San Francisco native Alonzo Powell took the long way home
Thirty- five years after Alonzo Powell signed his first contract with the San Francisco Giants, the franchise courted him again.
The reputation Powell developed as a Houston Astros assistant last season bumped him to the top of the Giants’ list in their search for a hitting coach last October, but Powell was not a traditional candidate.
Most coaches are transplants, hardened by years on the road bouncing around small-town America where they pay their dues on coach buses.
The bus was a staple of Powell’s life long before he coached in professional ball. Though it didn’t quite cost $2.75 for a MUNI fare back when Powell took the 28-line up 19th Avenue to San Francisco’s Lincoln High, he shelled out for regular rides.
“It ran right down my street so I didn’t have an excuse to be late for school,” Powell said.
Powell said he started playing baseball when he was 8 or 9 years old, joining the team at St. Emydius in the city’s Ingleside District. He continued career at Lincoln, which matched up with Serra High in the early ‘80s.
Though the Giants’ first- year hitting coach eventually played professionally, Powell knew that when Serra traveled up to West Sunset Playground, he would not be the best player on the field.
“My friends now joke that we were 25 years ahead of the game,” Powell said. “We would walk Barry Bonds in high school because we knew we couldn’t get him out.”
Plenty of the public city fields Powell played on didn’t have outfield fences that he could crush home runs over, and that hasn’t changed in the last 40 years. The lack of walls is ironic, though, because when it comes to baseball, most city natives are boxed in.
“In baseball you need space,” Giants scout Jalal Leach said. “If you’re in the city or in an urban environment, the fields are probably limited. So it’s easier to play something like basketball because it doesn’t take as much space.”
Since Powell debuted with the Montreal Expos in 1987, only four other players born in San Francisco who graduated from one of the city’s public high schools have appeared in major league games.
Micah Franklin ( Lincoln) took 37 plate appearances with the Cardinals in 1995, Harvey Pulliam ( McAteer) hit eight home runs over six years with the Rockies and Royals from 19911997, Kevin Jordan ( Lowell) spent seven seasons as a part-timer with the Phillies from 1995-2001, and O’Koyea Dickson ( Wash- ington) went 1 for 7 with the Dodgers last season.
While the suburbs surrounding San Francisco are ripe with major league talent, the 13th most populous city in the country hasn’t figured out how to produce a crop.
Powell sprouted anyway.
After finishing four years at Lincoln, he enrolled at City College of San Francisco and impressed scouts with his performance in a fall league. He real ized, though, that he trailed behind others on the outf ield depth chart and didn’t figure to play much in his first year of junior college ball.
So at 17 years old, Pow- ell bet on himself. The hometown Giants offered a professional contract, and he put the pen to paper.
“I found a loophole back then in the draft,” Powell said. “If I left City, I was eligible to sign. So I was like, OK, sit on the bench at City College or sign a professional contract.”
Powell spent three seasons in the Giants organization and played home games in Clinton, Iowa, Great Falls, Montana, and closer to San Francisco in San Jose, but after a trade late in 1985, he arrived in the majors as the 1987 opening day left fielder for the Montreal Expos.
“I had the chance to go to an organization that obviously saw more than I saw in myself at that time,” Powell said.
Thirty five years after the Giants first offered Powell an opportunity to join the franchise, it was Powell’s experience with a forward- thinking organization like the Astros and the recommendations of several inf luential voices that convinced the club to bring him back.
“He’s been great with us,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “He’s just got a good feel for hitting but a very positive attitude. He’s got a great way about him and really, he’s fit on this staff very nicely.”
If he chose to, Powell could spend all day explaining why Big Rec in Golden Gate Park is his favorite city field and tell stories like the one about his home run over the 400- foot left field fence at Silver Terrace near the Bayview. But after winning a World Series with the Astros and returning home, Powell has a more important job than being a gatekeeper for some of the city’s best baseball tales.
“To have the opportunity to have a World Series ring that’s something you’re never going to forget,” Powell said. “But I think Tom Brady said it best, now I’ll try to get the next one. Hopefully I can do that here.”
Here, in Powell’s words, is home.