Lon Joyce Joins Scouts Hall of Fame

Los Angeles Dodgers area scout Lon Joyce has been selected as a member of the Professional Baseball Scouts Hall of Fame. Lon Joyce — an area scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers and former coach at Spartanburg Methodist College — has spent the last 17 years disproving a common misconception that was voiced by the late Cincinnati owner Marge Schott.

“We’re not just going to watch games. We’re going to evaluate players,” Joyce said. “We have to make our notes at the ballpark and visual notes as well. Then we enter our reports into laptops and then replicate them to L.A.”

Joyce was inducted into the Professional Baseball Scouts Hall of Fame, along with New York Yankees’ scout Donny Rowland, at a pregame ceremony prior to the Single-A Charleston RiverDogs’ game during the season.

The two were the first of 12 scouts to be given the honor.

Joyce was selected as the Dodger Scout of the Year by the Dodgers Blue Book and Baby Blue Casebook in 2001.

“They put three-dimensional face figures of myself and Donny out on the wall that said ‘Scouts Hall of Fame,’ ” Joyce said. “It felt extremely good. It’s an honor for any scout to be recognized.”

The Scouts Hall of Fame was organized as a joint effort between the Topps baseball card company and the GoldKlang Group, Joyce said. Topps also commemorated the inductees in its first series of professional scouts baseball cards.

Joyce is responsible for evaluating and signing amateur players in South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia.

Some of the current Major League players he is credited for signing include Dodgers’ closer Jonathan Broxton, Tampa Bay pitcher Edwin Jackson and Houston outfielder Reggie Abercrombie.

Joyce said that his search for potential big league players begins in January and runs through the Major League draft in June.

“We all know about the priority guys ahead of time,” he said. “Some of those that fall down the list some such as high school and junior college guys are some you hope you can get. Not all of them play at the major colleges. We’re looking for and evaluating tools. Generally, you have a plan to see the particular guys you need to see.”

And, even though he’s a new Hall of Fame member, Joyce says he has no plans to slow down. “Just as long as I feel I’m healthy and productive, I may consider keeping on working,” he said.