Jerry Lafferty Gives Rotary Program

Former Trenton resident Jerry Lafferty, now working as a scout for the Kansas City Royals baseball team, was the speaker at Thursday’s meeting of the Trenton Rotary Club. Jeff Crowley was the program chairman and Dr. John Holcomb gave the introduction.
Lafferty briefly talked about the Royals, who began their spring training game schedule this week, and said that while the Royals will be competitive, other teams in the division have also gotten better as well. The Royals finished last year as the American League champions and were within one out of winning the World Series in game seven. He discussed the role of scouts in baseball, noting that many refer to scouts as “the backbone of the game.” He said that being a scout is a lot like tuckpointing a house in making the foundation strong.
Lafferty said that he has been fortunate to have 17 players that he has scouted have a MLB career. He said that every player on the field is there because some scout gave them a chance. He gave pitcher Brandon Finnegan, who went to the Royals in the first round of the 2014 draft, and outfielder Jarrod Dyson, who was chosen 1,475th in the 2006 draft, as examples of how scouts “gave them their chance,” whether they were an early draft choice or a late draft choice.
Lafferty also encouraged Rotary members to support the North Central Missouri College sports teams, specifically the women’s basketball team, which is traveling to Harrison, AR on Saturday for a national tournament-qualifier game, and the men’s baseball team, of which he said there are two players that have the potential to play in the major leagues some day. He also talked about former NCMC men’s pitcher Silas Bohannon, who is in the St. Louis Cardinals minor league organization, and said that Bohannon could very well be pitching in Busch Stadium “in the near future.”
During the business meeting, Associate District Gov. Julie McCoy reminded members about the Show-Me Rotary event on March 27-28 and the district assembly on April 25 in Chillicothe. Members were also reminded about the club’s fundraiser, Trenton’s Got Talent, on April 11.
Next week’s program chairman is Melissa King, who will have a program on the “Sharing of the Green” event sponsored by the Trenton Area Ministerial Alliance.