Kyle Wilson, Millennium Hall of Fame

Kyle Wilson never had the luxury of a blazing fastball or wicked

curve, but his pitches left most hitters scratching their head, wondering

how they could finish a game 0 for 4 against the lean right-hander with

pinpoint control.

“Both in high school and college, I didn’t throw hard enough to get

away with not throwing strikes,” said Wilson, who rarely issued free

passes in a standout baseball career, which included stints at Estancia

High, Orange Coast College and Long Beach State.

Wilson, inspired often by the late Coach Paul Troxel (Estancia), was

raised in a family with a golf professional, but was given the freedom to

pursue other athletic endeavors and chose the pitching mound.

And, now, three years removed from his final collegiate inning, Wilson

has picked the sticks back up and has dreams of playing on the PGA Tour.

Many thought Wilson would follow in his dad’s footsteps and play golf

at an early age. Brad Wilson, his father, was the head pro at the old

Stardust Country Club in San Diego (now the Riverwalk Golf Club), wrote

for Golf Digest magazine and came across in his career, among others,

Muhammad Ali, Billy Graham and Jack Nicklaus.

“(My father) said to do whatever you want, and I got into baseball,”

Wilson said. “He taught me golf when I was young, probably about 12, 13

or 14, and helped me with the basic fundamentals of the golf swing --

just so I would have them and not develop any bad habits.”

When the pro baseball scouts didn’t come knocking on Wilson’s door, he

figured it was time to take golf a little more seriously.

“I didn’t get drafted in baseball and I didn’t think (a minor league

career) would work out,” he said. “I didn’t want to try out for an

independent team and end up getting stuck in Timbuktu and making 50 bucks

a month.”

Instead, Wilson applied at Meadowlark Golf Course in Huntington Beach

and began working in the pro shop. When Costa Mesa Golf & Country Club

head pro Brad Booth, a friend of his father’s, discovered the younger

Wilson had joined the golf world, he was invited to come over to Costa

Mesa.

This time next year, Wilson hopes to play in the big amateur events,

like the U.S. Amateur, California State Amateur and Western Amateur, then

maybe turn pro.

“There’s a lot of hard work ahead of me and I have a long way to go

still, but I’m starting,” he said. “We’ll see what happens.”

If Wilson’s golf career is anything like his pitching prowess, he’ll

keep his play in the strike zone.

Wilson, the latest member of the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame,

celebrating the millennium, pitched a no-hitter for Estancia in his

junior year on March 21, 1991 -- a game covered by this reporter.

Wilson’s gem would’ve been a perfect game, but Estancia’s shortstop

committed a throwing error in the second inning. Wilson promptly picked

off the runner at first base and faced the minimum 21 batters in a 5-0

victory over visiting Century. He walked nobody and coaxed Century into

11 ground outs.

Twice, Wilson made All-Pacific Coast League for Coach Ken Millard’s

Eagles (Troxel was an assistant), then played two years at Orange Coast.

Wilson was the ace of the pitching staff as a freshman in 1993, when the

Pirates, under first-year head coach John Altobelli, reached the State

Final Four.

Before the State Community College Championships, however, Wilson

broke the index finger on his right hand in a Southern Regional game

against Long Beach City at LA Harbor College, a comebacker that he tried

to snag barehanded, some of his teammates said. Nevertheless, Wilson was

done for the Final Four.

“I didn’t have the best luck pitching at Orange Coast,” said Wilson,

who suffered from a stomach infection his sophomore year and missed the

majority of the regular season as the Pirates did not return to the state

tournament.

When Wilson tried to return to the mound in 1994, his strength wasn’t

there and, consequently, neither was his fastball. But Wilson did enough

to impress Long Beach State Coach Dave Snow, who recruited the control

artist and rode Wilson’s right arm to the Big West Conference

championship in 1996.

Wilson went 13-3 with a 3.50 earned-run average his junior year in

‘95, when the 49ers finished one victory shy of reaching the College

World Series in Omaha, Neb. They made it to the regionals both years.

In 1995, Wilson tossed perhaps the best game of his career against USC

in the regional semifinals at Fresno State, when the Trojans were

undefeated in the double-elimination tournament and the 49ers had one

loss. Wilson got them even and forced a decisive game after pitching into

the ninth inning having given up only one run and two hits. Wilson gave

up two infield singles in the ninth before being lifted, then the 49ers’

bullpen preserved the win.

The opposing pitcher for USC that day, when Wilson tied the Trojans in

knots? Brian Cooper, who made his major league debut with the Angels

recently.

Wilson, though, still remembers those days in the eighth grade and his

freshman year, when Troxel would encourage him in baseball. “Trox took me

under his wing,” Wilson said. “He was a mentor.”

Wilson, who turns 25 on Sept. 21, is single and lives in Costa Mesa.