Detroit Tigers Work to Rebuild Under Scott Harris

LAKELAND, Fla. — So much of baseball is waiting. Waiting for your turn at bat. Waiting for the ball to be hit your way. Waiting, really, for your chance.

Scott Harris, the Detroit Tigers’ new president of baseball operations, is used to this. At 35 years old, he did not wait long, comparatively, for his chance to run a major league team. But his introduction to the world of baseball was a lesson in holding back until the time was right.

As a sophomore at U.C.L.A., Harris drove out to Palm Desert, Calif., to have lunch with Al Rosen, the only person in baseball history to win both the Most Valuable Player Award and Executive of the Year. Harris’s grandmother, Joan Harris, had met Rosen, learned of his background, and played matchmaker for her grandson, who wanted to work in baseball.

Rosen, then in his 80s, won the American League M.V.P. as a slugging third baseman for Cleveland in 1953. As a general manager, he took the San Francisco Giants from last place to first in just two years, earning top executive honors from The Sporting News in 1987. The man had gravitas, and Harris, enthralled, listened much more than he spoke.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/22/sports/baseball/detroit-tigers-scott-harris.html