Saberhagen’s Gem Was Magical Moment

Whether you were a player, coach, parent, fan, umpire, peanut vendor or even a sportswriter, all who were present 20 years ago on a warm June night at Dodger Stadium knew they had witnessed history.

“It’s a moment I tell my kids about and will tell my grandkids about,” umpire Larry Obar said.

On June 14, 1982, Bret Saberhagen of Reseda Cleveland High pitched the only no-hitter in the 44-year history of the City championship baseball game. He retired 21 of 22 batters in a 13-0 victory over Palisades.

Next month, on June 4, the 2002 City champion will be crowned at Dodger Stadium in the 64th City final. It’s a place where dreams are made and fantasies fulfilled, as Saberhagen can attest.

“The big thing everybody wants to do is play at Dodger Stadium,” Saberhagen said. “That’s all we thought about.”

Leo Castro was Cleveland’s 31-year-old second-year coach when his team arrived at Dodger Stadium in a bus.

“The whole thing was going to be special,” he said. “We were in awe. We were in heaven.”

Saberhagen began the game as the top pitcher in the City. He was 8-0 after overcoming early-season shoulder problems. One doctor had told him to have surgery. Instead, he took time off and came back stronger than ever. He was selected in the 19th round of baseball’s amateur draft by the Kansas City Royals. Some scouts thought he was a better prospect as a shortstop than a pitcher.

But opinions changed after Saberhagen’s performance in the most pressure-filled game of his high school career. He never felt more comfortable or at ease. He was pitching on the hallowed mound that produced Hall of Famers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale and hardly acted like a teenager.

“For a big game, playing at Dodger Stadium, it was amazing how in control he was,” said Obar, who called the balls and strikes. “He was in his own little zone. It was like he was mature beyond his years.”

Yet no one expected that a throwing error by second baseman Tom Brandt on a ground ball in the first inning would result in the only baserunner for Palisades and prevent Saberhagen from finishing with a perfect game. He struck out eight and retired the last 20 batters in order.

Brandt felt badly about the error.

“It kind of stayed with him and was something [bothering] him for years,” Castro said.

First baseman Mark Markland wishes he had been able to catch Brandt’s throw. But Markland wasn’t going to let an error detract from the game of a lifetime.

He was the one who approached Saberhagen in the dugout in the fifth inning and did something you’re not supposed to do in baseball.

“I mentioned, ‘Hey, Sabes, you’re throwing a no-hitter, dude,’” Markland said. “He kind of didn’t want to think about it.”

Saberhagen was doing his own teasing. He got thrown out trying to score from second on a wild pitch with two out in the bottom of the sixth, denying Kenneth Marden, who was batting at the time, a chance to improve on his four-hit game.

“He complained if I didn’t get thrown out, he would be five for five and the big story of the game,” Saberhagen said.

When catcher Glen Newhouse fielded a bunt and threw out the runner to end the game, the no-hitter was complete.

“It was unbelievable,” said Markland, who’s a financial planner living in Manhattan Beach. “We could have played anybody in the country and could have beaten them. Our bats were alive and [Saberhagen] was throwing some serious heat. It was awesome.”

Cleveland finished with 16 hits. Among Palisades’ players was Steve Kerr, who’d go on to play on four NBA championship teams.

Saberhagen was thrust into the media spotlight. He was handed the phone in the Dodgers’ dugout.

“Somebody said, ‘Hey, the president is on the phone,’” Saberhagen said.

It was KNBC calling. It wanted Saberhagen to appear live with sportscaster Stu Nahan on its 11 p.m. telecast. It was the finishing touch to a dreamlike day.

“If someone had told me he was going to throw a no-hitter, everybody would have laughed,” Castro said. “For him to do it at Dodger Stadium and in that setting, it was a fairy tale.”

Saberhagen would experience many more fairy tales. He twice won the Cy Young Award, twice was the comeback player of the year and was voted the most valuable player of the 1985 World Series.

He retired this year after spending 18 years in the major leagues and has moved back to Calabasas so he can be closer to his three children.

On weekends, he dresses in pinstripes as a member of the L.A. Yankees, part of an over-30 adult baseball league. He plays shortstop. He also pitches batting practice occasionally at Calabasas High, where his oldest son, Drew, is a sophomore first baseman.

Earlier this season, Calabasas played Verdugo Hills. On one team was Saberhagen’s son. On the other was Obar’s son, Stephen. Twenty years later, the star pitcher and the veteran umpire were reunited in the stands, reminiscing.

Castro, 50, who teaches physical education at Los Angeles Lincoln High, is planning to break out his photographs and videotape of the game.

“The whole thing was magical,” he said.

Marden, who lives in the Bay Area, is expecting his first child in October. He can’t wait to tell the story of playing at Dodger Stadium on a night when the remarkable happened.

“It was one cool moment,” he said.

As a 23-year-old sportswriter sitting in the Dodger Stadium press box, trying to write a front-page story under deadline pressure, I found my own composure tested by Saberhagen’s benchmark performance.

In 25 years of covering high school sports, I haven’t seen anyone top that no-hitter.

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Eric Sondheimer can be reached at [email protected].