A Blue Jays scout died in Philly before the World Series. His friends have a new favorite team.

Brent Urcheck was in his early 20s with a nice apartment in Washington and a well-paying job. But that’s not what he wanted. Mr. Urcheck wanted to chase a dream, not sit in a cubicle.

He flew to New Orleans in December 2003 for the winter meetings — an annual gathering of nearly everyone who works in professional baseball — to find a way to work in the game. He didn’t have many connections, but Mr. Urcheck was determined to get in.

He handed out his resumé, landed an internship with the Cleveland Indians, and quit his finance job to chase his dream in a tiny office in the basement of the ballpark.

Mr. Urcheck spent 20 years in the game and helped build the Toronto Blue Jays into pennant winners this season as a player personnel manager. His dream became his job. His rise was no surprise to anyone who knew Mr. Urcheck, who died Oct. 8 in his South Philadelphia apartment just 12 days before the Blue Jays reached the World Series. Mr. Urcheck died of natural causes, his family said. He was 49.

“He knew. He just knew that’s not what he wanted to do” said Jon Watts, Mr. Urcheck’s childhood friend and roommate in Washington. “He did a lot of self-examination and realized that ‘My passion is baseball, so that’s what I’m going to do.’ It was so admirable that he went after it like that and knew what he wanted. As soon as you met him, you knew he would be special.”

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Mr. Urcheck grew up outside Cleveland, studied finance at the University of Richmond, and moved to Philadelphia in 2006 while working as a scout for Cleveland. The city provided a centralized location for his travel-heavy job. It quickly became home. He frequented concerts at venues like the Highmark Mann Center and Union Transfer, played the jukebox at Doobies Bar, and was a card-carrying member of the Palizzi Social Club.

“The jukebox still played CDs, and it was a dollar for four plays,” said Frankie Garland, a friend of Mr. Urcheck. “We would spend a lot of nights there, just taking turns on the jukebox and having great conversations. He was just such a calming presence. If you invited him to a show with another group of friends, he would fit in seamlessly like he knew them forever.”

Urcheck wasn’t from Philadelphia, but Garland said the guy from Shaker Heights, Ohio, epitomized everything Philly was about. He was loyal, dependable, and honest. Mr. Urcheck, said another friend, Frank Spina, simply was “solid.” He didn’t care for the Philly teams — he somehow never wavered in loving the Cleveland Browns — but he loved Philly.

“He just showed up for people,” said a friend, Julie Spragg. “Like the people at Palizzi became his family. One of the bartenders is in a band, and he would go far away to go see them play. He was all in.”

Mr. Urcheck graduated from Richmond in 1998 and was a seldom-used backup catcher on the baseball team. A three-sport athlete in high school, Mr. Urcheck could have switched colleges to play more. That was never a thought.

“He showed up with a level of humility that you don’t often see in Division I sports,” Spina said. “A nonscholarship player who had tons of high school accolades. He knew he had to earn it and he approached his collegiate career the same way I would characterize his rise through the scouting world. He started at the bottom and worked without an ego and learned.”

Mr. Urcheck’s internship with Cleveland (now known as the Cleveland Guardians) came with no guarantees. His career in professional baseball could have lasted just a few months. But he didn’t need any promises. Mr. Urcheck knew that’s where he belonged.

“Brent was real subtle,” childhood friend Jason Lowe said. “He would just do things. He was like, ‘Yeah, I got a job as a scout with the Indians.’ We’re like, ‘What?’ He just did it. It was never about him.”

Mr. Urcheck paired his playing career with his finance background to become a good fit in Cleveland’s forward-thinking front office. But it was his personality — the same qualities that made him the linchpin of his many friend groups — that helped him climb the major league ladder.

“He had this uncommon ability to get along with everyone he meets,” Watts said. “By showing respect, he immediately commanded respect. He was just the person you wanted to be around and respect. He was as true and genuine as they come. He wasn’t selling anything. Plus, the guy was smart, too. That didn’t hurt.”

Mr. Urcheck spent 14 years with Cleveland before leaving for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2018. The Jays are run by two people — president Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins — for whom Mr. Urcheck worked in Cleveland. Toronto won the American League East this season after finishing 2024 in last place. A guy who lived at 13th and Reed Streets had a hand in a magical season.

The Blue Jays held a moment of silence for Mr. Urcheck before a playoff game earlier this month and tweeted that Mr. Urcheck “left a lasting impact on the organization” and “has been crucial in helping build a successful Major League roster this season.”

“Brent was just really smart,” said Jason Morris, a college teammate. “He was a smart kid. You combine that catcher’s mentality with being a really sharp dude plus being so enjoyable to be around, I don’t think anyone was really surprised by what he did.”

Mr. Urcheck had friends from every stop: Shaker Heights, Richmond, Washington, Cleveland, Philly, and Toronto. He found a way to be everyone’s friend. He was always there, Lowe said.

Spragg was nervous two years ago to teach a fitness class, and there was Mr. Urcheck sitting in the back of each class waiting to support her. Garland wasn’t sure how he’d fit into Philly after moving here from California. One night with Mr. Urcheck was enough to know he had someone to lean on. When Watts went to West Virginia last fall to spread his brother’s ashes in the fast-moving Gauley River, Mr. Urcheck was in the boat with him.

“That’s just how he was,” Watts said. “He showed up for everything. And I know he did that for everyone. I don’t know how he did it. He just did it. He was that kind of dude.”

Mr. Urcheck’s friends will watch the World Series begin Friday and think of the guy who was planning a yacht-rock themed 50th birthday party. They’ll wear Blue Jays hats and root for the team that their buddy — the guy who helped them score a membership to Palizzi — helped build. Mr. Urcheck talked so little about his success that his childhood friends had to be the ones who mentioned in their group chat how the Blue Jays went from worst to first. His friends rooted for the Guardians, Yankees, and Phillies. They’re now rooting for a new team.

“We’ve all bought Blue Jays gear,” Spragg said. “We’re all so pumped for them. It’s bittersweet because he’s not seeing this. But it’s amazing that we can all rally around it.”

A South Philly man helped the Blue Jays reach the World Series. And it started because he was determined to make a dream come true.

“We were living in a nice apartment in D.C. in our early 20s,” Watts said. “It was an easy, comfortable situation to stay in. So it wasn’t an easy decision. He did the work to figure out what it was that he needed to do.”

Mr. Urcheck is survived by his mother, Sara Jane Sargent, and her husband, Jack; his father, Gary Urcheck, and his partner, Patty Arendt; his sister, Stephanie Urcheck, and many aunts, uncles, and cousins.

A memorial reception will be held from 2-4 p.m. Sunday at Debonné Vineyards in Madison, Ohio. A Philadelphia gathering is planned for Nov. 15 at a location to be determined. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Mr. Urcheck’s honor to the Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society.