Former San Diego Scout And GM Bobby Fontaine Jr. Passes Away

The man credited with signing San Diego Padres' icon Tony Gwynn, along with MLB Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith and pitcher Randy Johnson, and a host of other prominent players such as Padres' stalwart first baseman/outfielder John Kruk and outfielder Kevin McReynolds over a nearly five-decade career, has passed away.

The announcement came on Monday that Bobby Fontaine Jr., who began working in the San Diego scouting department in 1972 and eventually became the team's general manager, had passed away on Friday, Oct. 2, at the age of 73.

Fontaine began working as an area scout for the Padres in 1972 at the age of 19 when his father, Bobby Fontaine Sr., was the scouting director for the Padres, who had entered the National League as an MLB expansion franchise for the 1969 season. Fontaine Jr. would eventually serve as San Diego's scouting director until 1978 when he began a four-year term as the Padres' general manager.

In June 1981, Fontaine recommended that the Padres select local product Gwynn from San Diego State University in the third round of the MLB Draft. By 1984, the season the Padres advanced to the World Series against the Detroit Tigers, Gwynn was established as the team's starting rightfielder.

One of the game's great contact hitters, Gwynn would finish his 20-year Hall of Fame career in 2001 with 3,141 hits, which ranked him 14th all-time at the time of his retirement. In his 20 seasons, Gwynn, who played all 2,440 games in his career with the Padres, led the major leagues in hits five times, including a career-high 220 as a 37-year-old in 1997.

Fontaine's first major find was Smith, who the Padres selected in the fourth round of the 1977 MLB Draft. Smith played four seasons for the Padres from 1978-1981, finishing second in the Rookie of the Year voting to Atlanta Braves third baseman Bob Horner in 1978 and winning the first two of his 13 consecutive Gold Gloves from 1980-92. Smith was traded from the Padres in December 1981 to the St. Louis Cardinals for shortstop Garry Templeton and outfielder Sixto Lezcano.

In 1982, Fontaine left the Padres for a role as West Coast Scouting director for the Montreal Expos, with Johnson, the 6-foot-10 fireballing left-hander, his most notable find while working for the Expos.

Fontaine ran the Los Angeles Angels' scouting department from 1987-99, building the core of the team that would give the Angels their first and only World Series title in 2002 with a defeat of the San Francisco Giants.

From 2001-03, he was director of player development for the Chicago White Sox before becoming scouting director for the Seattle Mariners from 2004-08 and completing his career in the Toronto Blue Jays' scouting department.

In 2021, Fontaine co-authored a memoir with longtime Angels' beat writer Taylor Blake Ward called, "In Search of Millionaires (The Life of a Baseball Gypsy): The Accounts of Bob Fontaine Jr." The book taught that scouting is not an exact science and much failure will be experienced, but through hard work and diligence success can eventually be found.

“Baseball has provided me with a fabulous opportunity to see the world and work in an industry that most people envy,” he wrote in the book, per a report from Steve Henson of the Los Angeles Times. “I didn’t get rich, except in experiences. To meet and work against so many fine people, as well as some great general managers and owners, has been a privilege.”