Jay Heafner’s love of baseball brought him back to the game.
Twenty years ago, Jay Heafner was a star player on an American Legion World Series runner-up, was two years away from winning a top college honor and three years away from beginning his professional baseball career.
Now 39, Heafner’s current job is watching amateur baseball players — including going to American Legion baseball games — as a scout in the Texas Rangers’ organization.
It’s a career that Heafner sought out soon after his official playing days ended. Then, Heafner had started his post-baseball career working for a bank in Charlotte.
“I just wasn’t good at it,” Heafner recalls. “And I knew I still loved baseball.”
Luckily for Heafner, he had stayed in touch with many from his baseball past, among them Scott Servais.
Now in his eighth year as the Seattle Mariners’ manager, Servais could relate to Heafner’s situation.
After Servais’ 11-year major league career, he would join the Texas Rangers’ front office working in player development. That was Servais’ job in 2008 when he gave Heafner his chance to change jobs.
“I had always stayed in touch with Scott Servais through emails and texts,” Heafner said. “Then he once said, ‘We may have a scouting position available. You want me to pass your name along?’ I said, ‘Yeah sure.’”
Heafner has been with the Rangers ever since, first living in New Jersey in charge of scouting the Northeast and now in the Charlotte, N.C., suburb of Indian Trail.
“This year is my 15th major league draft and I’ve always enjoyed it,” Heafner said.
Heafner’s job is to scout players in his region and forward those assessments to his superiors.
Among those Heafner personally scouted that were drafted by the Rangers are current Chicago Cubs pitcher Kyle Hendricks, current Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Jeffrey Springs and pitcher Owen White, who made his major league debut earlier this season for the Rangers.
“You can’t help but become a little emotionally attached to the process and the players that you sign,” Heafner said. “But it’s also got to be the right thing for the Rangers and what the organization needs. Your goal is to get the best value for your club.”
As a player, Heafner helped his West Lincoln High School team in Vale, N.C., to its first 20-win season and state playoff appearance in the spring of 2000 before beginning a four-year American Legion Baseball career with perennial power Cherryville Post 100 where he finished second all-time in hits.
In 2003, Heafner was the leadoff batter, shortstop and pitcher for Cherryville’s American Legion World Series runner-up team to Rochester, Minn. And while Heafner missed the championship game loss after suffering a broken toe in the semifinals, he was named to the 2003 ALWS all-tournament team.
Heafner’s success continued at Davidson College where he was named 2005 Southern Conference player of the year when his .448 batting average finished second in the nation. He finished his Wildcats career second all-time in career hits, first in career saves and was the school’s first (and to date only) preseason All-American selection.
A 2020 Davidson Sports Hall of Fame inductee, Heafner was selected in the 23rd round of the 2006 major league draft by the Rangers; Heafner spent two seasons in the Texas organization as an infielder.
- Baseball