Cooper: Mariners hire Amanda Hopkins as full-time scout
From J.J. Cooper at Baseball America on December 8, 2015, with mention of SABR member Justine Siegal:
Amanda Hopkins has been around baseball her entire life. As the daughter of longtime scout and former Rangers scouting director Ron Hopkins and the sister of minor leaguer Ross Hopkins, she’s seen the scout’s life and the baseball life up close for years.
Now she will become a trailblazer. Hopkins has been hired by the Mariners’ as a full-time amateur scout. While there are a couple of women working for the Major League Scouting Bureau and numerous women working in Major League Baseball front offices, Hopkins is believed to be the first full-time female scout to be hired by a team in decades. Edith Houghton and Bessie Largent were the first female scouts, but both worked in the game in the 1940s and 1950s. It is believed that Hopkins is the first since then.
“She has it in her blood,” Mariners amateur scouting director Tom McNamara said. “She has good instincts and feel for scouting.”
McNamara said that Hopkins had been working in the Mariners’ front office, helping on the amateur scouting side for several years. The team sponsored her to attend the Major League Scouting Bureau developmental program in the fall where McNamara said she graded out very well.
Read the full article here: http://www.baseballamerica.com/draft/mariners-hire-amanda-hopkins-full-time-scout/
Originally published: December 8, 2015. Last Updated: December 8, 2015.