New York Mets scouts

Dee Virgil Fondy (October 31, 1924 – August 19, 1999) was an American professional baseball player who played first base in the Major Leagues from 1951 to 1958. He played for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, and Chicago Cubs.
Fondy was 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) and weighed 195 pounds. He spent a portion of his youth in
San Bernardino, California.Fondy was the last player to bat at Ebbets Field. The Pirates lost to the Dodgers 2–0 on September 24, 1957. He grounded out to shortstop Don Zimmer who threw to first baseman Jim Gentile for the final out of the game. He batted above .300 three times, twice for the Cubs and the Pirates during the 1950s.

Saturnino Escalera Cuadrado (December 1, 1929 – July 3, 2021) was a Puerto Rican former professional baseball player and scout whose playing career extended for 14 seasons (1949–1962). The outfielder and first baseman appeared for one full season, 1954, in Major League Baseball for the Cincinnati Redlegs and was the first player of African descent to appear in an MLB game for the Cincinnati franchise. He threw and batted left-handed, stood 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) tall and 165 pounds (75 kg).

Walter Charles Shannon (January 23, 1933 – February 8, 1992) was an American professional baseball player, a second baseman and shortstop who appeared in parts of two seasons for the 1959–1960 St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he batted left-handed, threw right-handed, stood 6 feet (1.8 m) tall and weighed 178 pounds (81 kg). He was the son of Walter G. Shannon (1907–1994), a longtime scout, director of scouting, and front office executive for the Cardinals, Cleveland Indians, Baltimore Orioles, California Angels and Milwaukee Brewers.
Wally Shannon attended Washington University in St. Louis. He signed with the Cardinals in 1951 and was called to the Major Leagues in July 1959 after batting .291 with 13 home runs for the Rochester Red Wings of the Triple-A International League. In 47 MLB games as a pinch hitter and backup infielder, Shannon collected 27 hits, including five doubles. But in 1960 Shannon was sent back to the minor leagues for good in May after only 18 games with the Cards, three as a starter, and he played the rest of his ten-season career in the minors.
In 65 Major League games, Shannon had 31 hits and a lifetime batting average of .263. After his retirement as a player, Shannon was a scout for the New York Mets during Bing Devine's tenure as the team's president. Shannon died at Creve Coeur, Missouri, from a heart attack at the age of 59.

Nelson Edward Burbrink (December 28, 1921 – April 12, 2001) was an American professional baseball player and scout. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, he was signed by the Chicago Cubs as an amateur free agent before the 1941 season and served in the United States Navy during World War II. After almost a dozen years playing in the minor leagues, Burbrink finally made it to Major League Baseball at the age of 33 with the St. Louis Cardinals.
After being called up to the big leagues in June 1955, Burbrink shared catching duties with teammate Bill Sarni for the remainder of the season. He made his major league debut on June 5 during a doubleheader against the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. He appeared in 58 games for St. Louis, going 47-for-170 (.276) with eight doubles, one triple, no home runs, 15 runs batted in, and 11 runs scored. He had a .333 on-base percentage and a slugging percentage of .335.
Defensively, he recorded 261 putouts, 24 assists, six errors, and participated in four double plays. His fielding percentage was .979, slightly under the league average that season.
After his playing career ended, Burbrink scouted for the Cardinals, New York Mets and Milwaukee Brewers. He served as the Mets' scouting director (1968–72) and director of player development (1973–78).
Burbrink died of cancer in Largo, Florida, at the age of 79.

Robert Joseph Wellman (July 15, 1925 – December 20, 1994) was an American professional baseball player, manager and scout. He managed for a quarter-century in minor league baseball, winning more than 1,600 games — with his 1966 Spartanburg Phillies setting a Western Carolinas League record by ripping off a 25-game winning streak. He also briefly played Major League Baseball.
Wellman was a native of Norwood, Ohio. An outfielder and first baseman, he batted and threw right-handed, stood 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) tall and weighed 210 pounds (95 kg). He had two brief trials — four games in 1948 and 11 more in 1950 — with the Philadelphia Athletics of the American League, batting .286 in 25 at bats, with one triple, one home run (hit off Mel Parnell of the Boston Red Sox on April 23, 1950, at Shibe Park) and one run batted in. The rest of Wellman's uniformed career would be spent in the minors, first as a player (he led his league in home runs over four consecutive seasons, 1954–1957, including the Class A Western International League), then as a playing manager and manager.
His managing career began in 1955 with the Douglas Trojans, a Class D affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds in the Georgia State League, where his club finished in first place but fell in the playoffs. He would handle teams in the farm systems of the Reds (1955–1959), Philadelphia Phillies (1961–1976) and New York Mets (1977–1980), compiling a win–loss record of 1,663 wins, 1,440 defeats (.536) with three playoff championships. His 1966 Spartanburg squad — which featured future major leaguers Larry Bowa, Denny Doyle, Barry Lersch, Ron Allen and Lowell Palmer — won 91 of 126 regular-season games, a .722 winning percentage (equivalent to 117 victories over a 162-game season). However, he spent only part of one season as a manager at the Triple-A level, with the 1970 Eugene Emeralds of the Pacific Coast League, and was released on May 25 after his team dropped 28 of its first 43 games. The next year, he resumed his success in Spartanburg.
After leading the 1980 Jackson Mets into the Texas League playoffs, Wellman hung up his uniform and became a Mets scout. He died in Villa Hills, Kentucky, at the age of 69.