Arriving at the hotel that would be their home for nine days and nights in Grand Junction, Colorado, Pima Collegeβs 1985 baseball team was informed it was a four-to-a-room setup.
There would be two rollaway beds per room.
Nobody seemed to care. It was the Junior College World Series and the Aztecs knew the drill. They had finished fifth in 1981 and fourth in 1983 and were intent on becoming national champions in β85.
The hotel squeeze was created when the NJCAA said it would only pay $216 a day for Pimaβs expenses, which is probably close to $750 in todayβs money. But the focus was baseball, not comfort.
In the 1980s, baseball was king in Tucson and Pima was part of the royalty. Rich Aldayβs clubs of 1980-85 went 222-74 and were routinely ranked in the NJCAAβs top 10. Locally, six Tucson high schools won state championships in the β80s: Santa Rita, Sahuaro, CDO, Flowing Wells, Amphi, and Tucson, which won back-to-back big school titles in 1987 and 1988. Nogales, Benson and Sahuarita all captured state titles at the smaller school level in the β80s.
Alday mined the Southern Arizona talent. His starting lineup at the 1985 NJCAA World Series went this way:
First base: Chuck Huffaker, Sierra Vista Buena High School, who broke the school record with 16 home runs.
Second base: Bobby Babuca, Sierra Vista Buena.
Shortstop: John Alva, Thatcher High School, a first-team All-American who hit .362.
Third base: Curt Schaffer, Canyon del Oro High School, who hit 381.
Left field: Jim Kimbrough, Sabino High School, who hit .384 after a record-breaking .619 season for the Sabercats.
Right field: John Hernandez, Tucson High, who hit .337.
Center field: Tim McWilliams, Catalina High School, who hit .343.
Catcher: Dan Hammarstrom, Rincon High School, who hit. 372.
Pitcher: Gil Heredia, Nogales High School, who went 15-1.
Pitcher: Joe White, Santa Rita High School, who went 7-4.
Pitcher: David Oropeza, Nogales High School, who went 5-2.
Pitcher: Dan Englebretson, Rincon High School, who went 7-1.
Alday, who had led Tucson High to an undefeated 1965 state football championship and became an all-city catcher, was the founder of Pimaβs baseball team. The first Aztecs baseball club, 1974, played its home games at city recreation fields. He always found a way to persevere. Alday was a winner and so were his teams.
He surrounded himself with elite coaches Jim Fleming, a Salpointe Catholic and UA baseball player, and Scott Stanley, a Catalina High School and UA standout. Both would ultimately leave PCC for careers in organized baseball, as scouts and executives, that both lasted in excess of two decades.
On the day before Pima played Texasβ San Jacinto JC for the national championship β a game played before a sellout crowd of 7,500 in Grand Junction β I asked Alday if he planned to leave Pima for a job with a higher national profile.
βOnce in a while I think of moving to a four-year school, but where can I find a better baseball area than Tucson?β he said. βThere arenβt many.β
San Jacinto beat the 48-10 Aztecs that night in Colorado β it gave Heredia, a pitcher who would spend 10 years, going 57-51 in the big leagues, his only loss of the season. The 1992 Aztecs under coach Roger Werbylo also reached the NJCAA championship game, but despite its rich baseball history, Pima has yet to win the Big One.
Fellow ACCAC league members Central Arizona, Mesa College, Central Arizona, Arizona Western and Yavapai College have all won NCJAA championships, but Pima has had to settle for being this close.
Alday ultimately gave in to interest from four-year schools. He became the head coach of the New Mexico Lobos in 1990 and remained until 2008. He returned to Tucson and spent a second term at PCC, 2017-2018 and completed his career with a 517-251 record in Tucson, giving him more than 1,000 career baseball victories.
Before he died at age 71 last year, Alday added more than baseball excellence to his credentials. He coached the Ironwood Ridge High School softball team to 2014 and 2016 state championships.
