So much so in fact, that Toomey was inducted into the Mid-Atlantic Scouts Association Hall of Fame Friday during the association's annual dinner in Baltimore. His peers handed down the honor through a vote. Legendary Los Angeles Dodgers manager and Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda was the guest speaker.

"The ceremony was great," said the 52-year-old Toomey. "Lasorda is a tremendous ambassador for the game. He was down at Vero Beach [Fla.] working with a Japanese team. He told a lot of great jokes. He was the life of the party. Everybody enjoyed it. There were well over 200 people there.

"My peers voted me in and that was really kind of rewarding that they did that. It's nice to be recognized. Usually, scouts aren't recognized."

Playing background

While growing up in nearby Hyattsville, Toomey's passion for baseball centered on playing the sport and not so much watching others do so. Playing sports, in fact, seemed like the natural thing to do as his father taught in the Montgomery College-Rockville physical education department for 20 years.

It was to MC-Rockville where Toomey matriculated after a successful four years of baseball at St. John's College High School in Washington, D.C., a program that is normally among the best in the area and a perennial Washington Catholic Athletic Conference title contender.

Toomey, a center fielder during his playing days, flourished at Montgomery College under former coach Ray Fox in the early 1970s. He eventually landed a spot on the George Washington University varsity squad and was later inducted into the Montgomery College Hall of Fame in 1998. His father joined him a year later.

Toomey played for the Colonials during the 1973 and '74 seasons, capping his brief career by being named the team's Most Valuable Player.

"I have to thank my parents," Toomey said. "They gave me every opportunity to succeed [and] I had some good coaches. I had a lot of help along the way."

Trades in glove and bat for managerial cap

Despite his numerous successes on the diamond, Toomey said he didn't draw much interest from Major League scouts because "they weren't looking for 5[-foot-]6 outfielders. I wasn't a very big guy [but] I enjoyed playing at that level."

Although his playing days came to an end earlier than he'd hoped, Toomey was still able to don a uniform and stay in touch with his favorite sport by transitioning into the realm of coaching. Like his playing career, Toomey was a success.

A year after graduating from George Washington, he became the school's head baseball coach, a position he served through the 1979 season. He got the job through the support of Bob Tallent, who coached Toomey at George Washington and who was one of the school's best basketball plays during his collegiate days.

Tallent began his college career at Kentucky, where he played for legendary college coach Adolph Rupp. Tallent roomed with former NBA coach Pat Riley. He moved to George Washington after a disagreement with Rupp.

During his coaching tenure at George Washington, Toomey compiled a 102-82 record that included three trips to the NCAA Tournament. The last of those trips in 1979 produced the program's first and only tournament victory, a win against Seton Hall in a regional game at Florida State. His Colonials went on to lose to Florida State and Arkansas, the national runner-up.

For his efforts, Toomey was voted the Eastern College Conference Coach of the year in 1979.

"Most of the players I recruited at George Washington were Montgomery County kids [including current Sherwood baseball coach Billy Goodman]," said Toomey, who was inducted into the George Washington Hall of Fame in 1989. "I was fortunate to have good kids. It was a great experience."

Those lofty accomplishments landed him a job with the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he spent two years, 1980-81, as both an instructor and minor league manager. He coached the Alexandria Dukes, a Class A farm team that played in the Carolina League.

During that managerial stint, he helped former Boston Red Sox manager Grady Little coach the North squad in the Carolina League All-Star contest, which was played at the same field the movie Bull Durham was filmed at in the 1980s, including the famous smoking bull billboard behind the outfield fence. Little was the manager of that all-star squad.

Toomey's Dukes also faced Major League greats Daryl Strawberry, Dwight "Doc" Gooden, Julio Franco and Tony Fernandez.

"I don't know if I really want to be a scout."

After two years with the Pirates, Bob Fontaine Sr., who was the San Francisco Giants scouting director, gave Toomey a call and inquired about him becoming a scout for the Giants organization.

Toomey initially balked at the idea but decided to meet with team officials anyway.

"I said, 'I don't know if I really want to be a scout," he said. "`I like teaching and coaching.' They said try it for one year. They felt they weren't drafting many players from the East Coast. They needed a baseball guy with contacts and experience in baseball and here I am 25 years later."

During those 25 years, Toomey has also worked for the Cleveland Indians, the New York Mets and Texas Rangers and alongside many famous baseball people, including former Mets and Rangers manager Bobby Valentine. He's currently a special assignment scout for Montreal Expos vice president/general manager Omar Minaya.

His job has sent him across the world from Japan and Korea to the Dominican Republic and Venezuela as well as all around the United States. Toomey's specialty is the Mid-Atlantic region, which includes Maryland. He helped draft Watkins Mill graduate Matt Montgomery, the 2003 Gazette Player of the Year, this past summer. The Expos selected Montgomery in the 34th round.

Besides helping to analyze the draft, Toomey said he's involved with making trades with other teams and assessing the talent level of the following teams and their AAA affiliates: Toronto, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Boston and Baltimore.

His hard work has not gone unnoticed. Toomey earned the Topps Scout of the Month Award in 1987 and 1995 and he was voted the Scout of the Year by the Mid-Atlantic Major League Scouting Association in 1992.

"The most important part [of the job] is having the opportunity to travel to so many places and to meet so many interesting people," he said. "I've met a lot of good kids and good players."

If all of that's not enough, Toomey performs baseball clinics during the offseason and he created Triple Crown Baseball last year, which helps link aspiring high-school players to colleges with diminishing recruiting resources.

"I have a passion for teaching and helping young people," he said. "We all have a responsibility to inform and inspire kids now and help them get to college and maybe some will go a little further."

Not too shabby for a short center fielder, who never envisioned himself as a professional scout.