Hugh Alexander, who became a baseball scout at age 20 and went on to sign dozens of future major leaguers in a career that spanned six decades and countless miles on the back roads of America, died Saturday at a hospital in Bethany, Okla. He was 83.

Known as Uncle Hughie, Alexander was a venerable judge of baseball talent and a gifted storyteller. But before he spent all those afternoons looking for future stars at small-town ballparks, a career as a major league outfielder beckoned.

After two outstanding seasons in the minor leagues as a right-handed-hitting slugger, Alexander joined the Cleveland Indians late in the 1937 season and played in seven games, getting 1 hit in 11 at-bats. But that December, while he was working with oil-drilling equipment in Seminole, Okla., his left hand was torn by a piece of machinery. He drove 14 miles to find a country doctor, who amputated the hand. The anesthetic was two gulps of whiskey.

''I said then, that date, 'Nothing can ever hurt me the rest of my life,' '' Alexander would remember.

One career ended but another began when Cy Slapnicka, the Indians' general manager, hired Alexander as a scout.

''I think they felt sorry for me,'' Alexander said. ''I was 20 years old and there were only about 20 scouts in the entire league. But all I knew was how to play baseball.''

Alexander parlayed that opportunity into a career as one of baseball's best-known scouts, working for the Indians, the Chicago White Sox, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Chicago Cubs.

The first player he signed was pitcher Allie Reynolds, who won 182 games over 13 seasons with the Indians and the Yankees. The second player he signed was Dale Mitchell, who became a fine outfielder for Cleveland. He discovered or helped sign more than 60 major leaguers, among them the Dodgers' Don Sutton, Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Frank Howard and Bill Russell.

Alexander said he had no regrets about missing out on a playing career.

''I never think about having one hand,'' he said. ''I made up my mind to completely forget about it. Driving down the highway, I may reminisce to myself, but I'm not going to be sad about it. I said, 'I'm not going to let this kill me,' and I know that's what made me a successful scout.''

But he called upon more than grit in his scouting work. Alexander was adept at selling himself and the baseball organization he was working for when he visited the sometimes skeptical parents of a prospect. He read Dale Carnegie's ''How to Win Friends and Influence People'' four times.

His stamina matched his social skills. While scouting for the Dodgers, Alexander drove 60,000 miles a year, by his estimate, through the Southwest and the Deep South.

On July 10, 1987, the Cubs honored Alexander at Wrigley Field to mark his 50th year in major league baseball. He remained in the game until last May, when he retired from the Cubs organization as a consultant.

Alexander, who lived in Spring Hill, Fla., and Oklahoma City, is survived by a daughter, Patricia Baker, of Dallas; a sister, Edith Porter, of Oklahoma City; and a grandson.

Amid all the successes, there were the prospects who got away.

Alexander told how a friend once gave him the name of a teenage athlete in Commerce, Okla. He noted it on a piece of paper, then went to see the boy's high school principal, who said that the school did not have a baseball team. The principal said that the young man had been hurt playing football and had developed arthritis in his legs.

''It's hard enough to make the majors if you're healthy, and when he told me that stuff I walked out of the school, and when I got to my car I took the piece of paper and threw it away,'' Alexander recalled. ''I can still see it blowing across the parking lot.''

And that's how a baseball scout extraordinaire did not sign Mickey Mantle.