Steve Raine

In 1978 when Steve Raine completed his decorated and overpowering three-sport career
at North Salinas High School, he was one of the most heralded high school pitchers in the
country. Though he was a league wrestling champion and invited to try out for the US
Olympic wrestling team, won his team’s Head Hunter Award in 1978 given to the hardest
hitter on the North Salinas football team, and collected 12 high school varsity letters, it
was in baseball that he flourished.

Raine was praised by some scouts as the best high school pitcher in the country after
posting a 13-2 record as a Viking senior with a 1.07 ERA. He routinely held teams to
two hits per game. With a mid-90 per hour fastball, he once had 39 strikeouts in two
consecutive games. He was also a good hitter, batting .425 as a junior and .400 as a
senior. His efforts helped the Vikings to its first ever league title in his senior year of 1978.

Raine was selected to play for the 16-player California Prep All-Star team, and he pitched
a nine-inning, three-hitter to beat the Oklahoma All-Stars 8-1–a game that was tied 1-1
until the bottom of the eighth. He also was the North’s starting pitcher in the annual
North-South series that consisted of the top 16 players from each region.

Raine was drafted in the second round of the 1978 free agent draft by the San Francisco
Giants but opted to accept a full scholarship to play for the defending NCAA champion
Arizona State Sundevils. He was the highest drafted player in the history of ASU baseball.
ASU recruiters said Raine had credentials to be among the best pitchers ever at the
perennial baseball power university. After one year at ASU, he decided to enter the MLB
draft and was a first-round pick of the Kansas City Royals. Later, a shoulder injury would
end his career.