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"\"&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DENVER&lt;\\/strong&gt;\\u2014George Digby was credited with signing more than 50 players who made it to the big leagues, including Hall of Famer &lt;a href=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.baseballamerica.com\\/statistics\\/players\\/cards\\/13067\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\"&gt;Wade Boggs&lt;\\/a&gt;, who might not have been drafted by the Red Sox if not for Digby\\u2019s convincing argument in 1976.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;figure id=\\\"attachment_112570\\\" style=\\\"width: 300px\\\" class=\\\"wp-caption alignright\\\"&gt;&lt;img class=\\\"size-medium wp-image-112570\\\" alt=\\\"George Digby, right, enters the Red Sox hall of fame with Mo Vaughn (Brita Meng Outzen\\/Boston Red Sox)\\\" src=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.baseballamerica.com\\/wp-content\\/uploads\\/2014\\/05\\/George-Digby-Brita-Meng-Outzen-300x211.jpg\\\" width=\\\"300\\\" height=\\\"211\\\" srcset=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.baseballamerica.com\\/wp-content\\/uploads\\/2014\\/05\\/George-Digby-Brita-Meng-Outzen-300x211.jpg 300w, http:\\/\\/www.baseballamerica.com\\/wp-content\\/uploads\\/2014\\/05\\/George-Digby-Brita-Meng-Outzen-127x90.jpg 127w, http:\\/\\/www.baseballamerica.com\\/wp-content\\/uploads\\/2014\\/05\\/George-Digby-Brita-Meng-Outzen.jpg 900w\\\" sizes=\\\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\\\" \\/&gt;&lt;figcaption class=\\\"wp-caption-text\\\"&gt;George Digby, right, enters the Red Sox hall of fame with Mo Vaughn (Brita Meng Outzen\\/Boston Red Sox)&lt;\\/figcaption&gt;&lt;\\/figure&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;But like any great fisherman, there\\u2019s always the story of the one who got away. In Digby\\u2019s case, it was &lt;a href=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.baseballamerica.com\\/t\\/willie-mays\\/\\\"&gt;Willie Mays&lt;\\/a&gt;, who he recommended in 1949, but Boston declined.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Digby died in early May at the age of 94 at his home in Nashville, having retired only five years ago after spending 50 years as a scout and 14 years as a consultant for the Red Sox. He was born in New Orleans on Aug. 31, 1917.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Digby and the Red Sox developed a long-term relationship out of an incident in 1944, when the Red Sox signed pitcher Richard Callahan. Digby was Callahan\\u2019s high school coach in New Orleans, and he drove such a hard bargain, not only did the Red Sox pony up to sign Callahan, they offered Digby a job and he became the franchise\\u2019s first full-time scout in the South.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Callahan never played a day in the big leagues. There are, however, the names of 53 big league players he\\u2019s credited with signing on Digby\\u2019s Florida sports hall of fame plaque, which hangs outside the press box at Tropicana Field. The list includes &lt;a href=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.baseballamerica.com\\/statistics\\/players\\/cards\\/26478\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\"&gt;Haywood Sullivan&lt;\\/a&gt;, a catcher who eventually became part of the ownership group in Boston in 1952, and 27 years later he signed Sullivan\\u2019s son Marc.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Frank Bolling was among the players Digby signed in 1945, his first year with the Red Sox. Three years later, Bolling became the first Digby signee to make it to the big leagues.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Digby watched Boggs play shortstop for Plant City (Fla.) High and was enamored with the &amp;#8220;smooth swing.\\u2019\\u2019 The Major League Scouting Bureau, however, had Boggs as a non prospect and the Red Sox weren\\u2019t convinced he was big league material.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8220;&lt;a href=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.baseballamerica.com\\/statistics\\/players\\/cards\\/26478\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\"&gt;Haywood Sullivan&lt;\\/a&gt; was the scouting director at the time, and he said, \\u2018George, we have to take him off our list.\\u2019 \\u201d Digby told the Boston Globe at the time of Boggs\\u2019 Hall of Fame induction. &amp;#8220;I said, \\u2018The hell with the bureau. Leave him on.\\u2019 I didn\\u2019t know about him being a shortstop, but he could hit.\\u201d&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Digby didn\\u2019t take no for an answer, and the Red Sox took Boggs in the seventh round of the 1976 draft. They signed him for a $7,500 bonus plus money for college, which Boggs never used. It took six years, however, for Boggs to make it to the big leagues, including one year when the Red Sox left him off the 40-man roster and won the gamble when no other team selected him in the Rule 5 draft.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style=\\\"font-size: medium\\\"&gt; Sox Say Nay To The Kid&lt;\\/span&gt; &lt;\\/strong&gt;&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Digby wasn\\u2019t as fortunate with Mays. But then Digby was still a relative newcomer to pro ball in 1949, and he didn\\u2019t have a relationship with the decision-makers in Boston. He, however, had a feeling about Mays, who was playing with the Negro League\\u2019s Birmingham Black Barons, which shared the ballpark with the Birmingham Barons, then the Red Sox affiliate.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8220;I had Willie Mays bought for $4,500,\\u201d Digby told the Boston Globe in 2005. &amp;#8220;I called up the Red Sox. I said, \\u2018I got Willie Mays. He\\u2019ll break the color line (for the Red Sox).\\u2019 \\u201d&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;With &lt;a href=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.baseballamerica.com\\/statistics\\/players\\/cards\\/24621\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\"&gt;Jackie Robinson&lt;\\/a&gt; having broke baseball\\u2019s color barrier only two years earlier, a hesitant Boston front office declined. It wasn\\u2019t until 11 years later that &lt;a href=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.baseballamerica.com\\/statistics\\/players\\/cards\\/17536\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\"&gt;Pumpsie Green&lt;\\/a&gt; became the first black player to appear in a game with the Red Sox, making them the last pre-expansion franchise to integrate their roster.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Mays signed with the New York Giants in 1950, and the rest, as they say, is history.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;The impact Digby had on the Red Sox franchise was never overlooked. In 2008, he became the first scout inducted into the Red Sox hall of fame, a tribute for a man whose list of signings includes not only Boggs and the Sullivans, but also &lt;a href=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.baseballamerica.com\\/statistics\\/players\\/cards\\/22246\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\"&gt;Bob Montgomery&lt;\\/a&gt;, &lt;a href=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.baseballamerica.com\\/statistics\\/players\\/cards\\/17559\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\"&gt;Mike Greenwell&lt;\\/a&gt;, &lt;a href=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.baseballamerica.com\\/statistics\\/players\\/cards\\/22809\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\"&gt;Reid Nichols&lt;\\/a&gt;, &lt;a href=\\\"http:\\/\\/www.baseballamerica.com\\/statistics\\/players\\/cards\\/22434\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\"&gt;Jerry Moses&lt;\\/a&gt; and Mike Smithson.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8220;Top 10 scouts in the history of baseball,\\u201d Cubs special assignment scout Tim Wilken tweeted upon learning of Digby\\u2019s death. &amp;#8220;Ted Williams is probably cussing George for taking so long.\\u201d&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Not that Digby would have cared. He always did things his way.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;And as the Red Sox learned over time, Digby\\u2019s way was usually the right way when it came to scouting players.&lt;\\/p&gt;\\n\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.baseballamerica.com/viewpoint/digby-didnt-let-many-get-away/>