Bob Larimer, Millennium Hall of Fame

Bob Larimer was one of those catchers who would strike fear in the

heart of opposing teams.

Those with a physical presence have a tendency to intimidate people.

Their biceps bulge, they throw BB’s to second base and swing a big bat.

They’re so strong and imposing, you wouldn’t want to collide with them at

home plate. Lance Parrish is an example of one.

Well, Larimer was like that for Estancia High’s Eagles, who featured a

star-studded lineup in 1980 and were led by the 6-foot-2, 190-pound

backstop who went to UCLA on a full baseball scholarship and added 15

pounds of bulk.

You knew you had your work cut out facing Estancia as soon as you saw

Larimer warm up. In the days before Mike Piazza, when it was considered a

bonus for catchers to hit well, Larimer set the tempo on every diamond

for Coach Ken Millard’s Eagles.

A first-team All-CIF Southern Section 3-A selection and first-team

All-Orange County choice by the Daily Pilot, Larimer once gunned down

four would-be basestealers in a game against Costa Mesa.

“I wasn’t always accurate, but Rich (Amaral) was always there,”

Larimer said of his former second baseman, now a utility player for the

Baltimore Orioles.

Larimer, a two-time first-team All-Sea View League performer who could

block wild pitches as well as any receiver in CIF, was the catcher for

the South in the ’80 Orange County All-Star game at La Palma Park.

At UCLA, a catcher named Todd Zeile forced Larimer’s move to left

field, a bad spot for a player with deteriorating speed because of so

many innings in a crouch and hoping for a professional future in the

game.

Once, in a Pacific 10 Conference game at the University of Arizona,

Larimer -- funny as it might have looked with a “fairly stocky catcher”

huffing and puffing around the basepaths -- hit a three-run,

opposite-field, inside-the-park home run to win a game in the ninth

inning for Coach Gary Adams’ Bruins, 7-5.

But Larimer, whose clever and hysterical baseball stories from UCLA

and the summer Cape Cod League could provoke a book’s worth of insiders

lore, was a multitalented athlete at Estancia, which won Sea View League

championships in football (the school’s first outright title) and

basketball his senior year, 1979-80.

As disco was turning to punk and new wave, the Eagles’ Class of ‘80,

also led by Tony Camp and the late Steve Van Horn, was dominating the

athletic landscape in the Orange Coast area.

“Baseball is something I knew I wanted to do long-term, and playing

football was more for the fellows,” said Larimer, who earned six varsity

letters, including two in football.

Part of a tightknit group of seniors, Larimer said his favorite

experiences were simply “playing with just a bunch of awesome guys.”

In football, Larimer was a first-team all-league strong safety in the

fall of ‘79, when Coach Ed Blanton’s Eagles went 9-3, captured the Sea

View title and reached the CIF Central Conference quarterfinals, losing

to Esperanza.

Also a quarterback for parts of two seasons, Larimer broke his nose on

a freak accident during a handoff in a scrimmage against San Clemente his

junior year. An Eagle running back’s elbow crashed through Larimer’s face

mask and he missed the first four games.

Larimer was Blanton’s quarterback to start the ’79 campaign, but in

the season opener against high-powered Edison (the eventual CIF Big Five

Conference champion), he was pulled at halftime when the Eagles were

down, 14-0, and never returned to the offensive backfield. (Estancia

ended up losing, 35-0, to Edison.)

Larimer, a second-team All-Orange Coast area defensive player, had

five interceptions his senior year and was the Defensive Player of the

Week in the Eagles’ 21-20 victory over Ocean View.

In basketball, Larimer was Coach Larry Sunderman’s seventh man as the

Eagles shared the Sea View League title with Corona del Mar and finished

22-5. Van Horn and Camp were Sunderman’s main weapons, but Larimer once

tied a tournament semifinal game against Katella with a long jumper at

the buzzer to send matters into overtime, an eventual 75-73 Eagle win.

“That got us into the finals against Newport Harbor, and we absolutely

crushed (the Sailors),” Larimer said of his team’s 79-65 victory.

Though it was not his best sport, Larimer feels basketball was the

“most enjoyable” by “going out and having fun,” while “using all your

muscles (on the floor) and banging” down low.

Larimer, who also played baseball with Amaral at UCLA, had a huge

amateur highlight for the 1983 Chatham Athletics in the Cape Cod League,

when he blasted three home runs with nine RBIs in one game, a 10-9 win

for his team along the rustic, New England coast.

That day, Larimer went 4 for 4 and barely missed a fourth dinger when

he hit the base of the fence in his final at-bat.

“It was one of those games where everything’s out over the plate and

every (pitch) looks like a watermelon,” said Larimer, who ended that

summer with 11 home runs, second in the league behind Cory Snyder’s 21.

These days, Larimer travels around the Western U.S. as a business

development manager for paper giant Kimberly Clark.

Larimer, the latest honoree in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame,

celebrating the millennium, is single and lives in Newport Beach. Larimer

works out of his home, but would one day love to return to baseball as a

coach -- free of financial constraints.