By Todd Finkelmeyer
The Capital Times

A couple years ago, Howie Norsetter suffered a heart attack and nearly
lost his life while doing what he loves -- scouring the backwaters of the
baseball world for the next hot prospect as a scout for the Minnesota
Twins.

"I was sweating profusely, the arm started cramping and then it felt like
there was an elephant standing in the middle of my back," said the Madison
native, who was evaluating players at the University Games on a 100-plus
degree day in southern Italy on Aug. 2, 2002. "Fortunately, there was a
doctor there and he recognized what was happening and they got an
ambulance and got me to a hospital just in time.

"I went into (ventricular) fibrillation and saw the light in the tunnel
and the whole deal. So they shocked me (with the defibrillatorpaddles) and
got me back.

"I sat up and the doctors were apologizing because my chest was smoking.
They burned me with the paddles. And then I asked them if I could go back
to work."

In a nutshell, that's Norsetter, whose dedication to, and love-affair
with, America's pastime is the driving force behind his climb from
self-proclaimed "baseball slut" and local junior varsity baseball coach in
the 1980s to a key cog in the Twins' on-field success.

Last week, Twins first baseman Justin Morneau was named American League
most valuable player. Norsetter is given credit for signing Morneau as an
18-year-old out of New Westminster (British Columbia) High School in
Canada in June of 1999.

"I was real excited when I heard he was named MVP," Norsetter said in a
phone interview from his home in Melbourne, Australia. "As a scout, that's
kind of the pinnacle -- signing someone that's an MVP or an All-Star.

"But that's really just icing on the cake. The nuts and bolts of the job
are just getting players into the system who have the tools and the
make-up to succeed."

It's success stories like this that allow the Twins to remain perennial
playoff contenders despite their small-market status. Although Minnesota
had the 19th-highest payroll out of 30 MLB teams in 2006, the Twins made
the playoffs for the fourth time in the past five seasons.

"You have to give credit where credit is due, and Howie Norsetter is a big
part of why we've been so successful," Twins general manager and
Janesville native Terry Ryan said in a phone interview. "Sometimes people
overlook the work of scouts. People tend to look only at what's going on
at the major league level - from the players and managers and coaches
there. But it's the work of guys like Howie Norsetter, with his great
baseball IQ, that has really paid off for us."

ALL BASEBALL, ALL THE TIME: After graduating from Madison West High School
in 1976, Norsetter started taking classes at the University of Wisconsin.
But mostly, he played baseball.

"I was a baseball slut," said Norsetter. "I'd play with anyone, anywhere,
anytime, play any position and do it for free."

Norsetter became one of the top amateur hitters in Wisconsin during the
1980s, when he played semi-pro ball with the Avenue Bar. He also played
for a number of teams in a variety of tournaments, was a fixture in the
Madison School & Community Recreation department's top division, and
competed for Cottage Grove when that community had an entry in the Rock
River League.

He made just enough money to pursue his on-field passion by working the
batting cages at Vitense Golfland, coaching JV baseball at West and
driving taxi cabs, to name just a few jobs.

And starting in the mid-1980s, Norsetter started spending winters playing
ball in Australia's fledgling pro league.

As for college?

"I think I was about a seventh-year sophomore," jokes Norsetter, who never
did get his degree.

Yet it was due to his near-constant proximity to the baseball diamond that
he struck up a relationship with Ryan, a former Janesville Parker star who
had his pro career cut short with the Twins in 1975 due to an arm injury.
Ryan went on to get a degree in physical education from the UW in 1979,
and eventually was named the Twins' scouting director in 1986.

Ryan first offered Norsetter a job as a low-level scout with the Twins in
1988. But Norsetter told Ryan, "I can still hit. I'm not going to stop
playing yet."

However, after being a player/manager in Australia in the winter of 1990,
Norsetter abruptly decided his playing days were over.

He had two job offers: become a baseball coach at Madison Area Technical
College, or a part-time scout for the Twins.

"So I took the scouting job," said Norsetter. "Terry (Ryan) sent me down
some money and some forms and said, 'Go get 'em.' "

One year later, after the Twins won the 1991 World Series, Norsetter was
hired as a full-time scout. His responsibilities were Canada in the summer
and Australia in the winter.

More than 15 years after graduating high school, Norsetter had his first
"real job."

AN EYE FOR DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH: Among his many key finds, Norsetter is
given credit for signing current Milwaukee Brewer Corey Koskie, who was
taken by the Twins in the 26th round of the 1994 draft out of Manitoba,
Canada.

Before becoming a solid contributor for Twins teams that made
back-to-back-to-back playoff appearances from 2002 to 2004, Koskie had
mostly been known as a standout hockey goalie and volleyball player back
home.

"I had him (rated as) a second-round talent," Norsetter said of Koskie.
"People thought I was nuts. But he just wasn't seen by anybody up in
Canada. So when the second day (of the draft) comes around, I'm screaming
and hollering, 'Take Koskie, take Koskie, what the hell are you waiting
for?' "

Norsetter also played a key role in bringing no-name Class A player David
Arias to the organization in 1996. The Seattle Mariners were making a
playoff push that year, and acquired veteran third baseman Dave Hollins
from the Twins. In return, the Twins were given a list of five minor
leaguers the Mariners were willing to give up.

"So I took a look at them, watched them play up in Appleton, and I told
Terry (Ryan), 'Man, if they give you this Arias guy, they're crazy,
they're nuts.' So Terry says, 'Well, I guess he's our guy.' "

So the Twins acquired Arias. A year later, he changed his name to David
Ortiz.

Ortiz played for the Twins from 1997 to 2002 and today is a member of the
Boston Red Sox, where the hitting machine now known as "Big Papi" was
second in American League MVP voting in 2005, and third this year.

"As a scout, it's all about credibility," said Norsetter. "And not just
based on guys you sign but based on guys you don't sign. Or guys that you
recommend who we don't sign who go on to have value. Eventually, they say,
'Oh (shoot), he was right. And as credibility builds so do your
responsibilities."

Norsetter is responsible for helping the Twins sign a dozen players who
have gone on to play in the major leagues. He also is accountable for
another 27 players currently active in the minor leagues.

COORDINATOR OF INTERNATIONAL SCOUTING: Today, Norsetter is the Twins'
coordinator of international scouting.

He lives in Melbourne with his wife, Sandra, and son, Joshua.

The heart attack he suffered four years ago slows him down a bit. "The
bottom third of the heart, the septum, is dead. But the other part
compensates."

Norsetter used to spend up to seven months of the year on the road, and
still spends roughly three months globe trotting -- from Australia to
Europe, from Asia to South America, from Hawaii to the continental U.S.

Norsetter, who also is on the road about three weeks out of the year
scouting in Australia, said he has the help of four scouts in Asia, four
in Europe and five in Latin America.

"I get to travel to all these great places -- and all I see is the plane,
the rental car, the ballpark and the hotel," said Norsetter.

Unlike baseball's big spenders, the Twins aren't going to win bidding wars
to sign the world's big-name talents.

In the past month, the Red Sox paid $51.1 million simply for the right to
negotiate a contract with Japanese pitching star Daisuke Matsuzaka, while
the Yankees paid more than $26 million for the right to sit down and
discuss a deal with another Japanese pitching standout, Kei Igawa. And it
will cost millions and millions more to actually sign those players.

"We can't be a factor in those situations," said Norsetter. "Instead,
we'll be out looking for bargains. We'll pick a guy here and there, and
work the cracks and try to work harder than anyone else to make things
happen."

In April of 2004, the Minneapolis Star Tribune's Jim Souhan wrote, "The
Twins are culturally diverse not because they can afford international
superstars, but because they believe they must pursue raw, affordable
talent around the globe."

Said Ryan, who became the Twins' GM in 1994: "That sounds like something
Howie would say. But scouting and development is where we have to put the
majority of our money. And Howie is a big part of our success in that
regard."

Norsetter noted that in 2006 the Twins signed more players from different
countries (15) than any other team in baseball.

"Still, we need to get much better in the Dominican Republic and places
like Latin America," he admitted.

But ...

"In Europe and Australia, and internationally as a whole, we're on the
cutting edge," said Norsetter, who recently had another one of his
signings, pitcher Alexander Smit of the Netherlands, added to the team's
40-man roster. "We were one of the first teams (scouting) Europe and now
have 10 Europeans in the system. We're usually right around 15 Australians
in our system.

"We think Europe is exciting. There are big athletes there, with a big
population and they're starting to play baseball. That's kind of the
equation to finding players, and I think we're ahead of most everyone else
over there."