Alex Agostino was always a hockey guy. Before he got into baseball full-time and began the career that now sees him in his 26th year of working in the game -- currently a regional crosschecker with the Phillies -- he was running hockey schools and camps, working at a local rink in Quebec, and had an offer to be a player-coach in France that he turned down because he was three months into a marriage that has since added three decades to its tenure.

Agostino first delved into scouting with the Expos as a part-timer in January 1995. His home province’s team then sent him to the Major League Scouting Bureau’s scout school in Lakeland, Fla., and he moved into a full-time position covering Canada at the end of the '95 season. He joined the Marlins six seasons later and remained with the club for four years until his position was cut.