Eleven years of blood, sweat and tears gets Donovan a job

His job has required him to be Job, the patient man, who must remind himself of the proverb that suggests patience is the bitter plant that bears the sweetest fruit.

Todd Donovan has been waiting 11 years for the plant to get its rear in gear.

Eleven years of minor league baseball. Eleven years of watching other players with inferior statistics and accomplishments, get promoted. Eleven years of offseason preparation. Eleven years of answering questions. Eleven years of repairing and regenerating two broken thumbs, two broken fingers, a broken bone in his hand and a torn elbow ligament. Eleven years of managing the requisite self doubt.

And now Donovan, an East Lyme native, is happy to report it's because of the 11 years that he has a job in baseball.

"Todd has poured his heart and soul into the game for 11 years and that type of a grinders' mentality typically translates very well in the world of scouting," Donovan's new boss, Jerry DiPoto, said earlier this week.

DiPoto, a former major league pitcher, is the vice president of player personnel for the Arizona Diamondbacks. His newest employee is Todd Donovan, pro scout, who has gone from the oldest man (31) in Double-A to one of the youngest in his new gig.

"I used to get paid to play baseball," Donovan said, still ecstatic over the developments. "Now I get paid to watch it."

(How soon until he is critiquing the free food, too?)

Donovan will stay in the northeast, enabling him to keep his home in East Lyme with his wife, Erin. He'll monitor the Yankees, Red Sox and Blue Jays, the International League, Eastern League and others. In spring training of 2010, his assignments will be around the Clearwater, Fla., region: Yanks, Phils, Jays.

"I always said things happen for a reason," Donovan said. "Now I know why."

Donovan spent last summer with the Double-A Blue Jays, knowing that The Call was never coming. But he did get a call from his old friend and former major league pitcher Charlie Kerfeld, who was working in the front office for the Padres. Kerfeld heard the Diamondbacks job might be open. Soon, Donovan and DiPoto were talking.

After the Eastern League season ended, Donovan was home watching baseball. Only with a purpose: to prepare scouting reports for DiPoto. Here's how he did: The official "you're hired" came a few weeks later.

"There are few substitutes for experience and Todd has walked a day in the shoes of the players he will now be asked to scout," DiPoto said. "There will certainly be challenges in how he applies what he has learned throughout his career. But in the end he understands players.

"The job is focused on identifying players (instinct that he has), evaluating those players (a skill that he will cultivate) and then placing a value (relative to the universe of players) on that player," DiPoto said, "which I believe he is balanced enough to grasp with continued exposure and experience."

Go figure. A happy ending that's really a beginning. Because before he's 40, Donovan will have the experiences of an 11-year veteran who has endured every player's frustration as well as a burgeoning expertise in player personnel. He'll know how they play and how they think. That's the kind of resume that leads to Cashman/Theo-esque jobs.

For now, though, Donovan is the apprentice only a few months after being Father Time in the Eastern League. Finally, the guy who crashed into walls and only tried as hard as he could every day gets his reward. Donovan always knew that playing baseball was a privilege and that his 11 years could have been spent, you know, doing more backbreaking, less glorious work.

But after living with 11 years of doubt and a ticking ball-o-logical clock, Donovan is the young guy full of promise all over again. Think a happy thought for him today. Todd Donovan is happy and fulfilled and excited.

Nobody deserves it more.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.