Mike Mayne, Millennium Hall of Fame

When their stay is short and temporary, it’s hard to convince

community college baseball players to give of themselves for the good of

the program.

But for 15 years as head baseball coach at Orange Coast College, Mike

Mayne sold his players on a team-first attitude and first-rate system.

“The most difficult thing to teach players was the whole team concept

of the game, to get a group of guys to play as a team and to make the

team bigger than themselves,” he said. “That was the challenge every

year, and that was the hardest thing you had to do.”

A master at blending personalities and talent, Mayne is OCC’s all-time

winningest baseball coach, compiling a 400-188-6 record with six

conference titles and one state championship (1980), while sending an

astonishing 16 players to the major leagues, including his son, Brent.

“Without a doubt, (developing the team concept) was the toughest thing

to do,” he said. “You’re getting guys for only one or two years, players

who came from high school programs, four-year college bounce backs, guys

from out of (Orange County) and guys from out of state, and you had to

get them to look at the game from a different perspective.

“That was one of the beauties of the 1981 and ’82 (South Coast

Conference championship) teams (which combined for a 66-17 record). Those

were mature players and they were ultimately better than their individual

abilities warranted. Everybody was pulling on the same end of the rope,

and everybody had the same goal -- win. Win games. If you win games,

everything turns out good for everybody.”

During OCC’s dominance in the 1980s -- the Pirates won more than 30

games in six different seasons -- Mayne told his players that no matter

where they ended up following their JC careers, they’d be among the best

because of their training at OCC. Whether Mayne’s players went on to

professional baseball or earned four-year college scholarships, they were

team leaders at the next level.

Even those who didn’t necessarily play much for Mayne went on to

smaller schools, like Southern California College (now Vanguard

University), and excelled.

“It wasn’t an easy program to play in, by some standards,” Mayne said.

“But that was by design. My job, as I saw it, was to get guys ready for

the next level. You don’t know how tough it is until you get there, so

you have to be mentally tough to handle it.

“There are guys like (pitcher) Jimmy Dedrick, who weren’t giant

contributors when they were here, but they went on to become as

successful as heck as baseball players. They learned about mental

toughness and competitive desire; they learned how to be winners; what it

took to be a winner; what kind of preparation and hard work it takes to

win; and how to handle any situation you get into.”

One of Mayne’s biggest boosters was the late Jim Brock, the

legendary former Arizona State baseball coach who recruited eight former

OCC players, including future major leaguers Kevin Romine, Donnie Hill

and Chris Beasley. Mike Sodders, Chris Johnston, Dave Tinoco and pitchers

Mike Hogan and Don Smith also wound up at Tempe via Costa Mesa.

“(Mayne) teaches the fundamentals well,” Brock once said. “Some

community college kids come out with all the tools but aren’t polished.

Mike’s kids are amazing in that they are all very good prospects, and

they also have great attitudes. They all know their fundamentals so

they’re ready to step right in.”

Sodders, Romine, Hill and Johnston played on Arizona State’s 1981 NCAA

championship team. Several other former players under Mayne went on to

compete in the College World Series at Omaha, Neb., including Bobby Smith

and Glenn Robertson on Cal State Fullerton’s 1979 NCAA title team.

In addition to Romine, Hill, Beasley and his son, no fewer than a

dozen other players eventually landed in the big leagues. Rich Amaral

(Baltimore), Marty Cordova (Minnesota) and Brent Mayne (San Francisco)

are active major leaguers, while Kevin Reimer, Jeff Gardner and Damon

Berryhill all played on the Pirates’ 1984 conference championship squad

before enjoying successful pro careers.

Daryl Sconiers, Dave Staton, Mike Misuraca, Greg O’Halloran, Eddie

Pierce, Jamie Nelson and Dedrick also played in the big leagues following

stints at OCC.

Rex Peters (Chapman University) and Larry Lee (Cuesta College) are

former Mayne pupils who later became head collegiate baseball coaches,

while several others, including Edison’s Tom Duggan, became high school

head coaches.

While the OCC teams of 1981 and ’82 are close to Mayne’s heart, his

most memorable is the ’80 team. “That may have been the best JC team ever

put on a field,” Mayne said, referring to the squad that set no less than

28 school records (team and individual), captured the first of six

conference titles in his reign and won the school’s third state

championship (the Bucs also won state titles under Wendell Pickens in

1956 and ‘60).

Mayne, now in his eighth autumn as an assistant football coach for the

Pirates, coached baseball from 1977 to 1992, when OCC was in charge of

the community college landscape.

Prior to his arrival, Orange Coast had enjoyed only four winning

seasons in the previous 11, logging a dismal 131-200 record for a .396

winning percentage. The Pirates hadn’t been to the state playoffs in 15

years.

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Mayne was a three-sport standout at

Madison High in San Diego, then played four years of baseball (and two

years of football) at UC Riverside, where the slick-fielding infielder

merited the Highlanders’ Golden Glove Award all four seasons.

Mayne was a highly successful baseball coach at Eisenhower High in

Rialto, going 89-21 in four years (.809 winning percentage). He also

coached football at Eisenhower, where two-way standout Ronnie Lott made

life easier.

One of Mayne’s thrills was coaching his oldest son for one year (1987)

at OCC, before Brent moved on to Cal State Fullerton and reached the

majors in 1990.

“It’s been a wonderful thing to follow,” Mayne said of his son’s big

league catching career, which started in Kansas City after the Royals

selected him No. 1 in the 1989 draft.

Brent Mayne, whose batting average has been well over .300 for most of

the 1999 campaign with the Giants, has also played for the Mets and A’s.

Nelson, O’Halloran and Berryhill, a 1992 World Series hero for the

Atlanta Braves, also became major league catchers after playing under

Mayne, considered an excellent teacher and motivator. Cordova is a former

American League Rookie of the Year.

A National JC Coach of the Year by the American Association of

Collegiate Baseball Coaches, Mayne is a member of the Daily Pilot Sports

Hall of Fame, celebrating the millennium.

Mayne and his wife, Patricia, live in Costa Mesa and enjoy their

summers in Montana. They have two sons: Brent, 31, and Kevin, a

29-year-old pilot. Their granddaughter, Dylan, turns 7 on Nov. 12, and

their grandson, Noah, will celebrate his first birthday Nov. 15.