Baseball | 08.27.2020

LEWISTON, Idaho – For many Lewis-Clark State Warriors, careers in baseball don't end when their collegiate eligibility runs out. 18 Warriors have suited up on MLB rosters, with many more playing in the minors, independent baseball and overseas. Countless others have followed the coaching path at all levels. Another group is staying in the game are scouts. With at least nine former Warriors in the Major League scouting ranks currently, it is safe to say that the Warrior Way reaches well beyond the walls of Harris Field and Ed Cheff Stadium.

Dave Blume, Steve Decker, J Harrison, Jason Ellison, Elliott Strankman, Trevor Brown, Scott Fairbanks, Carlos Fisher and Kyle Blackwell all followed different career paths after their tenures as Warriors. All nine have remained in the game at varying levels of the scouting world to help young men achieve their dreams of professional baseball.

One thing each of these men have in common is the impact that LC State baseball has had on their careers. A second thing to impact almost all of them is the influence of Ed Cheff.

"There are so many people that have gone on in baseball because of that man," Harrison said. "I know so many people that the day they put the glove down that was it for baseball, but this program has turned out so many coaches and people that have been able to stay in the game and I know it is because of him."

The most experienced of the bunch, Blume finished up at LC State in 1980. After a few years of playing and coaching, Blume took a scouting job with the Seattle Mariners. He was with the Mariners for two years before joining the Toronto Blue Jays organization for 16 years. He has been with the Baltimore Orioles now for 18 years. When with Seattle, Blume covered Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana, then with the Blue Jays he had Northern California and the Northwest. He became a West Coast cross checker with the Orioles. Throughout his career, Blume has signed names like Jeff Kent and Brandon League.

After finishing his professional playing days in 2000, Decker worked in player development and coaching for 15 years. He was a hitting coach and managed at every level in the minor leagues for seven leagues. He then became the hitting coordinator for the Giants for three years and became the Director of Instruction. He was the Giants' assistant hitting coach at the Major League level for three years and became a special assignment scout for baseball operations. He is currently a professional scout for the Giants.

Decker has been with the Giants, the team that drafted him out of LC State, for 26 years.

"In professional baseball, staying with the same team for that long really doesn't happen," Decker explained. "It's different now because the analytics side of baseball is influential, and I am kind of the old school baseball guy, so we have a balance from both sides."

Harrison headed north to Coeur d'Alene to coach an American Legion team and at North Idaho College. When looking for new opportunities, Cheff helped him land a job coaching at Chico State. While with the Wildcats, a friend and scout gave Harrison the chance to be a part of the Atlanta Braves scouting internship program. A few weeks later, the Braves offered him a job as a Northwest area scout.

Harrison climbed the ladder for eight years, spending time as an area scout, cross checker and international scout before joining the Milwaukee Brewers as a professional scout. Not two years later, the Cincinnati Reds offered him the Director of Professional Scouting position. He took the job in Oct. of 2006 and has been with the Reds ever since. Harrison was named a Special Assistant to the General Manager in 2008 and still holds that title.

After wrapping up at LC State in 2000, Ellison was drafted and played professional baseball for 10 years. After a few years off, a scouting opportunity found its way to Ellison and he has been doing that ever since. He is now in his ninth year with the Angels and is currently a national hitting cross checker.

"The highlight has been getting a few players drafted and to the big leagues," Ellison said. "That is what we are doing it for, to find talent and give guys opportunities."

In 2009, two former Warriors got their start in scouting with the Minnesota Twins. Strankman got his start in baseball as an assistant coach at Oklahoma State before being hired by the Twins. After starting as an area scout in Northern California, he was promoted to the entire west coast.

Brown was drafted by the Padres in 2001, and after a few years in the professional ranks, Brown joined the coaching staff at Oklahoma State before joining the Minnesota Twins scouting group in 2009. He started in the Northwest before making the move to Texas in 2017 to move closer to family in Oklahoma. His favorite part of the job is seeing players grow into young men, both on and off the field.

"I think the highlight is always the draft and going through the process of getting to the draft and getting to know these players and watching them develop as people," Brown explained. "I enjoy getting to watch young guys that are superstars now go through low levels of pro ball."

The move to Texas is what brought Blackwell into the picture.

Blackwell graduated from LC State in 2013 and joined the Warrior coaching staff for four years. It was in the fall of 2017 that he received a call from Brown, who he had met while recruiting for LC State, about becoming a scout for the Twins. After discussing the opportunity with then-Head Coach Jeremiah Robbins, Blackwell interviewed with Strankman. He has been with the Twins through three drafts and covers Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Montana and Alaska. He calls Wilder, Idaho home until he heads west to work in the spring.

Backwell has enjoyed his time with the Twins so far and has found success in the draft.

"It has been phenomenal," Blackwell said. "We have a great team and leadership, starting with the owners. It is a really good family atmosphere. Personally, I was really lucky my first two years in the draft and had a first-rounder in Trevor Larnach. The following year I had a third-rounder out of Oregon and an eighth-rounder out of Gonzaga."

Fairbanks joined the Marlins scouting team in 2018 after a stint with the Cubs organization. He currently covers the Northwest and Northern California. When asked about the highlights of his career so far, it had a lot to do with the people.

"It's getting to meet different people," Fairbanks said. "When I was with the Cubs I got to pick Theo Epstein up at the airport and take him around to see players. Then getting to meet Derek Jeter and spend time with him at the draft was kind of a surreal and cool moment."

Fisher, also newer to the scouting game, joined the San Diego Padres organization in 2018. A native to the Los Angeles area, his territory covers Southern California from San Luis Obispo to Long Beach. Once his playing days were over and family became the focus, he jumped at the opportunity to work near home.

"With my family, I wasn't going to be able to take a job, for example, in Texas, so this was the perfect situation for me to be able to be home," Fisher said.

He found success in his first draft, having players get selected in the fifth, 12^th and 22^nd round.

"I was really pumped about that," Fisher recalled. "That has been the highlight so far, seeing all the hard work and the meeting come together and being able to sign three kids. It took me back to when I signed in 2005."

With so many Warriors around, the alumni cross paths often.

"We run into each other a handful of times throughout the spring," Fairbanks explained, "but we all stay in touch with each other. It's a pretty tight group."

"We all have a pride amongst us, and people in the baseball world know so it's kind of a fun thing," Fairbanks said. "People say, 'There are the Warriors together again,' and we just all hang out and it's a cool deal."

"There are still a few of us running around that got to play for Ed and that means a lot," Brown added. "It's a strong fraternity. We can all say we've been through that, and we get a lot of respect from people that know we played for Ed or Jeremiah and went through that grind."

When talking with any member of the group, the message is clear. LC State and Ed Cheff helped them get to where they are today.

"A lot of the stuff that Ed taught me I still apply a lot of it to my evaluations and the way I view things," Strankman explained. "My perspective and the way I view things is unique because I played for Ed for five years. I redshirted one year, and only a handful of us have done that, and then I coached with him for four summers up in Alaska. We went to the NBC a couple times and I became pretty close with Ed and I learned a lot from him.

"I think it has helped me evaluate," Strankman continued. "Overall, I think that I use a lot of what Ed taught me in my evaluations, in my job and even in hiring people. I hired Kyle and I used a lot of things that Ed taught me about what the important things are to look for in character and stuff like that. I feel like there is no question that Ed impacted my life that way. It has been a good gig."

The impact Cheff had extends far beyond just playing the game. Many have used what he taught them to spot the future of the game.

"The impact Ed had was more than just teaching me how to be a baseball player," Fairbanks said. "It was more about how guys go about it, the mentality, which kids will make it in professional baseball. It takes a certain amount of toughness to survive once you get out in what we called 'the big boy world,' so playing for Ed and having to go through that grind as a player definitely helps us separate players."

Many of the lessons extend beyond the playing field and can be viewed as life lessons.

"Ed was more than a coach," Harrison said. "One thing that both he and my father did was that they held everybody accountable. I have never seen anyone in my life follow through with every demand, and he just wanted you to be the same person every day. The thing I appreciated most about him, and this has helped me in scouting, is that he never asked someone to do something they weren't capable of, but boy did he demand you be what you could be. The expectations were of what you could achieve, and sometimes not everyone gave their all, but he made sure he got that out of you. If you were coming up short and he demanded more, it was only because he believed you could do it. I loved that about him, and I've learned you can do it as a parent, as a coach and as a scout. You make the best of what you have and find the best person for that role."

For those that play at LC State, they find that even though the program has a strong baseball history, it focuses on more than that. LC State has provided countless Warriors with the opportunity to excel both on and off the field, giving them the tools and environment they need.

Decker won two national titles and was a First-Team All-American for the Warriors under Cheff.

"The whole environment of the community, small class sizes, the work ethic that Ed instilled in us, it was a huge impact," Decker said. "It was a good environment for me because there were not a lot of distractions. It was all about going to class, eating, lifting weights and going to the field and the hitting facility."

"We were trained to do things the right way and we try to incorporate that into how we do our jobs as well," Strankman said. "I don't want people to think that we are better than anyone else, but we definitely learned some of those skills and tools at LC State. I was very lucky."

Cheff not only made his mark at Harris Field, but in every player he coached. Every former Warrior has taken many lessons away from being a part of this program and used it to find success elsewhere.

"When I came back for my Hall of Fame induction at LC, I told all the players that you have to listen and learn and that is one of the things I did as a player there with Ed. No matter who he was talking to, and I was surrounded by a lot of really good players, I tried to listen and learn and think that is what got me through the minor leagues. You develop when you do that and it helps you become a better player and that all started at LC."

"There are a lot of people out there that know who Ed Cheff is," Blume said. "He won a lot and he knew what he was looking for and he was very competitive. I think that is the way I go about my job every day; trying to work as hard as I can every day because that is what he did."
 
"He was very influential for me and I wouldn't change a thing," Decker said.