Bill Brenzel a defense-first catcher, played parts of three seasons in the majors as a second-stringer with the Pirates and Indians during the 1930s. His offensive statistics—a .198 average and .227 on-base percentage in 217 career at-bats—were lackluster. But his accomplishments as a scout put him in elite company. Over the course of his decades-long career as a talent hawk for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Brenzel signed countless future big leaguers, including Jim Gentile, Ron Cey, Bill Buckner, Joe Ferguson, Lee Lacey, Von Joshua, and Earl Robinson.

Brenzel, a lifelong resident of Oakland, California, spent the majority of his 18-year playing career in the Pacific Coast League. He worked in shipyards during World War II and began scouting for the St. Louis Cardinals postwar. In 1950, he joined the Dodgers’ scouting department, eventually becoming Northwest supervisor.

“He was from the old school, like the scouts in the movie Moneyball,” said Bill’s son, Gary Brenzel, when I interviewed him for my forthcoming book on the Dodgers’ draft 1968 class. “He always thought a fast bat was a barometer of a good ballplayer. Jim Gentile used to bruise his back when he swung. If you could run fast, and you had a good arm, and you bruised your back, he was for you.”

A backswing so vicious that Gentile bruised his own back? I was skeptical. This sounded like a bit of baseball lore, so I reached out to Gentile, 90, at his home in Edmonds, Oklahoma. I asked him if it is true that he bruised his back when he swung. He confirmed that, in fact, he did.

At spring training in 1954, Al Vincent, one of the Dodgers’ minor-league managers, tried to adjust the slugger’s mighty hack. “He didn’t like me hitting my back,” said Gentile. “He took me out to a batting cage one afternoon and had me swing and stop, swing and stop. We got out and played an exhibition game in Vero Beach. First time up, I take a swing. Base hit, but I hit my back. Second time up, base hit but I hit my back. He takes me out of the game. The next day, I walk into the Fort Worth clubhouse and my locker was empty. The clubbie said, ‘Don’t you know? Al Vincent traded you to Mobile.'” 

At one point, the Dodgers outfitted Gentile with a pad to protect him from himself. He didn’t like how it felt and eventually stopped wearing it. Gentile, nicknamed “Diamond Jim” by Roy Campanella, said that once he got to the big leagues he had better control of his swing and hit his back less often. Yet his swing still packed enough punch to blast 179 home runs over the course of his nine-year big-league career, including 46 with the Baltimore Orioles in 1961.

Bill Brenzel clearly had a keen eye for talent. And guys who bruised their back.

One of Brenzel’s colleagues in the Dodgers’ scouting department was Kenny Myers. Read about his remarkable feat here.