Ray Poitevint

Roland Ray Poitevint

• Bats Right, Throws Right

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Ray Poitevint followed in the footsteps of Howie Haak as a pioneering international scout. Poitevint played briefly in the minors in 1949-50, hitting .174 for the 1949 Medford Nuggets and .135 for the 1950 Riverside Rubes. After serving in the Korean War, he played semipro baseball in Japan and married the daughter of a prominent Japanese judge whose friends included several Japanese baseball owners.

He returned to the U.S. in 1955 and quit a high-paying sales job to become a scout for the Baltimore Orioles in 1961. With the Orioles in the 1970s, he signed many young players out of Central America, notably Dennis Martinez. He then moved on to the Milwaukee Brewers, signing Teddy Higuera and David Green, among others. Poitevint has also worked for the California Angels and Boston Red Sox, signing Bengie Molina. His longstanding relationships in Japan have helped numerous players land there over the years. He signed Yi-Hsiang Lin from Taiwan for the Orioles.

Poitevint was involved with the Million Dollar Arm challenge, an effort to find pitching talent in India that produced Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel. He is portrayed in the film of the same name by actor Alan Arkin, in a humorous portrayal in which he sleeps most of the time, but does recognize real talent when he sees here (or more accurately, hears it).

Related Sites

• The Frontiersman -- by Steve Henson, Los Angeles Times, September 17, 1993