Baseball Player Magazine

His love of sports started at an early age and he excelled in several areas. Scott attended Kellenberg Memorial High School (01’-04’), playing both baseball and basketball all four years; two years on varsity for each sport. Scott’s baseball years were played under Head Coach Chris Alfala. Throughout his four years at Kellenberg he received several prestigious awards, including: All-Long Island as a senior; three year MVP, Long Island Catholic League Champions; two-year letterman, two-
year team captain, four-year Honor Roll, and both History and Latin Awards.  As a basketball player Scott was the team MVP and All-League as both a junior and senior. 

Scott Gaffney allowed BPM to sit down with him and get a first hand account of his experiences playing in the Minor League system, what draft day was like, and a few things about growing up and playing ball. 

How about a travel team? 

My senior year of high school (2004), I played for the Long Island Titans, coached by Eric Joyner. As a team, we were very successful. We had the first advancement in the history of the Perfect Game Tournament by a northern team out of pool play in the 18U division. Another great experience.

You have played throughout the diamond, and were drafted as a pitcher, where was the majority of your time spent? 

I spent some time at third base and had soon action on the mound as a relief/closer, but for the majority of the time I was at shortstop. 

How about showcases, did you attend any?

Since I played basketball a lot during the summer, I did not go to many showcases. I only went to one showcase and it was a Blue Chips Showcase at Quinnipiac University. 

Ok, so you were a stand out athlete and student at Penn State and clearly made a great decision to attend, what were your other options? 

I originally was going to try to play both basketball and baseball in college, and I was interested in some of the Ivy League schools. After some hard decisions, I decided to play baseball; my top schools were St. John’s University, Penn State, and Boston College. They are all great schools and I had a tough choice. Looking back, I know I made the right one. 

Alright, let’s look back to draft day, tell us about it, what were you expecting? 

On draft day I was not expecting much. I knew I had a chance to be drafted both as a position player and a pitcher and had talked to several teams with interest in both. I was cautiously optimistic about being drafted high enough to forego my senior year at Penn State. And then the Cincinnati Reds called me around the 10th round and asked if I was drafted in the next two rounds would I sign and I told them yes. I was drafted by the Reds in the 12th Round. As I was on the phone with the Cincinnati Reds, the Chicago Cubs, who were interested in signing me as a position player called. I had the Reds on one line and the Cubs beeping in on the other. I never got to speak to the Chicago Cubs, they had called second and I said yes to the Reds. On a side note, I was the highest draft pick in my family, which includes my dad Bill Gaffney, drafted in the 19th round by the Seattle Mariners in 1980, my cousin Jon Palmieri, drafted in the 14th Round by the Montreal Expos in 1998, and my brother Mike, who was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the 13th Round in the 2003 draft.

After the call from the Reds, how long did it take for you to make your final decision? 

It was only a couple of hours of negotiating between me, my parents and the organization on financial aspects. We were set and I was ready to play.

What happened between draft day and day you took off to play in the minors? 

I had only pitched early in my junior season and then I was designated strictly as a shortstop for the rest of the year; I had done too much and it affected my arm, and my team needed me more at shortstop. I hadn’t pitched in 2 ½ months prior to being drafted as a pitcher, so I was not in pitching shape at all. I tried to throw as much as I could to get ready to go and play a short season of baseball in about 9 days.

Did you know...

The Dayton Dragons are a Class A Affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds.

Now you are off, and about to enter a whole new chapter of your life. Can you give us your first reaction when you went to rookie ball? I was sent to Billings, Montana, and it was a little bit of a culture shock. I was surprisedat the different landscape; they have Rim Rocks, which are red rock shaped hills and cliffs, created when a pre-historic ocean dried up. Needless to say the culture was a bit different, but I thought it was great. I came up on the stadium that we would be playing in and it was obsolete to say the least. It was the last year of the stadium, and it was the 75th anniversary. Minimal improvements had been made since 1932. However, the fan base was amazing, the people were extremely welcoming and I was lucky enough to have a great host family in Loren and Paulette Christianson. They helped make my adjustment to rookie ball, as well as my roommate Todd Frazier, former Little League World Series hero.

We all know that the preferred (and maybe only transportation) in the minors is by bus, how are those for you? 

The buses are travel buses; sometimes they are straight up greyhounds. In Dayton, Ohio, we had our own bus which had an enormous dragon logo painted on the side. The bus trips are tough, 12 hours, sometimes while sharing a seat, and through the middle of the night, only to play a 3 o’clock game the next day.To say the least they are not fun. The best thing I learned to do; get an outdoor pad from walmart, set it on the ground and go to sleep for as long as possible. It also allows me to be a little more comfortable than squeezing all 6’4 of me across two 24 inch seats.

How often are you on the road?

70 out of the 140 games played are on the road. It’s a grind going from city to city, back to your home city, and repeating it over and over. But, its fun to be a part of and seeing places that you may have never seen if you were not playing.

You mentioned your host family before, what is it like living in someone else’s house? 

I’ve been lucky enough to live with great host families during my 2 seasons of playing pro ball. In Billings, Montana, the Christiansons were an amazing help to my adjustment to pro ball and provided me and my roommate, who were both northeast kids far away from home, with support like we were a part of their family. In Dayton, Ohio, I lived with another great host family; the Beighle’s who are a wonderful family, with quite a great house. We had a movie theatre room and at one point 9 of the players stayed there. It all depends though, sometimes there aren’t host families to be had, so most guys squeeze into an apartment to keep the rent cheap, which may be the situation for me in another season, who knows, but I have been very lucky.

How about your best moment in the minor leagues so far? 

The best playing moment I’ve had in the minor leagues was my first game of the 2009 season with the Dayton Dragons. It was my first game in over a year due to Tommy John surgery. I threw one inning at home, it was a good inning and I felt great. It was one of my best playing moments ever. One of the coolestexperiences was getting to meet some of the retired big leaguers who I idolized growing up, Eric Davis, Delino Deshields, Darren Bragg. Being able to have conversations with those guys is by far the coolest thing about the game.

We hate to ask, but want to know, what’s your worst moment in minor leagues? 
Besides blowing my elbow out in Helena, Montana, I would have to say it was probably giving up 5 earned runs and only recording one out in South Bend, Indiana. It was a terrible feeling, but like the game of baseball there is always the next day. I was taken out of the game and then it was over, I couldn’t do anything more about it. It was an experience that many have, and I take it as an experience that I learned from.

Scott, thank you so much for talking with BPM. We wish you the best and we’ll be following you this season.