Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame: Shorty Scheafer

Steve Virgen

If baseball is truly America’s pastime, it’s because of people like

Conrad “Shorty” Scheafer. Shorty produced a slice of America with youth

baseball in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach. Along with his friend Luke

Davis, Scheafer coached the Harbor Area baseball program in the 1960s,

and it’s on this week Shorty is recognized as a Daily Pilot Sports Hall

of Fame honoree.

Scheafer, born Feb. 13, 1926 in Danville, Ill., stood 5-foot-3, and on

a good day, 5-4, thus the nickname, Shorty. He was hardly ever called

Conrad.

Shorty’s love for baseball began in Illinois and he carried it over to

California when he and his family moved there. The Scheafers resided in

Costa Mesa since 1958, when Shorty began to work for the Costa Mesa

County Water District.

His family would consist of wife, Isabella, four boys, Fred, Mike, Tom

and Frank, and one girl, Theresa.

The four brothers also took up the love for baseball and eventually

played for the Harbor Area baseball program.

There was a time, Tom and Mike Scheafer remember, when Shorty and

Davis coached a Pepsi-Cola baseball squad that entered a nationwide

tournament with the division area winner advancing to competition in

Hawaii. Newport Harbor High standout Chris Thompson and current Costa

Mesa High football coach Dave Perkins were on the team.

Shorty’s squad nearly moved on to Hawaii, but they had their division

area semifinal win taken away from them after opposing coaches learned

the Pepsi-Cola team used sawed off bats.

“We ended up getting booted out of the tournament,” said Mike

Scheafer, who was the team’s batboy. “We probably could have went to

Hawaii. My dad was also really big with the Harbor Area baseball program.

He always made an effort to coach. He just spent a lot of time with us.

When I had my first son. We coached him together. My dad was always there

for the kids. It wasn’t so much that we won championships, because I

don’t remember us winning championships. But we always enjoyed the sport.

The winning wasn’t always that important.”

Aside from coaching, Shorty, a U.S. Marine, also worked as an umpire.

His voice and aura always stood taller than his body frame and when he

took to the diamond he took charge, Tom Scheafer described.

He was firm, yet he still came off as a gentle man.

“He was the nicest guy you would want to meet,” Tom Scheafer said. “If

he told you to jump, you would jump. He wasn’t strict. He would do

anything for any kid.”

Shorty also visited schools in the area and delivered speeches about

water. And, also at the schools, he dressed up as Santa Claus.

“I still have his old Santa Claus uniform,” Mike Scheafer said.

At the Costa Mesa County Water District, Shorty, with an attractive

personality, developed lifelong friendships, including with Ray Perry,

whose son, Art, is now a golf coach at Estancia High.

“He was always coaching and helping the youth,” Art Perry said of

Shorty. “He always attended the Estancia High events and he was an Orange

Coast College sports follower. He was the president of the Lion’s Club.”

Shorty’s desire to coach and teach youth especially benefited his own

children. His love for baseball and the importance of teamwork are values

his sons pass on to their children. For Tom Scheafer baseball was family

and it was fun.

“We used to play wiffle ball,” Tom Scheafer said. “The window would

break once a week. If it was a rock you didn’t want to tell Dad, but if

it was wiffle ball it was OK. My dad, he threw a baseball even before he

walked.”

Shorty’s passion was a big reason for the success and unity of the

Harbor Area baseball program.

Conrad “Shorty” Scheafer was 66 when he died after heart problems in

1992.