PHOENIX – Arizona Diamondbacks’ (@Dbacks) Major League scout Bill “Chief” Gayton will be honored with The George Genovese Lifetime Achievement Award in Scouting at the 17th Annual Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation’s “In the Spirit of the Game” Fundraiser tomorrow, Jan. 11, 2020, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Gayton is entering his 40th season in professional baseball and 10th year with the D-backs, third in the role of Major League scout (2018-present) after working as a professional scout for parts of 2011-17. He is known throughout the game as “Chief,” a nickname that pays homage to his family roots as both paternal great-great-grandmothers were full-blood Native Americans (Lakota, also known as Sioux).

Prior to joining the D-backs in the fall of 2011, he spent parts of 2010-11 with the Cardinals as a professional scout. He worked for the Padres from 2000-10 as director of scouting (2000-09), drafting 70-plus Major League players, including David Freese, Corey Kluber, Chase Headley, Mat Latos, Jason Bartlett and Khalil Greene, and as a special assignment scout (2009-10). He spent 1995-2000 with the Rockies’ organization as an area scout (1995-98) and national crosschecker (1998-2000). He worked as a Midwest crosschecker for the Yankees in 1994-95. He was with the A’s from 1985-94, working as an area scout (1985-93) and crosschecker (1994) and played a role in the drafting of 13 eventual Major Leaguers. He began his scouting career with the White Sox as an area scout from 1984-85.

The South Dakota native was the White Sox’s 37th-round pick in 1981 draft and spent parts of 3 seasons in their system from 1981-83. He played collegiately at Indian Hills (Iowa) Community College in 1979-80, and as a sophomore, he earned First-Team All-American, JUCO World Series All-Tournament Team and Rawlings Big Stick Award honors. Gayton was inducted into the Indian Hills Community College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2015.

The Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation was started in 2003 by D-backs current Special Assistant to the President & CEO Roland Hemond, White Sox executive and former player agent Dennis Gilbert and MLB scouts Dave Yoakum and Harry Minor. Currently serving on the Board of Directors, along with Hemond, are D-backs President & CEO Derrick Hall and Senior Vice President & Assistant General Manager Jared Porter.

The Foundation was established to help scouts, who have given so much to the game, when they have fallen on hard times due to job loss, illness, retirement or other setbacks with a mission of creating a financial bridge to provide emergency resources through the awarding of grants to scouts and/or their immediate family.

Since its inception, many of baseball’s current and former stars have been among the 1,500 guests in attendance for the annual awards dinner and auction, helping raise nearly $2 million for the scouts. The cocktail reception and silent auction begin at 5:00 p.m. with the dinner and awards starting at 7:00 p.m. Tickets, sponsorship packages and more information about the Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation are available at https://pbsfonline.com/ or by calling 818.224.3906.