In 2002 former major league pitcher Mark Eichhorn helped coach the Aptos Little League team to a berth in the LL World Series.
By John Murphy
Took a stroll down memory lane this morning when I googled “Mark Eichhorn.”
That led me to segments of a PBS Documentary, “Small Ball,” on youtube. It was about the 2002 Aptos Little League baseball team. The team made it all the way to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Penn.
Eichhorn is a former major league baseball pitcher who had a tremendous career. He was an assistant coach for the Aptos team and his son, Kevin, one of the team’s top pitchers. The other players were: Pitcher Kyle Anderson, the son of manager Dave Anderson; Andrew Biancardi; Tyler Raymond; Kevin Farmer; Brian Godoy; Curtis Worden; Mark Lamothe; Justin Burns; Drew McCauley; Cesar Zermeno; and Jarred Bachan.
I knew Mark Eichhorn from when I was the sports editor of the Watsonville Register-Pajaronian. One of the first stories I wrote for the paper, in 1979, was Mark getting drafted out of Cabrillo College by the Toronto Blue Jays.
So it was nice to see him again when the 2002 Aptos team came to San Bernardino to compete in the Little League Western Regionals. I covered the tournament for the San Bernardino Sun and other newspapers, including the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
The Little League tourney was not Mark Eichhorn’s first trip to San Bernardino. He pitched there in 1996 on a rehab assignment from the Angels. In fact, Eichhorn was the losing pitcher for the Lake Elsinore Storm against the San Bernardino Stampede in the first game ever played at what is now called San Manuel Stadium.
Six years later Eichhorn was back, helping guide his son’s team. By day he coached the boys up and by night he entertained them with spooky stories, an array of celebrity impressions and his goofy dance moves — some of which was captured by PBS.
The story had a joyous ending for Aptos, too. The boys won it all, 4-3 against Arizona, in dramatic fashion. The 6-foot Raymond struck the winning blow, hitting a clutch, three-run home run in the bottom of the fifth inning. I recall Raymond leading the team on a victory lap around Houghton Stadium, its championship banner flapping in the warm summer breeze.
There won’t be a repeat this season. Today Little League Inc. canceled the World Series and its regional tournaments due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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