SUCCESS- RENEGADES UNVEIL FIRST OF SIX SCOUT INDUCTIONS

On Saturday, June 21, Texas Rangers Tom Giordano and White Sox John Tumminia were inducted into the Scouts Hall of Fame at the Hudson Valley Renegades ballpark in Fishkill, NY.The scouts viewed their bronze plaque for the first time, each received a personalized letter from their organization congratulating them and Topps took it one step further by giving them their own baseball card!

MLB.COM - By Fred Claire

Fred Claire, a writer at mlb.com, takes a look at the hard work of scouts, and the Goldklang Group's Scout Hall of Fame in his most recent article on mlb.com. You can read an excerpt from the article below, or read the full article by following this link.

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Scouts Deserve Their Due by Fred Claire

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When I think about this week, the week of the First-Year Player Draft, I think about the most important people involved with Major League Baseball in my view -- the scouts. The scouts are the heart and soul of baseball.

They are the guys who sit right behind home plate at the ballparks throughout the country and yet are overlooked in many ways. That's why it was nice to see the recent announcement by the Goldklang Group that it would team up with the Topps Company to establish a Baseball Scouts Hall of Fame and honor 12 scouts in the inaugural class this year.

Make no mistake, this isn't the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. There is a movement to see that the scouts receive their due recognition at Cooperstown, but this hasn't become a reality as yet.

The Goldklang Group is a sports entertainment, consulting and management firm that works with six independent league teams and decided it was time to speed up the process to give the scouts some recognition.

During the course of this summer, beginning on June 21, each of the six teams involved with the Goldklang Group will honor two scouts with a plaque being placed on a Hall of Fame wall to be established at the respective parks. The teams carry somewhat unusual names and in locations where you might not immediately think of baseball -- the Charleston River Dogs of Charleston, S.C.; the Hudson Valley Renegades of Fishkill, N.Y.; the Ft. Myers Miracles of Ft. Myers, Fla.; the St. Paul Saint Paul, Minn.; the Sioux Falls Canaries of Sioux Falls, S.D.; and the Brockton Rox of Brockton, Mass.

It's really quite fitting that the scouts would be honored at what might seem to be out of the way locations. That all ties in with the life of a scout, going to whatever location is needed in the search for talent. For the complete article by Fred Claire, follow this link.