After logging more than 30,000 miles on business trips to Korea and Japan the last two months, Thad Weber had hoped to be home for a while with his wife and four kids.
But the Nebraska native’s time at home will have to wait. The Chicago Cubs are in the playoffs.
Home, in Weber’s case, is Friend, Nebraska, an unlikely home base for a globetrotting professional baseball scout. Weber, a Friend native and former Husker baseball player, couldn’t imagine raising a family anywhere but the town of 954 people about 30 miles southwest of Lincoln.
“I love the quiet,” said Weber. “The quiet is always the first thing anybody notices.”
Officially, Weber’s title is senior pro personnel specialist, though he said titles are “a little ambiguous.” In reality, he does what he can to help the Cubs win. Often, that means traveling to baseball hotbeds in Asia in search of the next promising prospect. But, as was the case during a recent trip to New York, it may also mean evaluating big league opponents.
“It’s more like strategy-type stuff, like ‘How could we beat this team? What can we expose? What do they do well? What do they not do well?’”
Weber enjoys the travel — it’s part of what lured him to the job. The 41-year-old is now in his eighth year with the Cubs and in his fourth year trekking to Asia.
“I enjoy metropolitan areas,” Weber said. “I enjoy being in Tokyo and in other parts of Japan, Korea or wherever else it may be, but to me there’s just nothing like being back home.”
Both he and wife Megan Weber acknowledge the job does require them to make sacrifices. Missed milestones. Stretches where FaceTime is the only time with Dad. Time apart.
“Usually, he would’ve been home by now, but he’s not and that’s OK,” Megan Weber said recently from their home in Friend — Thad was in New York at the time. “It’s exciting to be a part of that (the playoffs) and know you played a role.”
Needing to believe
Weber was already an experienced traveler by the time he cracked into the big leagues in 2012. He spent two years at a community college in Kansas, then two years at the University of Nebraska.
The Detroit Tigers drafted him in the 16th round of the famously long MLB draft in 2008, and like most draft picks who sign a contract with their team, he toiled in the minor leagues for years.
Most never make the major leagues. A 2019 analysis by Baseball America found that only 17.6% of signed draft picks from 1981-2010 made it to the majors. That percentage drops further for players taken in later rounds like Weber.
During his four years in the minor leagues, Weber bounced around to five different cities within the Tigers’ farm system, with two years of Venezuelan winter ball mixed in.
“You have to have the belief that you’re going to play in the major leagues, whether it’s a 1% chance or a 75% chance,” he said.
His big league debut in 2012 did not go as planned. Weber came in as a relief pitcher in an extra-inning game against the Texas Rangers,gave up the go-ahead run and got tagged with the loss. The Tigers ended up releasing him, and he bounced from San Diego to Toronto, where his big league career came to an end. His career record in the majors: 0-2.
Megan Weber, now a paraprofessional at the Exeter-Milligan-Friend elementary school, got a crash course on the circuitous life in baseball with a growing family.
“I always look back and think, ‘All these things prepared me for where we are now. He’s still traveling. I’m just so used to it I don’t think twice,” she said. “My kids are so used to it. It’s all they’ve ever known.”
But she did make one request when Thad’s playing career ended: She wanted to live in their hometown. It didn’t take much convincing.
“If the job was right, and we had to go, we would go,” Megan Weber said. “Would it be hard to leave? Yes, that would be absolutely hard. It’s just worked out in such a way that we’ve always been able to stay here, which has been great for our family.”
People skills
While growing up, Thad Weber’s family owned a 2,500-acre farm less than a mile from town until his grandfather retired in 1996. But Thad was a town kid. His father, Les Weber, made the transition from working the farm to becoming a loan officer at the local bank in Friend.
From working at the bank, Les Weber recalled, “Everybody talks to you all the time. Everywhere.”
The elder Weber believes that his people skills rubbed off on Thad — and enhanced his acumen for interaction with people of all cultures.
Still, when Les Weber reflects on his son’s journey in baseball, both as a player and a scout, he concedes, “His entire career is completely against all odds.”
Thad will tell you that his most significant introduction to a multicultural world came after heading off to Hutchinson Community College in Kansas where he played alongside 60 or so fellow baseball hopefuls — young men from all walks of life with hopes of continuing to play the game they love.
Megan’s first recollection of her now-husband came when they were in fourth grade together.
“He fell off a chair and hurt himself. I don’t know why that sticks out in my head so much.”
Even back then, Thad was never shy, she recalled. His outgoingness, she added, helped him easily adapt to international travel.
“He’s just really confident in his abilities,” she said. “He’ll talk to anybody. He’s not an introvert by any means.”
As his own playing career was winding down, Thad Weber started thinking about the next step in his professional life. He found player analysis intriguing.
In 2017, while pitching in the minors for Albuquerque during Weber’s last year playing professional ball, he was in the stands charting that day’s pitcher — a standard procedure.
“I ended up meeting and forming a connection with a special assignment scout who worked with the Cubs at the time,” Weber said.
That scout, Jason Cooper, shared with Weber all that it takes to be a scout for a big league team.
“Toward the end of my career as an older player, I was already starting to move toward that mentor-type role or whatever, so I’ve always enjoyed helping younger players,” Weber said.
Weber also thought about coaching but said scouting offered a more well-rounded education on baseball operations. “What goes on behind the scenes in terms of what makes up professional baseball.”
Shortly after the season ended, the Cubs called.
Frequent flyer
To reach Korea or Japan, Thad Weber starts out by making the 100-mile drive from Friend to Eppley Airfield in Omaha. From there, he flies to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, then boards a nonstop flight to Asia.
On his most recent trip to Japan, Weber’s flight departed from Omaha on a Wednesday morning at 5. He eventually landed in Tokyo Thursday afternoon at 4:30. First thing the next day, Weber boarded a bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka, 310 miles away, for a Friday night game.
For almost two weeks, Weber bounced between Japanese cities to watch batting practices and games. Tokyo. Osaka. Another bullet train 230 miles to Sendai.
“It’s very ping pong.”
All that travel forces Weber to miss some significant family events. It’s a reality both Thad and Megan Weber knew going into it.
“It’s inevitable,” Megan Weber said. “In baseball, you just cannot be home for everything. You have to pick and choose the most important things.”
She added, “There’s some things that definitely he is not there for, and that’s the sacrifice he makes. That’s the sacrifice we make.”
When the Cubs clinched a playoff berth, Weber knew he’d be away from family a bit longer.
The team, which is hoping to win only its second World Series since 1908, is currently leading its wild card series 1-0 against the San Diego Padres, one of the big league teams Weber played for back in the day and a team he scouted when they were in New York.
It’s possible that Weber may be back on the road to scout another postseason opponent if the Cubs win the series against the Padres.
When the baseball playoffs are over, Weber will return to Friend and, according to Megan, will become “a regular person.” Weber has already been told by the Cubs front office that there will be more trips to Asia in 2026.
“Sometimes, I think, ‘Do these people realize what my husband did?’ I think sometimes we’re so normal and we have such a normal life, even with his job now, that nobody understands,” Megan Weber said.
For now, she’s pulling for the team her husband admired as a kid to reach the Fall Classic.
“All your hard work pays off. There’s all these behind-the-scenes things that people don’t see,” she said. “Front-office stuff. To finally see it work out and pay off. I hope they go all the way. Go Cubs, go!”
