SA’s Tayler Scott living the American dream in Major League Baseball

Tayler Scott, who became the first South African-born pitcher to feature in Major League Baseball (MLB) when he debuted for the LA Dodgers late last month, is determined to stay in the big leagues, having taken the scenic route to reach the pinnacle of the sport.

Scott, 31, was a late bloomer but, after showing promise for Edenvale Imps, decided to left South Africa to chase the American dream at 16. He said says parents Rodney and Karen made huge sacrifices for him to head Stateside and pursue a career in baseball.

In 2011, it reaped early reward when Scott was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the MLB draft. He spent time in the minor leagues before stepping up to the big time. Before wearing Dodger Blue, he pitched for Hiroshima Toyo Carp in Japan and the San Diego Padres on his return to the States.

“Being drafted was a pretty crazy experience because we took a huge risk leaving South Africa and me finishing high school in America,” Scott told TimesLIVE Premium from his home in Los Angeles, with the Dodgers currently in third place on the National League West conference.

“I first went to America not knowing if I was good enough and was up against guys who had played baseball from the age of five. But when I was drafted, it showed me that moving was a good choice and I was good enough.”

While Scott initially headed to America on a student visa, his parents had to alternate their stays with their teenage son as they were on tourist visas and couldn’t visit for longer than six months at a time. But Scott never wavered from his dream and despite many ups and downs, 15 years on he is living out his dreams in the world’s best league.

Scott, whose Instagram bio reads “first African-born player to pitch in the MLB”, is proud of his African roots and has the South African flag stitched into his pitching glove and wears a beaded bangle made from the colours of the national flag on his left wrist. 

In 2017, Gift Ngoepe made history by becoming the first player from an independent African nation to crack the major leagues after playing 704 games and spending nearly nine years in the minor leagues. Scott said Pittsburgh Pirates and Toronto Blue Jays shortstop and second baseman Ngoepe, who retired in January, showed him it was possible to make it in the US out of Africa.

“When I got to America, Gift and I were side by side and kind of shooting for being the first South African to play in MLB,” said Scott, who met his American wife in 2013 during spring training at Arizona State and with whom he shares a two-year-old daughter, Charlotte.

“I’m glad that Gift could be first because his story is pretty incredible. When he made it to the majors, I knew it was possible and it was a pretty big inspiration moving forward.”

Scott, who still has his parents and two sisters based in Johannesburg, says that to succeed in baseball in the US, South Africans must have a unique selling point — such as his slider pitch — and their mentality has to be laser focused. He sees himself playing another five or six years, having entered his 12th professional season.

“A lot of young players will go on a rollercoaster ride in their minds as soon as they have a bad game. If you are coming from South Africa and wanting to play baseball you have to go above and beyond. The 10,000-hour rule is definitely applicable because baseball is an extremely repetitive sport and the more you practice, the better you are going to get at the sport.”

While Scott is the toast of the small fraternity that is South African baseball, he is less than enthused with the state of the sport in his homeland.

“It doesn’t seem like it’s changed much since I was a kid playing there. On the one side, growing the game is really tough because baseball equipment isn’t affordable to most people in South Africa. And the other side of it is coaching, which hasn’t evolved much and it’s kind of the same guys who were coaching me when I was a 10-year-old.”

He said that if South Africa aims to expand baseball, coaches need to venture to the US and attend baseball conventions to learn more about the game, new coaching styles and how to develop young players better.

Asked if he expects South Africa’s sports, arts and culture department and Olympic committee Sascoc to plough more resources into baseball, Scott was forthright.

“I feel like most of their time and effort is going to go into the sports that matter for South Africa,” he said, in reference to the focus on the big three sports of soccer, cricket and rugby, and baseball being forced to feed off scraps.

The South African baseball team, with Andy Berglund and Neil Adonis at the coaching helm, are 26th in the WBSC ranking, having made their lone appearance at the Olympic Games in 2000 and two at the World Baseball Classic.

“It has always been a dream of mine to put on the South African colours,” Scott, who last featured for his country against Germany in 2022, said.

“I have tried in the past to play for SA, but it hasn’t always happened because of the timing. That said, I want to try to give back to South Africa and see if we can grow the game.”