By Bob Elliott
Canadian Baseball Network
Walt Burrows answered my call and whispered “I’m at a game ... can I call you later?”

Burrows, then Canadian director for the Major League Scouting Bureau, was helping with coverage south of the border in June of 2011. After the game he returned my call, answered my question about the dates and times of the open August Bureau camps he had emailed me about. 

Question asked and answered I asked how his game had gone?

Now, before we move any further down the line we should tell you Walter Burrows, of Brentwood Bay, BC would never be mistaken for legendary scouts Huey Alexander, Ellis Clary, Wilbur (Moose) Johnson or Howie Haak when it came to making expansive comments about a can’t-miss, blue-chip, Cooperstown-bound teenager. Burrows can tell a story like how he told this infielder he was making a mistake playing hoops over baseball (hello Steve Nash).

“How was the game?” repeated Burrows quietly, “oh I saw Mickey Mantle tonight.”

PARDON!

Burrows said he had watched centre fielder Mike Trout of the Arkansas Travellers against the Northwest Arkansas Naturals in Little Rock, Ark. Trout was 19 at the time.

Now, a scout for the Minnesota Twins Burrows was at the Rogers Centre Tuesday night. 

And so was Trout along with the Los Angeles Angels to face the Toronto Blue Jays.

The former American League MVP winner has had better games: he broke in on a Russell Martin drive which fell for a double, the ball landing on the track (fans have come to expect a ball staying in the park to be caught by Trout) in the seventh and in the eighth Trout was picked off second by Joe Biagini, who turned and fired to Darwin Barney. The Angels were trailing 6-2 at the time.

And they were together Wednesday too.

“He looked a lot better,” said Burrows after watching Trout go down and get a low pitch from Jays right-hander Marco Estrada to homer to left. Trout had three hits in all, including a double.

What does Burrows remember about that scouting trip to look at prospects in the 

“He was consistently a 4.0 flat runner to first base,” Burrows said. “He was an 8 runner.” Scouts grade players out of 8, not 10. “The thing about him, he ran everything out: a one hopper to the mound to the third baseman. A lot of times guys will hit the ball hard and sneak a peak to decide whether they have to run hard.”

Burrows doesn’t recall everything he filed for the Bureau that time only his last line: “he won’t be here long.”

And two weeks later on July 8, 2011, he made his debut in Seattle. 

Former Angels scouting director legendary Eddie Bane chose Trout in the first round -- 25th over all. Trout was a high schooler from Millville, NJ. The Jays going through their we like college players over high schoolers with general manager J.P. Ricciardi. The Jays chose right-hander Chad Jenkins from that baseball factory known as Kennesaw State University.

Also passing on Trout were three teams who did OK with well with their picks. OK, not no Trout as the  Washington Nationals chose Stephen Strasburg) the Cincinnati Reds selected Mike Leake and the Arizona Diamondbacks chose Arizona Diamondbacks A.J. Pollock, 

And then there were teams like the Mariners (Dustin Ackley), Padres (Donavan Tate), Pirates (Tony Sanchez), Orioles (Matt Hobgood), Giants (Zack Wheeler), Braves (Mike Minor), Tigers (Jacob Turner), Nationals (Drew Storen), Rockies (Tyler Matzek), Royals (Aaron Crow), A’s (Grant Green),  Rangers (Matt Purke), Indians (Alex White), Diamondbacks (Bobby Borchering), Marlins (Chad James), Cardinals (Shelby Miller), Astros (Jiovanni Mier), Twins (Kyle Gibson) and the White Sox (Jared Mitchell),

The first time Burrows saw Trout was when Arkansas visited Northwest Arkansas at Arvest Ballpark in Springdale, Ark. The Kansas City Royals affiliate had the likes of future major league pitchers Bruce Chen, Kyle Davies, Kelvin Herrera, Jeremy Jeffress and Jake Odorizzi  Kelvin Herrera, Jeremy Jeffress and Jake Odorizzi, as well as position players Christian Colon, Wil Myers, Paulo Orlando, Salvador Perez and Jamie Romak (London, Ont.)

Burrows saw Trout steal a home run off the bat of Romak.

“Jamie Romak hit a ball to right centre and they were shading him to left centre, it was an absolute BB, he hit the ball on a line just crushed it,” Burrows recalled. “It was going to go out, the ball was headed into the bullpen in Spingdale. 

“There was the batting eye in centre and the lower fence in front of the bullpen. Trout ran back veered at the last moment away from the batter’s eye and caught the ball. No one else makes that catch.”

Mickey Mantle in his prime might have made the catch.

And so did Mike Trout.