Baseball, Class of 2003
Bob Hamelin played baseball at Santa Ana College in 1988 and led the Donns to a 39-9 record and an Orange Empire Conference (OEC) championship. Hamelin still holds six different single-season records as he tallied 31 home runs, 107 RBI, 88 runs scored, 62 walks, a .520 batting average and a 1.187 slugging percentage for the year.
Don Sneddon, Hamelin's baseball coach at SAC, said, "In the coaching world, Bob Hamelin coming to SAC was the opportunity of a lifetime at the junior college level. His magnitude was unbelievable. There was none better. He was a man among boys. I remember we used to tease him about disrupting the cable service in the neighborhood, because he hit so many shots into the cable power compound behind the wall in deep right. He was amazing."
Hamelin clearly remembers the influence of SAC in his career. "I remember the emphasis on the team concept. Every game for every player seemed to be the most important. It was something that stayed with me and I can say I have never been in a situation that was comparable to the team concept at SAC.
He was the American League Rookie-of-the-Year for the Kansas City Royals in 1994, and later played for the Detroit Tigers and Milwaukee Brewers.