SACRAMENTO MEN'S SENIOR BASEBALL LEAGUE
Sacramento's Premier Baseball League since 1984
Home of 72 World Series Championship Teams
Mark’s baseball journey began at 10 years old when he began playing in the Salsipuedes Little League at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds. He continued to play through his junior year in high school, but much to Mark’s chagrin he was cut from the team during his senior year. Mark enrolled in Hartnell Junior College the following year where he was recruited to play water polo. He also decided to try out for the baseball team and ultimately made the team as a pitcher. Mark remembers the grueling fall days when he had two water polo practices and a baseball practice. Mark’s Hartnell baseball team
would go on to win the Coast Conference championship and advanced to the Division II California State JC Championships his freshman year. The Panthers rolled through the Championships with a 3-0 record to win the title. One of Mark’s favorite moments was during the championship game when his Panthers were building a significant lead. The College of the Siskiyous coach asked the catcher if their pitcher was throwing very hard. The catcher responded “I don’t know, I haven’t caught one in a while”. In 2014, Mark’s State Championship baseball team was inducted into the Hartnell College Athletics Hall of Fame.
Mark transferred to San Jose State University and served as a student-assistant coach for the baseball teamfor a season while working on his Kinesiology undergraduate degree. Mark also had stints as the women’s tennis conditioning coach and women’s water polo assistant coach while working on his Master’s Degree in Sport Management at SJSU.
In 1997, Mark was hired by the Athletic Department at Sacramento State to serve as the NCAA Compliance Coordinator and then later as an academic advisor for the athletes at Sac State. It was while he was at an Athletic Department BBQ that he met SMSBL Hall of Famer, John Rice. After talking some baseball, John asked Mark if he’d be interested in playing baseball again? With encouragement from his then girlfriend, Kris (now his wonderful wife), he decided to start playing again in 2005. Mark has played on the Seals, A’s, Riverdogs, 51’s, Bears and Patriots. Mark would like to thank John, Joe Soto and Pat Kelly for the opportunity to start playing this great game again. Mark thanks all those involved with starting and running this wonderful league as it has brought so many great people and so much joy into his life. Mark has been on two AZ World Series championship teams, one with the Seals in 2020 and most recently with the Sacramento Nationals in 2023. Mark has also been on multiple SMSBL championship teams with the Seals, A’s and 51’s.
