It’s time for Baseball my Fellow Titan Baseball Alum!

Thad Ferre from class of 1984 here to give you the latest on the program as of today!

1.Team

Had a nice chat the other day with Coach Marcel and some things to highlight about this year’s team/season:

• Veteran team with 10 Srs, 2 Jrs, and 3 Sophs…There are 5 very good Freshmen, but Coach will have them start on JV

• Pitching is their strength, but have some hitters too.

• Both Skyline and Oakland Tech remain the powerhouses of the OAL

• Oakland High, Fremont, and Castlemont expected to field teams as well

• The OAL schedule is out this week, but in the meantime you can find the pre-season schedule on Max Preps…

• Here it is: https://www.maxpreps.com/print/schedule.aspx?schoolid=5dcf6e4f-bb1e-4ba0-9c88-d73fff9ad3e3&ssid=1278779e-84df-4e60-8d03-db0024535aa6&print=1

• As you can see, 2 scrimmages this week v El Cerrito and Monte Vista, then 15 games thru end of March

• Coach Marcel has structured a very competitive schedule in pre-season with many games at home.

• I would like to highlight the one game on March 21, Saturday, to be played at the BALLERS Stadium in Oakland(AKA Raimundi Park), where Skyline will square up with Bishop O’Dowd.

• This is part of our own Bip Roberts, and his 2^nd annual Bip Roberts Classic to be played at Ballers Stadium March 20 and 21.  Looks to feature all local schools and their talents.  Thank you Bip for highlighting and supporting high school baseball in Oakland!

• Please have a look at Max Preps later this week or next to get the updated schedule which will include the OAL.

2.Field

Lots of cool things happening at the Skyline Baseball Field.  It has been a team effort as Coach Marcel and his team are out there taking really good care of the field doing field maintenance, weeding, raking and all that “sweat equity” to make it one of the best fields in Oakland.  Thanks also goes to Alumni players led by Will Mingram, Class of 87, who last year led the charge to install a new infield and irrigation system.  Mike Robbins, Class of 93 helped to donate equipment and tarps for the batter’s eyes.  Parent, Dan Desmond(son Decker Sr player), helped install new bleachers to make the fan experience more comfortable along with painting the backstops and dugouts. Also a shout out to Paul Yezzi, Class of 81 for his generous donation to get the scoreboard up and running.  

And finally, plans to honor our pro baseball players over the years, we are putting their names and numbers on the Left/Centerfield wall as our own “WALL of FAME”.  Including our beloved Coach Joe Panella, we have had 14 Titans play pro ball with 3 making it to the Big Leagues, Bip Roberts, Brian Johnson and Marcus Jensen

All names besides Coach Panella, Bip, Brian, and Marcus will include:

Scott Kimball, Howard Nichols, John Finn, Greg McKnight, Demetrius Beverly, Derrick Levingston, Charles Armstrong, JR Taylor, and Jace Turner. MSSING….Mo Castain’s who played for the A’s…looking for his SKYLINE Jersey numbers

Congrats Fellas!

Installation to be by 3^rd week of March and will put photos up in the website when done

3.The Future

A lot of us Alumni have been working hard to continue the Skyline Baseball greatness and keep it the shining star of Oakland HS baseball.

It takes a lot of work and yes some money.  We think the job Coach Marcel is doing is amazing, and with his hard work on and off the field, he is getting some great recruits to come play for Skyline. 

Your support will help us continue to maintain the field, update equipment, and uniforms.  Funding for Oakland HS baseball and sports in general is lacking and we are here to bridge the gap.   Here are two ways to donate

-via the donate button on our website www.skylinebaseballboosterclub.com...

And

-sending a check to Skyline Baseball Booster Club to

6615 Glen Oaks Way

Oakland, CA 94611

Thank you for your consideration and fyi, we are a 501c3 so all donations are tax deductible.

Alumni Watch

Bip Roberts, one of best baseballers ever to don a Titans uni(class of 1981), was at the game the other day versus Dougherty Valley HS where the Titans rolled to a 9-1 victory in their first official game of the 2025 season.

It was great catching up with Bip, who has recently retired from the NBC Bay Area Network after a 2 decade long stint as the pre and post game analyst for first the Giants and then later the A's.   Today, after so many years in and around the game of baseball, he is happily working hard on his passion projects all of which help communities around the USA . Besides keeping busy with these community minded projects, Bip is a man of strong Faith, a loving  Dad and Grandfather, and always ready and willing to give some free coaching advice.  Bip, by the way, was also the coach of the Skyline Titans in the mid teens(2000s) for a few years bringing some old school coaching experience to his players.  During his coaching tenure at Skyline, he also is known for having those nice sunken dugouts built at the Skyline Baseball field. 

Bip credits a lot of his baseball success to growing up in baseball-rich Oakland back in the 70s and 80s where there were so many good players and teams. One fact to share....Seafood Grotto, a 10-12 year old team that Bip played on, had 7 future professional baseball players.  Amazing and pretty much sums up how good Oakland baseball was back then.

Of course, when Bip arrived at Skyline in the Fall of 1978, he gave a lot of credit to the late Coach Joe Panella, who really helped mentor and coach Bip to a higher level where he played 3 years varsity as the starting SS.  After a successful High School career, Bip went on to Chabot college and later was drafted by the Pirates...eventually Bip made it to the Big Leagues by 1985 with the Padres where he went on to a very successful 12 year career in the Bigs.

Some of his amazing stats to share...in 1202 games over 12 seasons, Roberts posted a .294 batting average (1220-for-4147) with 663 runs, 203 doubles, 31 triples, 30 home runs, 352 RBI, 264 stolen bases, 396 bases on balls, .358 on-base percentage and .380 slugging percentage. He finished his career with a .976 fielding percentage. In 16 postseason games, he hit .246 (15-for-61) with 4 runs, 5 doubles, 5 RBI, 3 stolen bases and 5 walks.

A great run by Bip indeed...who repped not only the Titans so well, but also the City of Oakland.

Great seeing you Bip and keep on making the World a better place for all that you do!

Recently On The HILL!

Surprise surprise, who would have thought that the Titan players would get a visit from none other than potential Hall of Famer from Alameda, Jimmy Rollins.

The 17 year Major Leaguer with over 2000 games mostly at SS, Jimmy Rollins had some 2400+ hits and 234 home runs.

He is a long-time friend of Coach Marcel Johnson and it was great of him to come up to a practice and talk baseball, and show the kids some skills, especially at the middle infield positions.