Beane Counter

"So is this guy a rockhead?" asks Pittaro. Pitter is a graduate of the University of North Carolina who roomed with Billy when they both played for the Minnesota Twins and whom Billy had long ago identified as a person willing to rethink everything he'd learned, or thought he had learned, playing baseball.

"Ah," says the older scout, thinking about how to address the question. It's possible for a baseball player to be too stupid for the job. It's also possible for him to be too smart. "He may be too smart" is a phrase that will recur several times over the next week.

"He's a confident kid. But—"

"But," says Eric.

"There might be some, uh, family issues," says the old scout. "I heard the dad had spent some time in prison. Porno or something."

No one on either side of the room seems to know what to make of that. You can see 30 men thinking: Is porno a crime?

"Can he bring it?" someone finally asks. The air clears.

"I can see this guy in somebody's pen throwing aspirin tablets someday," says the older scout. "The guy has a cannon." This old scout is pushing 55 but still has a lean quickness about him, as if he hadn't completely abandoned the hope that he might one day play the game. The old scout likes high school kids and refuses to apologize for that fact.

"I'm worried about the makeup," says someone.

"What does his profile say?" asks someone else.