Denny Bean, Millennium Hall of Fame

A hard-throwing left-hander with a good curveball, Denny Bean was

Newport Harbor High’s pitching ace in an era sometimes forgotten.

Bean, who went on to pitch at USC, is believed to be the last baseball

player selected in the major league draft out of Newport Harbor -- and

that was almost 30 years ago.

“That’s not something to be proud of, because there’s way too much

talent in this area to not have that recognition,” said Bean, once a

6-foot-2, 190-pounder who pitched in the California State High School

All-Star game in 1970.

A three-sport athlete, Bean was part of a solid Harbor squad (second

place in the Sunset League) that featured Ron Martin, catcher Bob Curry

and first baseman Jeff Malinoff, a slugger who later starred at UCI when

the Anteaters won back-to-back NCAA Division II titles in the early

1970s.

Bean was also surrounded by championships in college, but a series of

untimely injuries prevented him from becoming one of USC Coach Rod

Dedeaux’s horses on the mound, and, subsequently, earning a ring when the

Trojans captured five straight NCAA championships (1970 to ‘74).

“(Dedeaux) didn’t give rings to everybody,” said Bean, who played in

the USC program from 1971 to ’74. “If you were not one of the top 15

players, you didn’t get one. That’s my tragedy.”

Actually, Bean suffered some o7 realf7 tragedies in college,

including a serious injury to his pitching elbow, and, shortly

thereafter, a freak accident away from the diamond that resulted in

surgery on his face, when he fell off a cliff and onto a dirt road.

“I got busted up pretty good, and broke like nine bones in my face and

fingers,” said Bean, who was hurt while fooling around with his

fraternity brothers.

Bean, though, tossed six no-hitters in his prep career (including

summer ball) and was picked by the St. Louis Cardinals in the fourth

round of the June 1970 free-agent draft. He did not sign.

Often battling Westminster ace Eddie Bane in Sunset League duals, Bean

once hurled a one-hitter against the Lions and lost to Bane, 3-2.

As juniors in 1969, Bean and Bane each worked nine innings in a 2-2

tie, a game that was called because of darkness. It also made the Sailors

late for their prom that night.

Another time, Bean pitched a no-hitter and finally beat Bane, who

would become a standout at Arizona State.

“We had a fun little rivalry,” said Bean, who also faced Bane in

football and basketball.

Bean, who grew up playing Harbor Area Baseball under legendary youth

coach Luke Davis, was once pulled from a starting assignment against Bane

while warming up in the bullpen, because Newport Harbor’s coach “thought

it was too much of an emotional challenge for kids that young.”

Added Bean: “I went nuts -- that’s what you live for. You can’t make

those games up.”

Bean, an All-Sunset League selection whose fastball could reach the

low 90s, received a partial scholarship to USC, but it came as a

surprise.

In September 1970, Bean was already enrolled at Orange Coast College,

but USC’s Darnell Ford signed with the Minnesota Twins and Bean was next

on the Trojans’ recruiting list.

Jumping at the opportunity, Bean dressed in a three-piece suit and

drove up to USC, even though it was over 100 degrees that day. “I was the

first guy to go to college in our family, and we didn’t know what to do,”

Bean said of the reasoning behind the formalwear.

Bean also said one of his highlights was in basketball his senior

year, when the Sailors, led by Lee Haven, captured the then-prestigious

Huntington Beach Tournament. In the semifinals, Marina, coached by Lute

Olson, defeated Compton to end the Tarbabes’ 102-game winning streak, and

Harbor advanced to the finals by beating Warren, 82-80, and Huntington

Beach, 80-68.

“That tournament used to be a big deal, and we played Marina the next

night for the championship and won (61-58),” Bean said.

Bean said there were several great athletes at Newport Harbor in the

late 1960s, including Ron Troyano (Class of ‘69), who was “our first

friend to lose his life in Vietnam.”

Bean also mentioned Chris Horpel, who won 36 wrestling matches for the

Tars one year and later became the wrestling coach at Stanford, as one of

Harbor’s top athletes in the Woodstock era.

“I probably had as much fun playing football as anything (at Harbor),

even though we were just 6-3 (in the fall of ‘69),” Bean said. “Football

wasn’t the most talked about sport on campus at that time, but we had a

great coach in Wade Watts, who doesn’t get recognition for what he did in

this area. It was not just football, but he taught us about life. Coach

Watts, by far, taught me more than any coach. He taught me as much as a

father.”

Bean, a member of the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame, celebrating the

millennium, today is homebuilder who recently completed a major project

at Ladera Ranch in South Orange County.

Bean, 47, is a single father who lives in Newport Beach with his sons,

Kyle, 17, and Ryan, 15. Kyle plays water polo for Coach Bill Barnett at

Newport Harbor. Ryan, who also plays polo, was named after Nolan Ryan.