LJ baseball: Stan Smith

Stan Smith, catcher/second baseman from the Viking
Class of 1960, plays the National Anthem before
the 26th Annual Alumni Game. Bob Coates,
in wheelchair, sits nearby.
(Photo by Ed Piper)
 

By Ed Piper

Stan Smith, a catcher/second baseman on the 1960 La Jolla High baseball team, remembers surfing back in the day.

"We all learned at Windansea," he said at the 26th Annual Alumni Game Sat., Feb. 16. No one surfed at Windansea except people who grew up there or were invited. It was kind of a beach gang."

Taking a break to get a hot dog from the snack bar, after playing the National Anthem on his trumpet to open the nine-inning game, Smith remembered the Van Artsdalen brothers, Butch, from his own class, 1960, who became a world class surfer and went to Waimea in Hawaii, and Marvin, from the Class of 1962. "Marvin is full of stories," he said. "You ought to talk to him."

Smith rode the triple talents of baseball, music, and engineering to enter Cornell University. "I got a full ride to Cornell because of those three," he said. "My first year, I went to New York and I had no hat, no heavy coat. The first two months were okay.

"Then, when the cold weather hit, I couldn't write home fast enough to ask for a Loden coat with a liner.

"I transferred to Berkeley my sophomore year," he confessed. "I couldn't take it (the cold). I studied mechanical and industrial engineering."

The night before the Alumni Game, he took part in an informal dinner with fellow members of the Class of 1960 to plan for next year's 60th anniversary. They will take part in the Homecoming parade, among other events.

Smith spent time looking out for Robert Coates, Class of 1954, who was in a wheelchair and who benefitted from Stan checking in on him and pushing him from the visitors' dugout to the third base line for introductions and the National Anthem.

Cameron Coates, a catcher and son of Bob, also ferried his father around the field during the event.