By Bob Elliott
Canadian Baseball Network
It was a good summer to be an ex-Blue Jay scout.

And as the number of former Toronto Blue Jays scouts is expected to swell come the end of the season when president Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins put their front office staff in place for 2017, news was circulating among the former employees.

These were good times for Ellis Dungan, Tim Wilken and Steve Williams. Really good, as in a heck of a Hall of Fame good time. 

The former Jays scouts honored and the three different locals were:

_ Dungan, owner of two World Series Blue Jays rings and now a Baltimore Orioles employee, was inducted into the Professional Baseball Scouts Hall of Fame at Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park in Charleston, SC. Also on hand were previous inductees Lon Joyce, of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Paul Snyder, Atlanta Braves), Rob English, Boston Red Sox and former Blue Jays scout Tom Burns of the Major League Baseball Scouting Bureau. It was the ninth year of honoring pro scouts, with the selections made by The Goldklang Group, owners of the Charleston RiverDogs. 

_ Wilken, owner of two World Series Blue Jays rings who now works for the Arizona Diamondbacks, was inducted into the Professional Baseball Scouts Hall of Fame at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers before the class-A Fort Myers Miracle played. His bronze plaque will go on the same wall as former Jays scout Dave Yoakum, now a big boss with the Chicago White Sox and Terry Ryan, former Minnesota Twins general manager.

_ Williams, now of the Pittsburgh Pirates, was inducted into the Professional Baseball Scouts Killebrew Root Beer Scouts Hall of Fame at CHS Field in Lowertown Saint Paul, before the independent St. Paul Saints met the Sioux Falls Canaries in an American Association game. His plaque is located just outside the Broadway gate.    

Wilken, former scouting director for the Blue Jays, is now a special assistant under Diamondbacks GM Dave Stewart. Wilken’s mom used to run the Dunedin Little League and he showed up during that first spring training in 1977.

First he was helping P.R. maven Howard Starkman with the daily notes and later on he was helping out throwing batting practice to the major leaguers. He was named an area scout, scouting, drafting and signing lefty Jimmy Key.

He became a national cross checker under scouting director Bob Engle, took over as scouting director from 1996 to 2000 and was named vice president, baseball operations from 2001 to 2003 under GM Gord Ash. 

In 2004-05 he was a special assistant to the GM of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and in 2006 he moved to the Chicago Cubs as scouting director, where he stayed until 2012 when he became a special assistant for the Cubs.

A few of the players Wilken was involved in scouting, drafting or signing with the Jays included Billy Koch, Vernon Wells, Orlando Hudson, Michael Young, Jay Gibbons, Craig Wilson, Casey Blake, Felipe Lopez, Alex Rios, Josh Phelps, Miguel Negron and Wade Townsend. As a cross checker, Wilken was in on the likes of future major leaguers Shawn Green, Shannon Stewart, Roy Halladay, Steve Karsay, Chris Carpenter and Ryan Freel. 

And with the Cubs he scouted and signed the likes of Jeff Samardzija, Josh Donaldson, Josh Harrison, D.J. LeMahieu, Andrew Cashner and Javier Baez.

* * * 
Dungan, a veteran of 34 years in pro scouting, was inducted prior to the class-A Charleston RiverDogs game against the Hagerstown Suns. Dungan began his scouting career with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1982 and spent 20 years with the club before joining the Houston Astros in 2003.

He worked with the Philadelphia Phillies for three seasons from 2008-10 before joining the Orioles in his current role in 2011.

Throughout his scouting career, Dungan signed the likes of Mark Whiten, who finished sixth in the Rookie of the Year voting in 1991 and enjoyed an 11 year career in the majors, along with Eric Yelding, Ken Robinson, Ryan Freel, Brent Abernathy, Tim Hyers, former No. 1 pick Gabe Gross, Jimmy Bathmier, and David Buchanon.

Scouting was his second career. Before joining the evaluating business, Dungan spent 19 seasons as a coach at Chipola Junior College in Marianna, Fla., where he coached current Baltimore Orioles manager, Buck Showalter.

When I visited Chipola a few years ago to cover the alumni weekend which is a home run derby won not by Jose Bautista for two straight years, but by catcher Jeff Mathis, I ran into Dungun at a reception.

“What are you doing here kiddo?” I asked, having not seen him in at least a decade. 

“I coached here 19 years what are you doing here kiddo?” Dungun replied.

OK, sorry.

Dungun also coached future major leaguers Hosken Powell, Terry Enyart, Wilfred Culmer, Ricky Jones and Dennis Lewallyn, among others.

* * *
Williams worked for the Toronto Blue Jays as their Midwest Area Scout from 1995-99, covering a seven-state region. Williams was involved with Mike Russell and Tim Wilken signing Orlando Hudson, as well as signing Mike Trombley with the Minnesota Twins and other players. 

He recently served the Kansas City Royals assistant director of scouting until Aug. 15, 2006. He oversaw the signing of key pieces to the Royals World Series team, including Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer and Danny Duffy. Prior to joining the Royals, Williams worked for the Detroit Tigers as their midwest scouting supervisor (2000-01) and east coast supervisor (2002-06), overseeing a territory from Maine to Puerto Rico. His scouting career began when he served as an area scout with the Twins from 1988 to 1995. 

Williams worked under current Pirates scouting director Greg Smith from 2000-2004, when Smith held that same position with the Tigers, and under current Pirates special assistant Larry Corrigan from 1992-1993, when Corrigan was scouting director for the Twins.

Working as a pro scout since 1988, Williams was a part of the Twins, Blue Jays, Tigers and Royals scouting departments before joining the Pirates in 2009. He served as the president of the Buck O’Neil Scouting and Coaches Association for the past 16 years. 

* * *
One of the few scouts employed by the Bureau, Burns began his scouting career in 1990 as an associate scout with the Anaheim Angels working under Tony LaCava and was hired on a full-time basis in 1994. He joined the Blue Jays in 2003 before moving into a crosschecking role in 2010. Burns joined the Padres in the fall of 2013 before joining the Bureau. 

Burns worked for the Jays for 11 seasons, was credited with drafting and signing lefty Brett Cecil from the University of Maryland in the first round (38th over-all) in 2007. Cecil became a 15-game winner in 2010 in the rotation and an all-star this season out of the bullpen.

His departure brought to 12 the number of scouts who have departed since Brian Parker took over as scouting director in 2012: Nine were fired and three left on their own. At the time of his departure, Burns, was the most respected scout in the organization. When pro scouts were given the news, it was greeted with sadness both in the field and at 1 Blue Jays Way.

Burns preferred being an amateur scout, which he will do with the Padres, rather than work as pro scout where the Jays moved him recently from the amateur side.

There used to be a phrase around the Jays scouting circles how this guy or that guy was a “Tom Burns specials.” A TB special was a late round pick expected to play a year or so, who over achieved and reached the upper levels of the organization.

Burns is a humble, honorable, well-respected man. He once hopped on a plane one winter on his own dime to help a first-year scout in a part of the country he wasn’t cross-checking, to help the scout get started.   

A Harrisburg, Penn. he also has earned scout of the year honors, in 2011 from the Hot Stove League in New York, as well as scout of the year awards in 2000 (Angels) and 2006 (Blue Jays), plus the Mid Atlantic Scouts Association (2003),

Besides Cecil (Jays, ‘07), he also signed Scott Schoenwies (Angels, ‘96) and Mike Colangelo (Angels, ‘97). He has signed 47 players throughout his scouting career and the Penn State alum is one of the most respected scouts in the industry.

He was the winningest head coach at his alma mater — Bishop McDevitt High School — and was named the Pennsylvania coach of the year in 1989, as well as being inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall Of Fame.

Charleston’s Members in the Professional Scouts Hall of Fame
2016 - Ellis Dungan, Orioles, Blue Jays, Phillies

2015 - Ed Creech, Giants

2014 - Rob English, Red Sox, Braves

2013 - Paul Snyder, Braves

2012 - Bill Lajoie, Tigers

2011 - Mike Toomey, Royals

2010 - Jax Robertson, Pirates

2009 - Tom Burns, Blue Jays, Howard McCullough, Diamondbacks

2008 - Lon Joyce, Dodgers, Donny Rowland, Yankees