Steve Kraiss, Millennium Hall of Fame

Richard Dunn

In a career filled with glamour and tragedy, Estancia High’s Steve

Kraiss is lucky to walk and talk about it.

An outstanding multiple-sport athlete with size and touch, Kraiss

experienced the depths of sorrow and thrills of victory.

A two-way varsity football starter at fullback and defensive end as a

sophomore for Estancia Coach Ed Blanton in 1979, Kraiss entered his

junior year as the Eagles’ captain and inside linebacker with All-CIF

Southern Section potential.

But, in the second game of the 1980 season against Laguna Hills,

Kraiss broke his neck, a compression fracture of the C-5 vertebrae, and

was paralyzed for three days.

“I couldn’t move my arms or legs,” Kraiss said. “I was totally

conscious.”

Kraiss received several get-well cards and letters from opposing

schools, and, after three of the longest days of his life in intensive

care, a miracle happened and Kraiss was able to move again.

“I had it going, but that (injury) ended my football career,” said

Kraiss, who believed he was slated for a football scholarship and could

play on the same level as Edison’s Rick DiBernardo (Notre Dame) and Mater

Dei’s Kennedy Pola (USC), the area’s top linebackers at the time.

Remarkably, Kraiss was running on the basketball court not long after

the injury, and that same junior year earned a starting spot on Coach

Larry Sunderman’s celebrated hoops team, which finished 19-9 and played

in the CIF 3-A semifinals at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, where the

Eagles lost to Tustin.

Kraiss, who would eventually get drafted by the Baltimore Orioles as a

corner infielder even though he didn’t play baseball at Estancia, was

part of a stellar basketball contingent his senior year in 1981-82, when

Sunderman’s Eagles (22-5) shared the Sea View League championship and

advanced to the CIF 3-A quarterfinals.

In the second round of the CIF playoffs against Foothill, Kraiss won

the double-overtime thriller with a buzzer-beating desperation shot from

the far corner.

With no one to pass to, and at least two Foothill players surrounding

him, Kraiss heaved a prayer that flew over the backboard from behind and

somehow found its way through the net in front of a packed gym at Villa

Park High, providing one of the most incredible finishes in Estancia’s

storied basketball history.

Kraiss also dabbled in volleyball at Estancia, but after high school

realized if he had any future in sport, it would be in baseball.

In 1983, Kraiss played baseball at Southern California College (now

Vanguard University) and was named the team’s most improved player, then

transferred to Orange Coast College, where he redshirted in ’84 and

played first base in ’85.

Following a solid campaign for Coach Mike Mayne’s Pirates (19-6-1,

14-10 in the South Coast Conference and tied for third), Kraiss was

selected in the seventh round by the Orioles in the June 1985 free-agent

draft. Kraiss batted .316 (48 for 152) with four home runs, 30 RBIs and

38 runs scored in 36 games for OCC.

“I signed (with the Orioles) that year,” said Kraiss, who not only

recovered from a broken neck and became a prep basketball star, but

became a professional baseball player without having played in high

school.

His path to the minor leagues was a bit unusual, but his quick exit

wasn’t.

The Orioles assigned Kraiss to Bluefield, W. Va., of the Appalachian

League, where he ended up at third base because of an injury to Craig

Worthington, a future major leaguer.

Kraiss started strong, batting about .270 for the Baby Birds and

displaying an ability to hit for power. But, in a game against the

Wytheville, Tenn., Cubs, Kraiss injured his left shoulder on a headfirst

slide into second base and it hampered his play the rest of the summer.

Kraiss returned to the lineup only a few days after hurting his

shoulder, but then was plunked on the wrist by a 90-mph fastball and

again was forced to sit.

After the season, Kraiss came home and underwent rotator-cuff surgery,

then was released by the Orioles.

“That was it,” Kraiss said of his brief pro baseball career.

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

returned to SCC to attend night school, while working during the day.

“That’s what I’m most proud of,” Kraiss said of the bachelor’s degree

he earned from SCC, where his father, Wayne, was the school president for

20 years before retiring last year.

Kraiss, now the national sales manager for Precision Optical in Costa

Mesa, lives in Huntington Beach with his wife, Kerry, and three children:

daughters Kelsey, 11, and Kendall, 10, and son Kale, 4, who throws right

and bats left.