A lot of baseball executives, scouts, coaches and otherwise are former players of the games, themselves. Obviously, many of them are extremely intelligent/high baseball-acumen guys and girls as it is, but having that extra factor of big league experience is a very sought after quality in MLB.
It should be no surprise, then, to learn that new Seattle Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto pitched in the majors for eight years (1993-2000). It should also be no surprise to learn that new Mariners manager Scott Servais was a catcher for 11 years (1991-2001).
You may be surprised to learn, however, that the two were pitted against each other several times, throughout their stints in the majors.
Sometimes DiPoto got the better of Servais:
But Servais handled himself quite well:
Your browser does not support iframes.
For their career, now-manager Scott Servais went 3-5 off now GM Jerry Dipoto with a walk and a hit by pitch. My guess is Servais makes his chest just a little bit puffier when he walks by DiPoto in the office, whispering the words, “six hundred batting average.”