Football coaches are known for their paranoia. Most in the pro and college games have effectively closed out all personnel from their practices except for the staff and the players themselves. No fans, no media, nobody unfamiliar.
That mentality is apparently filtering over to baseball, unfortunately.
On Wednesday, Los Angeles Angels scout Jeff Schugel sat down in the grandstands in Scottsdale, Ariz., to do his job, which was to watch the San Francisco Giants work out. Baseball teams are always evaluating -- even players on other teams -- just in case they have a trade opportunity down the road, for example. The Angels don't play the Giants too often, after all, so there's no tactical advantage to be gained, especially on March 7.
But Giants manager Bruce Bochy called security and had them escort Schugel off the premises.
"I'm sitting there grading arms," Schugel told CSNBayArea.com. "In 25 years, I've never had that happen to me."
The Giants did some damage control, saying the incident was a misunderstanding and that practices were open. Angels GM Jerry DiPoto said he'd allow Giants scouts to watch the Angels in workouts.
But Bochy remained defiant.
"You want to go through a fundamental [drill] and I don't think that's the time for scouts to be there," Bochy said. "They have a job to do. I understand that. ... We wanted it cleared. We had a couple things we wanted to work on."
Unless Bochy has devised a breakthrough method for the double-play pivot, a fundamentals workout just might be the most boring thing a scout could ever see.
Bill Belichick and Nick Saban would be proud.
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