Longtime scout/MLB exec/GM Jim Bowden shares his most memorable experiences while participating in the MLB draft. Former scout/exec Tony Blengino shared his own memories on Monday.

Bonds or Gwynn … Chris Gwynn

In 1985, I was a publicity assistant for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and during the amateur draft, my job was to record information on all of our picks and take it to the publicity director so he could type -- on a typewriter -- a press release to let the media know who we drafted. That year, we had the sixth overall pick, and it was only my second year being part of the draft process.

The way it worked back then, two national cross-checkers would make their individual draft lists and turn them in to the scouting director, who combined those lists and factored in his own preferences to make an overall draft list. In 1985, B.J. Surhoff, Will Clark, Bobby Witt and Barry Larkin were the first four players drafted. To this day, I remember the excitement in the room when we knew we were getting either Barry Bonds or Chris Gwynn (Tony's younger brother). Joe L. Brown, the GM at the time, strongly wanted to draft Gwynn, as did one of his top cross-checkers, Lenny Yochim, because they questioned Bonds' work ethic and attitude. But it was the tobacco-spitting, whiskey-drinking Howie Haak that stood up and yelled that Bonds was the "best f---ing player" he'd ever scouted, and if we didn't take Bonds, he'd quit. Haak, the first recipient of the Scout of the Year award the prior season, had a tremendous track record that included the Rule 5 selection of Roberto Clemente in 1954 and a long list of signing star players, from Manny Sanguillen to Rennie Stennett to Omar Moreno.

The GM and scouting director went against their personal opinions and went with Haak, and obviously they're glad they did.