Peter Bergeron has a message for any of his family and friends who might be rooting for the Boston Red Sox in the World Series rather than the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“If Mookie Betts wins the World Series, he isn’t going to have you over to his house to show you his ring,” Bergeron joked. “If we win, you can come over to my house and I’ll show you the ring.”
There will be at least one person in New England rooting against the Red Sox over the next nine days. Bergeron has been a professional scout with the Dodgers since 2013, the same team that drafted the 1996 GHS graduate in that year’s MLB Draft. He was traded to the Montreal Expos in 1998 at the trade deadline, and made his Major League debut on Sept. 7, 1999. He finished that season with the Expos, and spent the next two full seasons in the big leagues. Bergeron then spent parts of two more seasons with the Expos, playing a total of 308 career games in the Majors.
Bergeron lives in Greenfield with his wife Jennifer and three children — daughters Amber and Tayler, and son Connor. As a professional scout, Bergeron is put in charge of teams along the east coast and tasked with rating the players on the big league teams so that when the Dodgers are looking at possible trades, his assessments can help out.
“There is so much that goes into it from our pro scouting, to research and development, and analytics, and the past history that players have had with other players,” he said. “Hopefully, somewhere along the line they used my information to acquire or not to acquire a player.”
The 40-year-old was in Greenfield Sunday night but will be flying to Los Angeles for Games 3 through 5, which run over the weekend. He was undecided about whether he would travel to Boston for Games 1 and 2.
While growing up in Greenfield, Bergeron rooted for the Red Sox, but when he was drafted that allegiance deteriorated as he began his career in baseball. He said that having his Dodgers facing his hometown Red Sox in the World Series does make it a bit more special, but there are no torn allegiances. The biggest difference is that friends and family have been talking trash (lovingly of course) to Bergeron over the past few days.
“The whole Red Sox thing kind of went out the window once I got drafted,” he said. “I don’t have the same feeling I did when I was growing up a Red Sox fan. But even as a player, going back to Fenway did mean something more than going to other places. But I’m not going to feel any better if the Red Sox beat the Dodgers as opposed to someone else.”
This marks the second straight season that Bergeron is taking part in a World Series after the Dodgers went to the Fall Classic a year ago when they faced the Houston Astros. Unfortunately for Bergeron, the Astros won the Series in seven games. He said that getting the opportunity to be part of an organization that was playing for the championship was thrilling.
“I’m not directly involved like the players on the field, but to go to the World Series games last year and be a part of that and get a National League championship ring was pretty cool,” he said. “It definitely would be even better to have a World Series ring, but I know guys who have been in baseball a lot longer than I have who have never had that opportunity.”
Now, he hopes that the Dodgers can put a 30-year World Series championship drought to rest. The last time the Dodgers won a title was in 1988. That included Kirk Gibson hitting a walk-off home run off Oakland closer Dennis Eckersley in Game 1 when Gibson hobbled around the bases due injuries he suffered earlier in that postseason. The Dodgers beat the A’s in five games.
“I know how hard it is to win a championship in any sport and to be involved with an organization that wins a championship is not something to take for granted,” he explained. “You look at all the success the Dodgers have had and it’s still been 30 years since they won a World Series.”
Making back-to-back World Series is also quite an accomplishment.
“It’s definitely good for job security,” Bergeron joked. “It’s a good accomplishment. You see how many different people are involved, not just on the field, but the coaching staff, player development and scouts.”
With Los Angeles in the playoff hunt in the final month of the season, Bergeron was enlisted to cover the Colorado Rockies. He said that scouts are paired up in the final few weeks of the season and sent off to cover other potential playoff opponents. Rather than rate players, Bergeron and the other scouts are writing reports on how to beat opposing teams.
“I was on Colorado for about three weeks, trying to learn the team so if the Dodgers match up with them during the playoffs, the players, team and front office can ask me questions,” he said. “We fill out reports on all the players. How do we beat them? How do we get their players out? How are their pitchers going to try to get our players out?”
The Dodgers did see Colorado in a one-game playoff to decide the NL West championship with L.A. winning that game 5-2, which helped the Dodgers avoid playing in the one-game Wild Card round. Colorado defeated the Chicago Cubs in that game, but the Rockies were eliminated by Milwaukee in the NLDS.
So while many of us will be cheering on the Red Sox for the next nine days (should the series go seven games), Bergeron will be proudly wearing his blue and white attire and cheering on his Dodgers. And if the Dodgers do beat the Red Sox, he will likely have plenty of people knocking on his door to check out that ring.
Jason Butynski is a Greenfield native and Recorder Sports Editor. His email address is jbutynski@recorder.