It's a familiar, yet almost forgotten sight at Mulcahy Stadium.
The army of radar guns, armada of stopwatches and array of notebooks and clipboards under the grandstands directly behind home plate.
Scouts are invading the Alaska Baseball League for this week's ABL/MLB Scout Showcase.
For the first time since 2004, the ABL has scheduled an event designed to draw Major League scouts to Alaska. All six ABL teams are in Anchorage playing three games a day from Thursday through Monday that not only count toward the ABL standings but may influence the professional aspirations of many players.
"It makes a big difference because everybody gets to see all the teams at one time, and you get representatives from all the (MLB) teams," Anchorage Glacier Pilots assistant general manager Jon Dyson said.
So far, the scout turnout is among the best ever. Levi Strauss, who mans the hamburger stand and "Home of the Pro Scout Burger" has collected 32 business cards during the showcase -- MLB has 32 teams -- to add to his collection of 104 collected since 1996. Ten are new for this showcase.
A few feet away, radar guns rise and fall in unison after each pitch, thumbs mash buttons on the stopwatches and mad scribbling follows each play. It's reminiscent of the Wood Bat Invitational, the postseason tournament the Anchorage Bucs used to host.
The Wood Bat was scout heaven before it was dropped in 2004. Since then, scouts have had to travel to Fairbanks, Palmer and Kenai to look at players. It wasn't convenient or effective. The ABL heard about it.
"So far, it's working a lot easier," Dyson said.
At the first league meeting after the 2006 season, Anchorage Bucs assistant general manager Zak Basch suggested the mid-season showcase. Games would count in league play, provide exposure for developing players and avoid the hassle of an end-of-the-season tournament.
This year's showcase was enough incentive for David Blume, a 49-year-old scout for the Baltimore Orioles, to make his first trip to Alaska in more than 15 years.
"All in one place at one time -- yes, it's very good," he said. "You can go to one place and see a guy play three or four times. You don't have to drive all over the place. It's great."
The last time Blume was here, he was with the Toronto Blue Jays and he traveled with another scout to watch southpaw first baseman and pitcher John Olerud. The Blue Jays signed him right out the ABL, and he went on to play for Toronto, the New York Mets and the Seattle Mariners.
"He could hit and he had power," Blume recalled. "Turned out he could really play."
Like the other scouts, Blume is looking for players with "tools" -- hitting for average, hitting for power, speed, defense and throwing ability. The major leagues have a short list of players with all five, and Blume is hoping to find players with several tools or pitchers with good velocity and command of a breaking ball.
But there aren't as many good players in the ABL as Blume remembers. The growth of similar summer leagues and loss of top players to Team USA may be the reason.
While Blume scribbles notes on a program, Sean Campbell of the Pittsburgh Pirates painstakingly records each player's performance. It's called "team sheeting."
Blume grades players' tools on a scale from 20-80 -- 50 is average for a major leaguer -- and monitors how they field, how they throw and their speed from home plate to first. Many are outside his scouting zone, which is based in Fresno, Calif., and the data goes into the Pirates' database for next year's draft.
"It's part of the process. You're here building history on guys, making observations, taking notes," said Campbell, a ninth-round pick who played Class A ball in the San Diego Padres organization. "This might be the first time -- or last -- they are seen."
Neither would disclose specific grades, but Campbell likes the Bucs' Gabe Jacobo, who homered and had four hits Friday against the Glacier Pilots. Blume likes the strength and size of the Oilers' Mario Hollands, whom he watched work against the Pilots.
The players themselves are aware of the scouts, who are looking for draft-eligble players -- those in their junior year of college -- or talent that slipped through last year's draft. But the key is not to think too much about the sea of black nylon jackets with major league logos watching every move.
"You know they're there -- you have to be professional and not goof around as much," said Pilots pitcher Michael Alldredge. "You just have to play like you are a Little Leaguer all over again."
Find Brian Singler online at adn.com/contact/bsingler or call 257-4335.
