BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- They came to honor Barry Bonds, Sandy Koufax and Tommy Lasorda on Saturday night at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. But they were only the headliners, the gems to bring in a crowd of over 1,000 that included baseball officials, family, friends and fans.

The real headliners were the scouts. Those down in the trenches, mud-on-the-boots baseball men, who traverse what now is the world's byways to uncover these diamonds in the rough.

"If it wasn't for the scouts, I wouldn't be here today," Koufax said before a dinner during which the Hall of Fame Dodgers left-hander was presented with a players' lifetime achievement award from the Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation. "I don't know what I'd be doing."

Lasorda, a Hall of Fame manager for the Dodgers, was honored as the first Manager of the Century, an award that bears his own name. Bonds was presented the Willie Mays Award by his own godfather. And the Bavasi family -- Buzzy, Bill, Peter and Bob -- were recognized for their good work with the Ray Boone Family award.

Or as Bob Boone said in introducing the elder and tight-fisted Bavasi, who was general manager of the Dodgers, Angels and Padres: "Without Buzzy Bavasi, agents wouldn't have been necessary."

There were laughs, gags, an auction of sports memorabilia and a magician. And by the time Koufax was introduced with the crowd thinning about three hours into the program, he quipped: "Now I know what it's like when Dodger Stadium empties in the seventh inning."

Bonds, Lasorda and, particularly, Koufax did the job, which is a good thing. The third annual dinner sold out and was expected to net about $300,000 for the foundation, which offers grants to needy scouts who are down on their luck, out of a job or need help paying medical bills.

The organization was the brainchild of Dennis Gilbert, the former player, scout, agent and now an advisor to chairman Jerry Reinsdorf of the World Series champion Chicago White Sox.

"The scouts are the most unsung people in all of sports," Reinsdorf told the audience after he was introduced at the outset of the show.

They are also among the lowest paid, an area scout earning in the neighborhood of about $42,000 a year, said Bill "Chief" Gayton, the director of scouting for the San Diego Padres and a member of the foundation's board of directors.

"I don't want to upset [some people]," Buzzy Bavasi said. "But they should be paid more money."

The scouts pile thousands of miles on their well-worn automobiles and hit the boonies to check out whether the fastball of a high school phenom has the reported sizzle or a college star has any of the five tools that will make him a must-pick in the June First-Year Player Draft.

The top scout, like Dick Wiencek, who was honored on Saturday night with a scouting lifetime achievement award, cajoles that kid's parents, gets the skinny from the coach and even measures the player for his psychological ability to excel as a professional player. After all, it's not an easy task to project how young men will turn out when they become adults.

The modern-day scout uses computers, the Internet and good old-fashioned guts when he recommends that his Major League team pick a player.

Jim Kaat, who pitched 25 seasons in the big leagues and was one of a record 72 players signed by Wiencek that made it to "The Show," told the audience via video that he was wild as heck when the scout came to see him pitch, tossing one throw back to the screen.

"Thank God you didn't use a radar gun, or I never would have made it," said "Kitty" Kaat, who ultimately won 283 games.

But the old timers, who literally beat the bushes without all the modern tools, age and seem to go by the wayside. They retire without much recognition and without taking any of the credit.

"I'd like to thank every big-league player I signed for making me look good," said Wiencek, who retired in 2003 after 58 years in the game.

And he's one of the lucky ones.

Every year, Gayton said, the board of directors receive scores of applications from former scouts, who need help. "Some for a month, some for a few months, some for a lot longer than that," he said.

The 16-person body goes over financials and during a conference call determines how to appropriate the funds. Recently, about 20 received assistance, Gayton said. Based on the results of Saturday night's dinner, next year the money will be there to help more.

"These are good people who put in long hours, don't make much money, love the game and get no glory," Koufax said.

It's a mitzvah, what the foundation is doing. That's the Yiddish term meaning a good deed. More than a good deed. And it was evident in abundance on Saturday night.