Hall of Fame
Tim Fortugno was the first player
to make it to the Major League level from Southern California College/Vanguard University. The baseball team won the District III Championship in 1985 and 1987, and in 1985, SCC finished fourth in the nation at the NAIA Baseball World Series.
At age 18, Fortugno quit baseball to support his young family, and moved from one end of the country to the other. He graduated from Uxbridge High School in Massachusetts. A few years later, while working at a construction site in Costa Mesa, Fortugno decided to give baseball another shot and began knocking on doors. After a stint at nearby Golden West College, he eventually landed at Southern California College in Costa Mesa (now Vanguard University), where Fortugno returned to the game at the ripe old age of 21.
Fortugno’s blow-it-by-you heater, hitting 90 mph, caught the attention of pro scouts while he was in college, but he still needed to find some control. He slowly was able to bring it all together and his senior year at SCC was a good one. He struck out 153 batters in 102 innings and was named the conference MVP. He eventually harnessed his fastball, and after enduring countless obstacles in the minor leagues, including tolerating severe shoulder pain for 18 months, he thrived in the fame of the major leagues for three seasons with the Angels, White Sox and Reds.
Signed by the Seattle Mariners as an amateur free agent in 1986, Fortugno would make his major league debut at the age of 30 with the California Angels on July 20, 1992 and appear in his final Major League game on July 26, 1995. Primarily a relief pitcher during his professional career, his first major league win came in his second start. On July 25, 1992, Fortugno surprised the baseball world by hurling a three-hit shutout against the Detroit Tigers, striking out 12. Fortugno’s career totals include 76 games pitched (five starts), 110.1 total innings, a 3-4 record with one save, and an ERA of 5.06. A fact that will live on for real fantatic baseball trivia fans is that Fortugno was the pitcher who yielded the 3,000th hit of future Hall of Fame member George Brett on September 30, 1992. But in an odd twist, shortly after giving up the hit, he picked Brett off at first base.
He was a professional player for 13 years from the years of 1986-1997 in the MLB systems and rounded out his career in the Taiwanese league in 1998. It was the fifth country he had played in as a professional and the Sinon Bulls were his 24th and pro team, paying him his largest contract in his professional career. At the age of 36, he retired from playing the game but did not move far away from it. His second phase in professional baseball saw him serving as an Area Scout for the Texas Rangers (seven years) and the New York Mets (14 years).
