oncea / VFAB)

Brito, who was Cuban, was when alerted to a prime youthful Cuban player who was actively playing in a junior event in Canada. Brito was so enamored with the child, he and then-Dodgers scouting director Logan White rushed to Mexico when he was becoming showcased and subsequently signed him.

Name of Yasiel Puig.

“Brito beloved getting the obscure particular person and predicting stardom,” claimed Langill. “He cherished his diamonds in the rough.”

He was also the beneficiary of some excellent luck. On that very same vacation to Mexico to see Puig, Brito was trumpeting the techniques of a youthful catcher named Julian Leon. Even though signing Leon, Brito and the Dodgers also signed a few of other locals in a group, a person of whom was specified a agreement regardless of an challenge with his left eye.

Name of Julio Urías.

Brito was a scout who spanned generations and fostered championships, his 3 Globe Collection rings crowding his hand with a shine as vibrant as his continual smile.

“My coronary heart is extremely significant right now,” Valenzuela mentioned in a assertion. “Mike was a good gentleman and instrumental in my accomplishment as a baseball participant on and off the discipline.”

Dodgers scout Mike Brito steps up to toss a ceremonial initial pitch in Activity 1 of the Nationwide League Divisional Collection at Dodger Stadium in 2018.

(Robert Gauthier / VFAB)

Brito, who is survived by his spouse Rosario and daughters Diana and Minerva, did his most powerful function absent from the stadium, caring for his disabled son Miguel for much more than 20 many years ahead of his death.

By it all, he will even now be permanently acknowledged as the person behind property plate in the white Panama hat. Not surprisingly, his presence there is yet another story in itself.

He commenced standing guiding home plate in 1978 when Campanis asked him to chart the pitches of Bob Welch. He would publish the speeds and kinds of each pitch on a piece of paper and then deliver the results to staff officials. It was quaint, but it was productive, and Campanis questioned him to stand at the rear of the plate for each video game when he was in town.

He remained there for extra than 20 a long time, even however the Dodgers in no way paid out him extra for his initiatives, and even though they could in no way even promise him a seat. However his techniques inevitably grew to become out-of-date, he would regally stand for a few several hours with the little by little pointed radar gun and the extended stare though turning scouting into functionality artwork. At the top of his profession, he owned 25 Panama hats and 40 satisfies. He always wore the hat and abandoned the fit only on sizzling Sunday afternoons.

Oh, and about that cigar. In his last decades behind house plate he stopped using tobacco them due to the fact area-stage lovers complained about the stench. He would, as an alternative, just chew them.

The full scene was so very simple, so amazing, so Dodgers.

“He at some point realized he was enjoying a part, and he played it completely,” claimed Langill. “Name me another scout you figure out. Identify me the next-most well known scout in baseball. You simply cannot.”

Even if you did not know Mike Brito, you understood Mike Brito, the writer of a grandiose Dodgers’ career that nowadays warrants the raising of an historical radar gun and the idea of a white Panama hat.