Henderson’s life in baseball: From Rockies’ arrival to 30 years as a scout
Ed Henderson has his fingerprints all over Colorado’s baseball history.
When Denver was awarded a major league franchise in 1991, Henderson was there, pulling the curtain off the banner at the moment of the announcement. When a lanky pitcher named Roy Halladay showed promise as an Arvada West junior in 1994, Henderson was there, radar gun and pen in hand. When Rocktober occurred in 2007, Henderson was there again, with a mic in front of him.
That’s because Henderson’s always been there — in the bleachers and at diamonds in and around Denver — over a 30-year scouting career. Before that, he spent two decades as a member of committees that led to Denver landing the Rockies, and mixed time as a radio analyst.
He hasn’t spent his life around the game for the fame (though he still admits he never quite got over not playing pro ball himself) or the money (associate scouts like Henderson get paid little, if at all). Henderson, 71, does it because he’d have it no other way.
“He is in this for the love of the game, from his contributions to help bring Major League Baseball here to the decades of local scouting,” said Steven Katich, who worked with Henderson on the Denver Baseball Commission in the 1980s. “He’s really been an unsung hero in the Colorado baseball scene through all of this.”
Henderson began scouting in 1994 and has worked for the Marlins (’94-2000), Pirates (’01’07) and the Twins (2008-present). He’s scouted more than 500 Colorado high school baseball stars after turning a career-ending injury into motivation to find another way to make it in the game.
A 1969 graduate of Cathedral
High School in Denver, Henderson was a star outfielder who drew the attention of pro and college scouts. A groin tear his senior year ultimately derailed his playing career. He had eight surgeries over four years, and by the time he was done playing at Catholic University in D.C., he was no longer a prospect. But his passion for baseball hadn’t cooled.
“Even after the injury, I really never had to motivate myself about any aspect of baseball,” Henderson said. “When you love something as much as I love the game, the desire to be involved at any level, and at any time, just came naturally.”
Between post-graduation jobs in construction and engineering, and working for Make-a-wish of Colorado, it didn’t take long for Henderson to find a way back into the game locally. He served as the co-chairman of the grassroots Colorado Committee for Major League Baseball (1976-78), and was also a member of the Denver Baseball Commission (1984-89) and consultant to the Colorado Baseball Commission (1989-91).
“Ed was very generous with his time from the very beginning,” said Roger Kinney, the former director of the Colorado Baseball Commission. “As things moved along in the process, he took on more and more responsibility. He never wanted the credit or was there for his own publicity. But he was involved in some key planning behind the scenes.”
Most notably, Henderson helped orchestrate an extravagant welcome reception in 1991 for the expansion visitation committee, a delegation of team owners and league officials who were making a final visit ahead of the decision on which cities to award franchises to. Henderson’s plan included having a horde of fans greeting the delegation on the street, and two thousand fans inside the Cash Register Building singing “Take Me Out To the Ballgame” as the delegation went up the escalators.
“We were told not to make a big deal out of it because it was supposed to be a business meeting,” Kinney recalled. “But we violated that, and Ed was one of the fundamental guys behind that decision… It turned out to be a big success and left an impression on the delegation. It was our final chance to wow the committee and hopefully get a favorable response, which of course is what happened.”
Three months later, National League President Bill White announced Denver had been awarded a Major League Baseball team, and Henderson helped unveil the banner that night. The Rockies coming to town, and their expansion draft in 1992, marked his career shift from promoter to scout.
At that expansion draft in New York City, Henderson made connections with the Marlins, the other new franchise. That led to a job, even though Henderson had no previous scouting experience.
His first assignment turned out to be his easiest — and best.
“(The Marlins scouting director) said, ‘Hey there’s a kid who’s a junior pitcher out at Arvada West High School — Hannifan, Hannigan, Holliday, something like that,’” Henderson said. “He didn’t really know anything about him, so I went out and took a look at him. I came home that night and my wife asks me, ‘What do you think of your very first scouting job?’ I said, ‘Man, this is easy!’”
Had the Marlins’ front office listened to Henderson, Halladay would have started his career in Florida, not Toronto. The Marlins had the No. 6 pick in the 1995 draft but passed on the Hall of Fame right-hander in favor of California high school shortstop Jaime Jones at No. 6 — the only Top 10 pick that year that never made it to the majors. The Blue Jays took Halladay at No. 17 overall.
“I wanted us to draft him so bad,” Henderson said. “The night before the draft I get a call from a senior level guy in the Marlins organization. He said they’re not going to draft Roy in the first round, but that if he’s around in Round 2, they were going to grab him. I told him, ‘He’s not going to be around in Round 2. Everybody’s on him. If you wait, you lose.’… Well, what happened?”
In the three decades since, Henderson has scouted every big name in Colorado high school baseball. From Brad Lidge, Darnell Mcdonald and Mark Melancon, to Marco Gonzales and Kevin Gausman, and all the Kyle Freelands, David Ardsmas and Griffin Jaxs in-between, Henderson has reports on all of them.
Longtime Cherry Creek coach Marc Johnson, CHSAA’S all-time wins leader, described Henderson as a scout “who does his homework by checking backgrounds, asking about kids’ character and makeup and those type of things, which is incredibly important homework to do on somebody who can actually go the distance.”
Henderson’s longtime scouting boss, Ted Williams, said Henderson “always has his ear to the ground in Colorado.”
“He knows who’s already on the radar, and he’s always listening for those who are coming up, too,” said Williams, who worked with Henderson with the Twins and Pirates. “When I was working with him I never had to worry about players popping up, and Ed was always my foot in the door when it came to (signability), because he knew most of the parents and the families of the top prospects.”
Throughout his scouting career, Henderson has worked other jobs to help pay the bills, including working in radio since 2004. He’s been the Rockies/mlb analyst for KOA the past eight years, and his affable personality and passion for the game have earned him a wide network of supporters. Rockies manager Bud Black called Henderson “part of that fabric of the game.”
And even though scouting is changing, with a tilt toward analytics and less need for the eyes of trusty old scouts, Henderson manages to remain relevant. He was mulling retirement after this season, but the next wave of high school prospects has him excited, and he’s planning on sticking around at least a few more years.
“At the end of the day, the old way still gets it done, and the heart and the hustle and raw athletic ability — all those things we’ve valued for 100 years — all those things still play,” former Golden star and current Diamondbacks reliever Mark Melancon said. “That’s where Ed is so good and can see that. He doesn’t need the Trackman, and the Hawk-eye, and the Rapsodo, and the Edgertronic — his eyes are able to see the value of a ballplayer without knowing the analytics behind it.”