Forever Pirates -- Rich Dunn
This week's Forever Pirates story features Rich Dunn, who played baseball for the Pirates from 1981-82.
One of the best decisions I ever made – attend Orange Coast College.
My education was second to none, doors opened on and off the field and it was a fantastic collegiate experience on a beautiful campus with entertaining, top-notch instructors and the flexibility to take a few night classes, including Advanced Communications and News Writing with Los Angeles Times Sports Editor Marshall Klein. The crème de la crème came in Herb Livsey's Sports Literature class. On one of the first days in a classroom filled with football, basketball and baseball players, Livsey asked everyone who believed they were going to play in the NFL to raise their hand. Many hands went up. Next, Livsey asked those who felt they were going to play in the NBA to do the same, and again hands reached for the sky. Finally, he asked students who thought they were going to play Major League Baseball to elevate a hand – many ascended again, including mine. Then we were shocked as Livsey said, "Guess what? None of you are going to make it. None of you are going to play in the NFL, NBA or MLB. You need an education. You need a backup career. So today I want you to write on one sheet of paper what career path you intend to pursue outside of your current sport." I wrote that I wanted to be a sportswriter. The next time we met and after Livsey read my paper, he tracked me down after class and said he knew the Sports Editor, Craig Sheff, at the local newspaper, Daily Pilot, and could set me up with a job as a sports stringer. Soon thereafter, I landed a part-time newspaper gig during my sophomore year at Orange Coast at age 19. I started covering high school basketball and football games, and working a few nights a week on the sports desk taking results over the phone and compiling line scores and box scores along with Associated Press-style briefs on each contest. I have been getting paid to write about sports ever since.
At Orange Coast College, I learned more about the game of baseball under Coach Mike Mayne than anywhere, despite spending more time on the bench than anticipated. Two years, our OCC squad ranked No. 1 in the state of California, but lost in the state semifinals both times. We captured South Coast Conference titles both years. In 1981 and '82, our Orange Coast baseball teams ended with records of 33-8 and 33-9, respectively.
Fifteen players under Mayne's tutelage reached the major leagues in his 15 years as head coach, including his son, Brent, and our 1981 third baseman, Rich Amaral. After a 15-year playing career in the majors with several teams, mostly the Kansas City Royals, Brent Mayne became a scout for the Dodgers. Brent and younger brother Kevin were always around the team, in the dugout, on the field, in two years at Orange Coast. They were fun kids.
Amaral, a scout for the Orioles, played more than a decade in the minors before reaching the major leagues full time at age 31 in 1993, at the time the oldest rookie to reach the bigs, starting at second base for Manager Lou Piniella's Mariners. "I've been to every baseball park in America, except those in the American and National League," Amaral said upon reaching the show – spending eight years with Seattle and two with Baltimore. Our shortstop in 1981-82 at OCC, Scott Groot, is a scout for the Dodgers. Mike Samuel was slated to be our 1981 starting shortstop, but was drafted in the January winter draft and signed with the Milwaukee Brewers. Our 1981 second baseman, Larry Lee, is a longtime successful head coach at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. The late Reggie Montgomery and Kevin Sliwinski, big, strong sluggers in '81. Other Pirate standouts included infielder/DH John Melbon, Mike Balliet, a slick-fielding shortstop, first baseman Ed Farrell and outfielders Mike Vanderburg and Carl Ehmann. Numerous OCC alums played in the minors. Sliwinski, our batting champion in '82, ended up getting drafted five times before signing with Toronto, playing six years in the minors, reaching as high as AAA, settling in Knoxville, Tenn., where he played three years in the Southern League, and met his future wife, a "Southern Belle," he said. Two of our ace pitchers in '81, Don Smith and Mike Hogan, anchored the '80 state title team, as well. They both pitched at Arizona State and many years in the minors, mostly in the Dodgers and Astros organizations, respectively.
Lee's notable journey to Orange Coast began after he transferred from Santa Barbara City College, where he batted .360 as a freshman. Originally a switch-hitter, Lee focused on batting left-handed and provided tons of power for a guy 5-foot-10. Lee and Amaral were battling for the starting spot at second base in the fall. But when Samuel signed with Milwaukee in January, Groot moved from third to short and Amaral took over at third, where he was sensational. In addition to his fine glove and arm, Amaral used his speed to snag pop ups in foul territory, which I'd never before seen. Lee was among the toughest players mentally and physically I'd ever teamed up with, and while he was vocally quiet, his bat boomed and made plenty of noise. Lee finished the '81 season as a first-team All-South Coast Conference selection and second-team All-Southern California pick, meriting a scholarship to Pepperdine, where he feasted in 1982 and '83, before playing in the minor leagues. In '83, Lee played for the Utica Blue Sox in the New York-Penn League, a team chronicled in the book "Good Enough to Dream" by renowned writer Roger Kahn (also the author of "The Boys of Summer").
An epitome of hard work, dedication and perseverance, Lee grinded, clawed and hit his way into Mayne's starting lineup. From San Luis Obispo, Lee arrived in Costa Mesa with little except his glove and bat, sleeping in about 10 different locations, including sometimes in the back of his small truck with a camper. "It was just par for the course back then," said Lee, usually the first player at practice and last to leave. During early batting practice, Lee could be seen hitting in the cages with 12-year-old Brent Mayne. "I always thought (Brent) had a swing like Ted Williams," Lee said.
I was listed as a long reliever and spot starter, with more success my freshman year in 1981 with a 3-0 record than my sophomore year, largely because of a thumb injury the summer prior, which slowed my development. I also added some unnecessary body weight in the summer because I wasn't playing ball. By the time I arrived for the first day of school my sophomore year, I weighed over 200 pounds. OCC pitching coach Matt McCann ordered me to make an appointment with the school's athletic trainer, Leon Skeie, who put me on a strict diet. I lost the weight and learned more about nutrition than ever before from Skeie, who served as the college's athletic trainer and strength coach for a dozen years and started several centers, services and programs on campus for sports medicine and fitness, including OCC's Sports Medicine Center, while assisting in establishing an Exercise Science Lab, a Strength Lab and the college's Adapted Physical Education Program. Skeie also developed numerous OCC professional physical education courses.
Jack Reinholtz, who pitched on Cal State Fullerton's national championship team in 1984, was the only OCC freshman pitcher in 1981 to truly establish himself as a starter and reliever. Sophomore right-handers Kelley Simon, Glenn Donnelly, Joe Hughes and Jeff Sutterfield, and lefty Bob Tidwell, also pitched. Reinholtz was our pitching ace in 1982. Outfielders Jeff Thomas, Chris Johnson and Delanie, and infielders Roy Santa Maria and Kevin Dempster, provided depth in '81. Chris Beasley, a standout basketball player and backup shortstop in 1981, did not play in the field or pitch a single inning in 1981-82, but cracked the major leagues with the Angels in 1991. Beasley had a great arm, and one day at Mount San Antonio College, McCann asked Beasley to throw off the mound in the bullpen, and Beasley never played shortstop again. An all-state and South Coast Conference Player of the Year in basketball at OCC, Beasley came out late in the baseball seasons and never saw action on the diamond. But in the summer of 1981, the 6-foot-2 right-hander showed enough life on his fastball to get drafted the following winter by the Chicago White Sox. Beasley did not sign and accepted a basketball scholarship to Arizona State, where he was among the top scorers in the Pac-10 for two years, and also pitched sparingly for the Sun Devils' baseball teams in 1983 and '84. The Angels drafted him in '84. The ASU pitching coach, Tim Kelly, had been the Orange Coast pitching coach in 1980 when the Pirates won a state championship. Based on his basketball prowess, Beasley was the Orange Coast College Athlete of the Year in 1982.
At OCC in 1982, consistent starters included third baseman Tom Duggan, second baseman Rick Hopkins, first baseman/DH Scott Darling and catcher Darren Puskarich. Along with Sliwinski, freshman first baseman/DH Dave Tinoco was our big stick. Tinoco played at Arizona State in 1984 and '85, and selected OCC Athlete of the Year in 1983. Along with Reinholtz, Rich Sorenson, Robb Munson, Ken Santoro, Rich Kellogg and Rooker toed the mound in our conference championship season.
Note: Richard Dunn is a sports columnist for the Orange County Register/Coastal Current, author of the book "14 Weeks: The Most Improbable High School Football Season in History," available at Amazon, and operator of Dunn Write Communications, a grant writing and public relations firm.
We are looking for more Pirate Athlete Alum to share their stories and memories of their time at OCC! Just email your story to Sports Information Director Tony Altobelli at aaltobelli@occ.cccd.edu. Please include any pics you'd like to share as well.
