Crosby please... Dammit. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=crasnick_jerry&id=2894316 Tim, this mentions my boss. Don Mitchell, now a player agent, was working as Midwest cross-checker for Cleveland in the spring of '89 when he received a call from area scout Tom Couston. "Tom told me, 'I've got this third baseman at a junior college I want you to see. He inside-outs everything and he never pulls the ball. No other scouts like him, so there won't be anybody else at the game when you go there,'" Mitchell recalled. Sure enough, when Mitchell went to see Thome play for Illinois Central College, he was the only scout in attendance. He saw a skinny kid with a big frame, a sunken chest and lots of enthusiasm for the game. It was enough to pique his curiosity, and when the draft rolled around, the Indians acted on Couston's "gut instinct,'' picked Thome and signed him for $15,000. Sometime this season, Thome will join the 500 home run club. That same year, the Indians were criticized for wasting a No. 1 pick on outfielder Calvin Murray even though it was common knowledge that he was bound for the University of Texas. Not long afterward, Cleveland fired scouting director Chet Montgomery. Nearly two decades later, Montgomery's 1989 draft looks pretty darned good. The Indians selected Thome and future big leaguers Jerry Dipoto, Jesse Levis, Alan Embree, Curtis Leskanic, Kelly Stinnett and Brian Giles between the third and 17th rounds.