Baseball | March 22, 2019

LOS ANGELES--Art Mazmanian, the All-American second baseman on USC's first College World Series championship team in 1948 who later was the successful head baseball coach at Dorsey High and Mt. San Antonio Junior College, died today (Friday, March 22) in San Dimas, Calif.  He was 91.
 
Services are pending, with information expected early next week.  In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Art Mazmanian Memorial Fund, Mt. SAC Foundation, 1100 No. Grand Ave., Walnut, Calif. 91789.
 
Mazmanian, who came to USC after starring in baseball and football at nearby Dorsey High, was the Trojans' first 4-year letterman in baseball since 1915 when he did so in 1945-47-48-49.  He started at shortstop as a 1945 freshman and then at second base in 1948 and 1949.  He joined Wally Hood and Hank Workman as USC's first-ever baseball All-American first teamers as a 1948 junior, then made All-American second team in 1949.  He was a 3-time (1945-48-49) All-Conference first team choice.  USC won at least a share of the league title in each of his last 3 seasons.
 
In the 1948 College World Series championship game against Yale, which featured George H.W. Bush at first base for the Bulldogs, Mazmanian was the Trojans' hero as he went 3-for-3 at bat with a sacrifice and scored a run in the first inning that gave USC a lead it never relinquished en route to its first-ever baseball NCAA title.  He hit .545 in that CWS.  He helped the Trojans return to the CWS in 1949.
 
Mazmanian then played 6 years (1949-54) in the New York Yankees organization, making it to the Triple-A level, before returning to Dorsey, where he coached football and baseball for 13 years (1955-67) and won the L.A. City baseball crown in 1958. 
 
He then became the head baseball coach at Mt. San Antonio, where his teams won 731 games in 31 years (1968-98).  He had only 2 losing seasons at Mt. SAC.  The baseball field at Mt. SAC was named in his honor.  More than 120 of his players played professionally, including such major leaguers as Doug Bird, Ron Roenicke, Rob Nelson, Brett Tomko and Terry Clark. 
 
During his time at Dorsey and Mt. SAC, he spent 18 summers managing in the minor leagues with the Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Athletics, winning 663 games.  In 1984, he was an assistant coach for the U.S. Olympic baseball team that won a silver medal.  He also scouted for the Athletics and Cleveland Indians.
 
He retired from Mt. SAC in 1999 due to his wife's illness, but returned to coaching at South Hills High in Covina (Calif.) for 5 seasons (2011-15).  He finished his coaching career as an assistant coach at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps College in 2016 at the age of 88.
 
He is survived by his son, Stephen, and daughter, Nancy (who served in baseball public relations roles at USC and with the Anaheim Angels).  He was predeceased by his wife, Shirley.