The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Where are they now?

Scott Erickson could be headed to the World Series

By Dick Sparrer

Every kid who has ever put bat to ball thinks about it.

Every kid who has ever collected baseball cards, played in the Little League or watched a game on TV dreams of it--making the major leagues and playing in the World Series.

Only a select few actually realize that dream and play baseball in the majors, and fewer still make it to the World Series.

For some, though, that dream comes true. And it could this year for Scott Erickson

Erickson, a local prep star at Homestead, is a starting pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles, and he and the O's are having quite a year.

The Orioles currently hold a six-game lead over the New York Yankees in the American League East, and Erickson is playing a key role in that championship season.

The former Mustang star boasts a 15-5 record with a 3.28 earned run average. He ranks fourth in the league in wins, and boasts the AL's 10thbest ERA.

He's already started 26 games for the division-leading O's and has gone the distance for a pair of shutouts. He has struck out 102 and walked just 47 in 181 innings pitched.

Erickson is one of three area players currently active on major league rosters. Bill Hasselman of Saratoga and Ken Caminiti of Leigh are other former local prep stars playing in the big leagues.

Hasselman, a 1983 graduate of Saratoga, is a starting catcher for the Boston Red Sox.

The former Saratoga sensation is hitting .244 for the Sox with a .390 slugging average and a .292 on-base percentage. He has blasted four homers and cracked 13 doubles to drive in 22 runs in 54 games for Boston.

Hasselman was also the quarterback for the Saratoga football team during his high school days.

Caminiti, like Hasselman a baseball and football star in high school, is the starting third baseman for the San Diego Padres.

The former Leigh standout was the most valuable player in the National League a year ago and was the league's starting third sacker in the All-Star game.

Caminiti currently boasts a .271 average and has clubbed 18 homers and 23 doubles this season on his way to knocking in 63 runs. His slugging average is an impressive .474.

But Erickson, Hasselman and Caminiti are not the only local players currently active in professional baseball. Ryan Hancock of Monta Vista, Bret Hemphill of Cupertino and Dave Tuttle of Los Gatos are each enjoying promising careers in professional baseball.

Ryan Hancock, a 1990 graduate of Monta Vista, is currently playing Triple-A baseball for the Las Vegas Stars in the Pacific Coast League.

Hancock, who went on to play football at Brigham Young University following his high school graduation, was drafted by the Anaheim Angels and actually made it to the big club last season. He went 4-1 for the Angels in 1996, but started this season in Triple-A.

He was traded to the San Diego Padres this season in the deal that sent Rickey Henderson to the Angels, and he is currently assigned to the Stars.

Hancock is now 3-3 with a 4.25 earned run average in the PCL. He has a couple of saves and has struck out 62 in just 78-plus innings of work this season.

Bret Hemphill became the first Cupertino High School graduate to make a major league roster and play in a major league exhibition game when he played for the Anaheim Angels this spring.

Hemphill ripped his first major league hit when he cracked a single for the Angels in an exhibition game against the Chicago Cubs.

He was sent down to Midland, a double-A club in the Texas League, following spring training and was having a sensational year before suffering a shoulder injury.

Hemphill was hitting .308 with 10 homers and 63 runs-batted-in in 266 at-bats before the injury. He'll miss the rest of the season after undergoing shoulder surgery.

The former Cupertino star had quite a year the season before when he hit .297 in the second half of the campaign to help the Lake Elsinore Storm to the Class A league championship. He blasted 17 homers for the Storm during the year.

Hemphill, 25, played at Cal State Fullerton after graduating from Cupertino, and he was selected in the 14th round of the 1994 draft by the Angels.

Dave Tuttle is looking forward to playing in the major leagues for the expansion team the Arizona Diamondbacks. He is currently pitching in the California League for the High Desert Mavericks, an affiliate of the Diamondbacks.

Tuttle was a star pitcher at Los Gatos before graduating in 1988. He went on to star as a hurler at Santa Clara University, where he was named the West Coast Conference pitcher of the year in 1991. He played for Team USA in the Pan Am Games in 1991 before moving on to the professional ranks.

Tuttle pitched in the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers organizations before joining the Mavericks as the club's closer. He currently boasts a 4-3 mound record with 17 saves and a low 2.59 earned run average. He has struck out 55 and walked just 22 in 59 innings on the hill.

But the local professional baseball stars are not the only area high school graduates to enjoy sports success after high school. There have been many more.

Where are they now? Well, here are a few:

Baicher

Jeff Baicher, a former Homestead soccer sensation, is now a member of the San Jose Clash of major league soccer.

Baicher currently ranks among the league's scoring leaders with nine goals and two assists for 20 points in 25 games this season.

Fitzsimmons

Patty Fitzsimmons played four years of varsity volleyball for head coach Rich Steffen at Fremont High School.

She went on to Cal State Northridge on a volleyball scholarship where she earned bachelor's and master's degrees in speech pathology--and survived the 1989 Northridge earthquake.

Fitzsimmons, who now resides in Turlock with her husband, James Yandell, works as a speech pathologist, but still pursues her volleyball interests. She is AA rated in grass doubles.

Banuelos

Brandon Banuelos of Sunnyvale, a star baseball player at Wilcox, is still going strong as a pitcher at the University of Nebraska.

Banuelos, a junior righthander, posted a 2-2 record for the Cornhuskers in 11 appearances this past spring.

Banuelos was a two-time all-leaguer in high school, and went on to earn all-Northern California honors as a pitcher at Mission Community College.

Carrieri

Steven Carrieri of Sunnyvale, a 1993 graduate of Homestead, helped the San Jose State University baseball team to the Western Division title in the Western Athletic Conference this past season.

Carrieri played baseball for four years and football for three for the Mustangs. He went on to play baseball for two years at De Anza Community College before becoming a Spartan.

Glavas

George Glavas, a 1974 graduate of Sunnyvale High School, still resides in the area and works for Carl Zeiss, Inc., a medical manufacturer of surgical microscopes.

Glavas, who now lives in Milpitas, was the league's most valuable player for a championship "C" basketball team at Sunnyvale in 1974. He was the league's co-mvp as a junior for the Jets.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, August 27, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.