Joey James, Millennium Hall of Fame

As the 1986 Orange Coast College baseball season wore on, a certain

stench in the Pirates’ locker room grew stronger by the day.

Nobody picked Coach Mike Mayne’s freshmen-dominated squad to make much

of a racket in the South Coast Conference, but a core of collegiate

rookies, led by southpaw-swinging slugger Joey James, banged their drums

loudly.

They won 22 straight games and captured the conference championship as

James put up Ruthian offensive numbers.

“Guys weren’t changing their socks, and everybody stunk,” James said

of the team’s superstition to keep the winning streak alive.

James, Dave Staton, Rex Peters, Ralph Ramirez and Mark Rasmussen

formed an offensive assault for two years that has been unmatched in OCC

history, as the Pirates won back-to-back conference titles and James

produced home runs, RBIs and batting averages that remain the school’s

single-season and career standards.

Listed at the time at 6-foot, 205 pounds, James rewrote the Pirates’

single-season record book in ‘86, crushing 19 home runs with 80 RBIs and

batting .443 as he earned first-team all-conference, all-state and JC

All-American. James, a left fielder, was voted the Player of the Year in

the conference, Southern California and state.

“(James) probably had the greatest year any junior college player ever

had offensively his freshmen season,” Mayne once said. “Just look at our

single-season record book. He obliterated it.”

A Newport Harbor High product who played football, basketball and

baseball for the Sailors, James enjoyed another big year for the Bucs in

1987 -- their first year in the Orange Empire Conference and the last

time OCC won a conference championship.

James is still the OCC career leader in home runs (35) by a wide

margin -- former major leaguer Kevin Reimer is second with 20. James is

also the school’s all-time leader in RBIs (147), while Staton is second

with 98.

James, the only Pirate with a career batting average over .400 (.408),

is No. 1 in school annals in career hits (144), total bases (281) and

runs scored (120) -- records that have stood for 12 years.

After one season at UCLA, James was selected in the 16th round of the

June 1988 draft by the Cleveland Indians, but signed late and didn’t

start his minor league career until the following year, then blew out his

elbow in spring training making a play at first base.

James played the second half of the ’89 season at Watertown, N.Y., in

the New York-Penn League (short season Class-A ball), then was traded to

the Giants.

In 1990, James played the entire year at Clinton, Iowa, in the Midwest

League, then was promoted to Class-A San Jose in the California League

the next year.

“Clinton was fun,” said James, the latest honoree in the Daily Pilot

Sports Hall of Fame, celebrating the millennium.

“Playing there is what minor league baseball is all about, milking

cows before games, just like in (the movie) ‘Bull Durham.’ I had a good

year and it was a good team. Clinton is (located) right on the

Mississippi River and in the middle of nowhere. It’s just a little town.

One night (in Wisconsin) we got colded out, because it was 12 degrees in

April.”

James was released by the Giants on the final day of spring training

in 1992, and, as a newlywed, decided to hang up the spikes and start a

family.

At Newport Harbor, James was a senior standout on Coach Wayne Heck’s

1985 squad that reached the CIF Southern Section 4-A quarterfinals (Jon

Dishon and Mannie Adams were also Sailor stars that year).

“We were the first team in years to go that far, and we were just a

bunch of ragtags, but we all enjoyed each other,” James said. “We went to

the third round of CIF, which was unheard of for Newport Harbor

baseball.”

James was also a three-year varsity football letterman under Coach

Mike Giddings -- a starter at tight end for two years and a first-team

All-Sea View League performer in the fall of 1984, when he caught 31

passes for 385 yards (a 12.4 average).

“Giddings was good,” James said. “That guy could motivate you. You’d

sit in during lunch meetings, and, by the time it was over, you’re asking

yourself, ‘Why isn’t the game on?’ You felt like it was time to take on

the universe. I learned a lot from him. He didn’t take any prisoners, and

you stood up and learned about responsibility. You played as a team and

won as a team.”

The Sailors went 17-4-3 in the two years James started and won league

titles both years. As a senior, James was second on the squad (behind Ho

Truong) in catching junior quarterback Shane Foley’s passes.

A two-year varsity basketball player, James started at guard on Coach

Jerry DeBusk’s celebrated 1984-85 team that won the league championship

and set a school record for victories (24).

“All I did is bump into people and run around and try to get loose

balls,” said James, the ultimate role player on a squad that included

point guard Chuck McGavran, big man Mike Beech and shooter Alan Fraser.

Today, James works for the Orange County Probation Department. He and

his wife, Shannon, have two children: Emily, 4 1/2, and Samuel, 2 1/2.