SMSBL Hall of Fame

Rick grew up in South Central Los Angeles during tumultuous times of national civil unrest and the Vietnam War. He attended Inglewood High School and played baseball and it was there he loved the game and excelled to the level of being named to the CIF All Southern Calif. All-star team along with MLB Hall of Famer George Brett and other future major league ballplayers. After high school baseball, his future would be life changing for a number of reasons. Pepperdine University baseball coach Wayne Wright gave Rick the opportunity to excel further and gave him a four year scholarship and the opportunity to start all four years at left field. While at Pepperdine he met his bride of nearly 50 years and he renewed his Christian faith.

In his freshman year, Rick hit .333 and missed the batting title by 2 pts. His senior year was culminated and highlighted by being on the first ever Championship team for Pepperdine in Malibu, Ca. They were ranked tenth in the nation and were matched against national champion USC in the NCAA district playoffs in 1974 to determine who would play in the NCAA world series. He hit .300 in the playoffs and robbed Rich Dauer (former Baltimore Orioles 3rd baseman) of a home run by leaping over the top of the wall to make the catch. His team went on to win that game with a walk off home run but lost the series to USC who went on to repeat as National Champions in 1974.

After college, Rick married and moved to Sacramento while his teammates, Mike Scott, played MLB and won the Cy Young Award for the Astros and Rob Piciollo became shortstop for the Oakland As. Surprisingly, 20 years later, while playing for his current team the Nationals, Rick would reunite with a manager of his former Mariners team and has also played for the A's. Rick joined the upstart Mariners in the Mariners second year 1994 to 2002 then the Mariners dissolved. Soon after Rick joined on with Joe Soto - Pat Kelly Sacramento A's from 2003 - 2017. Rick and his son Ty played on Hall of Famer Derrick Bulock's Capital Cardinals World Series National Level Father Son team and they were both an instrumental contributing player on the Cardinals 2008 National Championship team.

Now after 28 years playing SMSBL, Rick is grateful and thankful to the board and appreciative to all his former and current teammates to be part of a special baseball experience and honor in being inducted into the Sacramento MSBL Hall of Fame. And most importantly, a special thanks to his wife Chi for putting up with watching Rick play baseball for over 50 years.