By Richard Dunn
Longtime former Orange Coast College men’s soccer coach Laird Hayes remembers after rainy days how the baseball players would trek next door to the all-synthetic turf soccer field for practice, while their grass field was soaked and the muddy infield dirt filled with puddles.
“I think we were one of the first (to get synthetic turf),” said Hayes, 68, and retired from OCC, but still officiating in the NFL.
Now the home field of the Pirates’ baseball team has synthetic turf, and to celebrate the program is hosting its first alumni versus alumni game at noon Dec. 22 at newly turfed Wendell Pickens Field.
Some of the alumni expected to participate include members of the 1980 state championship team, including pitcher Mike Hogan, one of the greatest catcher-turned-pitcher tales in local lore.
Before baseball ever heard of Troy Percival or Kenley Jansen and other catcher-turned-pitcher accounts, there was Hogan, the former Newport Harbor High soccer standout who played catcher for the Sailors in the spring.
When Hogan stepped on the campus at Orange Coast to give baseball a crack, former head coach Mike Mayne and OCC pitching coach Tim Kelly noticed Hogan had size at 6-foot-2 and a great arm, but probably wasn’t going to catch much. Following a redshirt year, Hogan was transformed from bullpen catcher to star pitcher in 1980 and ’81 for the Pirates, then for powerhouse Arizona State in ’82 and a seven-year minor league career with four organizations, the Astros, Giants, Blue Jays and A’s.
After his move from catcher to pitcher, Hogan opened eyes so quickly that he was selected as the seventh overall pick of the regular phase in the now-defunct winter draft by the Chicago Cubs in January 1980. Hogan opted to continue playing college baseball.
Hogan and Don Smith, both right-handers, were the Pirates’ pitching aces for two years, and significant about the 1980 team, in addition to the state title, is that it captured the first conference championship for OCC in 18 years. Mayne’s Pirates dethroned longtime super power Cerritos as the South Coast Conference and state champions, and set a standard that has been maintained for decades under Mayne, Scott Groot and current Orange Coast Coach John Altobelli.
Of the 13 school team records established by the ’80 unit, the biggest was most wins in a season as the Pirates went 33-7. There were also 15 individual records broken, including five by relief pitcher Larry Hicks, and three each by Kevin Romine and Corona del Mar High product Chris Johnston. Romine later played in the majors for the Boston Red Sox, while ’80 shortstop Donnie Hill played for the Angels, A’s and White Sox.
The Pirates also two future major leaguers on their 1981 roster (Rich Amaral and Chris Beasley), three on the ’83 team (Jeff Gardner, Kevin Reimer and Damon Berryhill), three on the ’87 squad (Greg O’Halloran, Dave Staton and Brent Mayne) and three on the ’88 team (O’Halloran, Staton and Marty Cordova).
Besides Hogan, other members of the 1980 squad hopeful of participating Friday include Dale Boucher, Gary Brahs and Randy Day, according to OCC assistant coach Jeff Piaskowski.
Orange Coast has a terrific baseball history with six state championships – 1956, 1960, 1980, 2009, 2014 and 2015 – and no fewer than 18 players reaching the major leagues. Last season under Altobelli, 16 Pirates went on to play at the next level, either transferring to four-year colleges or signing to play professional baseball.
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