Pries gives back

Golden memories, hearty laughter and the exhilaration of

expectation filled the banquet hall Saturday night at the Hyatt

Newporter for the inaugural Corona del Mar Baseball Hall of Fame

induction dinner.

But with the swiftness of one of his overpowering fastballs, Jeff

Pries, who joined Matt Keough and Ty Harper, as well as the CIF

Southern Section 2-A championship team of 1981, as the first

inductees, imposed a sudden and poignant silence over the estimated

gathering of 150 early on in his acceptance speech.

“This is wonderful and haunting at the same time,” said Pries,

whose storybook prep career in both baseball and basketball secured

his place in the pantheon of Newport-Mesa athletics. After graduating

in 1981, he pitched three seasons at UCLA and was drafted in the

first round by the New York Yankees. But arm trouble, including a

torn rotator cuff in 1989, limited his promising career to five minor

league seasons.

He was 20-0 as a pitcher in three varsity seasons as a prep,

including 9-0 as a senior. He also played shortstop en route to CIF

2-A and Sea View League Player of the Year honors, the latter a

repeat honor.

Former CdM baseball coach Tom Trager said Pries was so gifted that

had he chosen to be a position player as a professional, instead of

pitch, people would now be comparing World Series MVP Troy Glaus to

the 6-foot-4 Pries.

He averaged 21 points and 10 rebounds as a senior basketball star,

leading the Sea Kings to the CIF 3-A crown. Former basketball coach

Paul Orris, in his third decade teaching at the school, considers

Pries the best athlete to ever wear the nautical blue.

“This is great for me and it’s hard for me,” Pries continued. “But

this is an opportunity to celebrate one of the greatest times in my

life, playing with great guys (at CdM). We had a magical team.”

Now a pastor to young couples at Mariners Chuch in Irvine, Pries,

who lives in Turtle Rock with his wife and four kids, still feels the

pull of diamond dreams.

“I was riding the life cycle a few weeks ago during the playoffs

when they showed the 10 greatest moments in baseball history,” he

said. “I almost got emotional. It got me thinking that nothing moves

us in life like God and sports; the friendship, the competition, the

joy of winning and the sadness of losing. These (current and future

players) need sports. We know it, if they don’t. Do they need that

(motioning to a model of the proposed stadium project for which

proceeds of the $100 per-plate affair are headed)? Probably not. But

something like that shows kids we care about them and we want them to

have great things.

“People need to see kids high-fiving, playing and running. Kids

are doing great things in sports. I would have loved to have made it,

so I could write a big check for something like (the stadium). I’d

liked to have made it so I could give back; to have a way I could

touch lives. But that didn’t happen.”

With his eloquence, Pries showed he can still touch lives, perhaps

more deeply than he moved those who saw him play. I’m not among those

fortunate enough to have watched him compete, but having heard his

words Saturday night, you can’t convince me he hasn’t “made it” in

the biggest game of all.

*

However serious his message, Pries left them laughing with the

following, er, tribute to his mother.

“My mom used to cook me steak and eggs before every game,” he

recalled. “Who knows how good I could have been if my arteries

weren’t three-fourths clogged.”

*

Walt Harper, who introduced his son, Ty, the catalyst for the 1999

CIF Division IV championship team and the holder of most Newport-Mesa

career hitting records, also delivered some poignant words.

“My son’s career in baseball challenged me to be a better person,”

said Walt Harper, who coached Ty’s youth teams, still coaches CdM

teams in offseason leagues, and follows his son, now a Pepperdine

senior, by attending virtually all of his home games, as well as

several on the road.

*

Dan Grigsby, lifelong friend and former CdM teammate of Keough,

introduced him with several stories of the former major league

pitcher’s athletic prowess.

Grigsby said he saw Keough both punt and throw a football 70

yards. He also caught one no-hitter, two one-hitters and a pair of

two-hitters during Keough’s senior year in 1972 and said Keough

received scholarship offers to play football in college, though he

never played a down at CdM.

Pries later vouched for Keough’s legend, noting one Sea King

teammate regularly chided him with the humbling reminder: “You’re no

Matt Keough.”