Catching Up With ... Rich Amaral

Richard Dunn

HUNTINGTON BEACH - Along with all the mothers dropping off and

picking up their kids from school is former major leaguer Rich Amaral,

the first batter in the history of Jacobs Field in Cleveland.

Amaral, the oldest rookie in the major leagues at age 31 for the

Seattle Mariners in 1993, retired from baseball last month after almost

nine years in the big leagues and 18 professional seasons.

“I’m trying to be Dad of the Year,” said the former Estancia High and

Orange Coast College standout, who, these days, drives his four children

to school and even sits in their classrooms.

“Every now and then I see another dad,” said Amaral, who has enjoyed

the transition of on-the-go major leaguer to full-time husband and

father.

“I’m just trying to do all these things I haven’t done in 18 years.

I’ve been gone every summer the last 18 years, but now I’m going to enjoy

the summer at home,” added Amaral, whose immediate plans with his wife,

Michele, and kids include ski and camping trips this summer. “I’m just

doing as much as I can with the kids. Three of them are playing baseball

and I’m helping out in coaching for all three teams.

“Also, I’m just kind of looking at different things I want to do. I’m

trying to figure out something, (but) I do not know what I want to do.

I’m just taking my time in trying to figure that out.”

Amaral’s children (Beau, 10, Jessica, 7, Joseph, 6, and Daniel, 4)

fill the three-car garage at their Huntington Beach home with baseball

gloves, bats and balls, while the inside is touched with detail and

exquisite furniture.

Upstairs is an office and baseball shine, which stores most of

Amaral’s memorabilia, and three beautiful bedrooms, including a master

bedroom with a view of Palos Verdes and bathroom seemingly as large as a

major league clubhouse.

“I can’t believe this is my house. It’s just unreal,” Amaral said as

he walked downstairs, humbled by the riches a major league career can

bring.

Perhaps the most eye-catching baseball-related item in the house --

aside from a broken pinball machine from the Seattle clubhouse -- is a

color photograph with a wide-angle lens of the first pitch at brand new

Jacobs Field, with Cleveland’s Dennis Martinez on the mound and Sandy

Alomar Jr. behind the plate.

“The first pitch was a foot outside, but they called it a strike,”

Amaral said. “I followed the ball all the way into Alomar’s glove. He

caught it, then quickly underhanded it back to the dugout (for keepsake).

I thought, ‘Hey, am I a part of this (game)?”’

Amaral later played with Martinez in Seattle, and the veteran

right-hander would always wigwag his finger at Amaral in the clubhouse

and say with a big smile, “You and me, we go down in history as the first

pitcher and hitter at Jacobs Field.”

There was no retirement “announcement” for Amaral and there will be no

election into the Baseball Hall of Fame, but good friend Jeff Gardner

(Estancia, OCC), also a former major leaguer and now a minor league

manager, orchestrated a retirement party recently for “closure” on

Amaral’s long career.

“We talked about all the fun times we had. It was neat to do that,”

said Amaral, whose big league highlight was playing on the 1995 Mariners,

who won the American League West Division title after a one-game playoff

with the Angels, then beat the New York Yankees in a thrilling five-game

divisional series, coming from an 0-2 deficit to win three straight games

at the Kingdome.

“That was an unbelievable year for the Mariners and the city of

Seattle,” said Amaral, who still follows the game closely, looking each

morning at the box scores and seeing how his buddies did the previous

night.

Amaral, 39, signed a two-year free-agent contract with the Orioles in

December 1998 after eight years with the Mariners. In 2000, injuries took

a toll on Amaral, who was released by Baltimore, then signed to a minor

league contract by the Atlanta Braves in August.

He played his last game with the Class AAA Richmond Braves on Sept. 4,

2000, against Norfolk in the International League before 4,719 fans, a

far cry from the 57,000-plus fans the Mariners would draw in September

1995 during their improbable stretch drive to the AL Championship Series

against the Indians.

This year, Amaral stayed in shape for a possible job opening, but the

phone didn’t ring and the veteran utility player, who came up to the big

leagues as a second baseman, called it a career. He finished with a .267

lifetime batting average with 11 home runs and 159 RBIs in 727 games. He

also had 106 stolen bases with a season-high of 25 in 1996.