Sacramento Executive: Sacramento City College's Baseball Team

For the past eight years I have lived in Land Park, two blocks from the Sacramento City College (SCC). I had no idea of the school’s baseball tradition until yesterday when I made an astonishing discovery - the SCC Panthers baseball team is a phenomenal powerhouse with a legendary history. Over the past 84 years, Panther teams have won a staggering 72.8% of their games with a record of 1,764 wins, 603 losses, and 21 ties. The team has had a winning record for each of the last 35 years.

Since 1971, SCC has been league champion 23 times, state champion 3 times, and national champion once. A Panther player’s name appears on the major league draft rolls an amazing 256 times since 1977.

At least 38 former Panther players made it to the big leagues, beginning with Spider Johnson in 1946. Spider was the starting third baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers when Jackie Robinson made has famous groundbreaking major league debut.

Collectively, the Panther alumni have enjoyed great success in the big leagues:

230 years of playing time;
6 players made at least $1 million in a single year (Jeff Blauser - $4.2M, Chris Bosio - $4.25M, Darrell May - $3.2M, Nick Johnson - $1.45M, Fernando Vina - $5.4M, and Greg Vaughn - $8.75M)
5 players made it to the World Series (one ring – Bowa);
4 players appeared in a total of 13 All-Star games (Blauser, Bowa, Vaughn, and Vina);
2 players reached the big leagues as manager of 3,246 games (Johnny McNamara and Bowa);
2 Golden Glove awards (Bowa)
1 no-hitter (Ken Forsch).

Top batting and pitching honors for the Panther alumni include:

.282 lifetime batting average – Vina
355 home runs - Vaughn
114 wins lifetime – Forsch
3.37 ERA lifetime – Forsch
50 home runs single season - Vaughn
16 – 6 pitching record single season – Bosio

Who made the most money so far? Greg Vaughn, with a mind boggling estimated salary of at least $67 million.

The SCC legend heated up with Jerry Weinstein as the skipper for 24 years, where he compiled an 831-208-12 record, winning 80% of the time the Panthers stepped onto the field. Andy McKay took over in 1999 and is in his eighth season as head coach, amassing 213 victories against 75 losses.

At least nine former Panther players with major league experience remain active. Larry Bowa continues to coach, recently joining the Yankees as the third base coach. Jeff Blauser just took over Manager of the AA Missiissippi Braves. Ken Forsch is in the front office of the LA Angels.

The pipeline of minor league players is very strong with the Panther name being called 41 times in the 2000 to 2004 drafts. Look for recent transfers Ben Petralli (Oral Roberts), Doug Thennis (Texas Tech) and Justin Souza (Arizona State) to continue the tradition. I wouldn’t be surprised to find their names on the draft wire soon, getting a call from GM Ken Forsch or opening up at a spring training camp with Jeff Blauser managing them in the “bigs”.

Remember the Cincinnati “Big Red Machine”? We have our own baseball machine – The Powerhouse Panthers!

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive