Mike Brito, well-known Los Angeles Dodgers scout who has signed Fernando Valenzuela and lots of others, dies on the age of 87
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Mike Brito, well-known Los Angeles Dodgers scout who has signed Fernando Valenzuela and lots of others, dies on the age of 87

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LOS ANGELES – Mike Brito, the legendary worldwide Los Angeles Dodgers scout who amongst many others found Fernando Valenzuela and Julio Urias, died Thursday afternoon, the staff introduced. He was 87.

Brito – a particular presence along with his Panama hat, thick mustache, darkish sun shades, lengthy cigars and voluminous radar gun – spent the final 44 years employed by the Dodgers, serving to to herald star gamers that resonated throughout generations.

“I realized rather a lot from him speaking about gamers and simply watching the sport,” Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned. “It doesn’t matter the place on the map there was a baseball sport – if there was a possible prospect, Mike could be there and set his eyes on him.”

In all, Brito signed greater than 30 gamers who continued to play within the main leagues, together with Urias, Yasiel Puig, Ismael Valdez, Antonio Osuna, Juan Castro, Dennys Reyes and particularly Valenzuela, who impressed the area as a Mexican-born pitcher , who received a Cy Younger Award and led the Dodgers to the 1981 championship.

“My coronary heart may be very heavy at present,” Valenzuela mentioned in an announcement. “Mike was a terrific man and a contributor to my success as a baseball participant on and off the sphere. Nobody liked the Dodger group greater than Mike, and we’ll all miss him very a lot.”

“I’ve no phrases. You modified my life Mike Brito. You and your white hat, sir. #Legend #RIP,” Puig wrote in a tweet Thursday night.

Brito leaves behind his spouse, Rosario, two daughters, Diana and Minerva, and 4 grandchildren. Funeral providers are pending, Dodgers mentioned.
Brito was born in Cuba and performed within the Washington Senators’ minor league system and continued to play professionally in Mexico within the Nineteen Sixties. He moved to LA in 1968, tied the knot with the Dodgers as a Mexican league scout, and was employed full-time by then-general supervisor Al Campanis in 1978, the beginning of a six-decade run.

Brito was inducted into the Cuban Baseball Corridor of Fame in 2005 and was named Worldwide Scout of the 12 months on the Main League Baseball Winter Conferences in 2014. The publication Baseball America honored his lifelong contribution to the game by presenting him along with his Tony Gwynn Award final 12 months.