Brad Merrill was a teammate of mine, on the 1981 and 1982 Phase Alloy Miner teams. Brad passed away last Wednesday at age of 76. His fastpitch career spanned 62 years. In 2005, he was inducted into the National Senior Softball Hall of Fame. I’ve heard from a number of our teammates from that team, including Carl Catlin, who passed along the news. and Steve Miner who shared their memories of Brad.
That ’82 Phase Alloy Miners team was my first ever trip to a National tournament, and Brad was the veteran leader on the club. Brad was a favorite among an ecclectic collection of talented ballplayers. He was immortalized in a poem written about that championship squad by another teammate, Dave Schneiders, for loving to call the squeeze play from the third base coaches’ box. (“Brad, with his one-touch squeezies….”.) He was the relief pitcher with a sideways rise ball that often defied gravity, and the sluggers of his day.
The photo above captures him to a T. To me, he was the affable, likeable reliever, never far on the bench from our skipper and resident comedian, Ted Jensen, always ready to take the ball when things went wrong, and always quick with a good word to whomever he was replacing. I was a youngster of 26 when I played on Brad’s team, and he was already 59, the senior statesman on the team. He enjoyed the company of the younger players, taking pride in the fact he was still competing. I can still hear Ted Jensen hollering encouragement to him….“C’mon Methusula…”..a term of endearment to be sure. And then he’d sneak that sideways rise ball by a right hander to get out of that inning, flashing that smile that you see above as he headed back to join his teammates in the dugout…
Brad’s obituary appeared here, in the North County Times newspaper, with a legacy guest book here for people who wish to leave a note.
A story paying tribute to Brad by Terry Monahan also appeared in the North County Times (San Diego) reprinted below:
Popular North County coach remembered fondly by former players
By TERRY MONAHAN – Staff Writer
If you played recreational softball in Escondido, you probably knew Brad Merrill during his 62-year playing career.
If you watched high school basketball in Escondido in the 1970s and into the ’80s, you knew about Merrill and his 1-3-1 zone defense with Orange Glen High’s boys team and later with San Pasqual’s girls team.
Merrill’s softball playing career, which included induction in 2005 into the National Senior Softball Hall of Fame in Plano, Texas, didn’t end until last fall. He was still coaching in a senior softball tournament in Peoria, Ariz., in late February, just weeks before he died of cancer Wednesday at the age of 76.
Merrill, who was married to his wife Liz for 53 years, coached boys basketball at Orange Glen for nine seasons and five seasons at San Marcos in addition to a short stint with a San Pasqual girls basketball team that reached the CIF San Diego Section 2A finals in 1987 before losing to La Jolla.
Russ Reilly, a point guard at Orange Glen (1978-80), remembered Merrill as an ultra-competitive person who taught his players the art of winning.
In the summer before Reilly’s senior year, the Patriots reached the playoffs in the old Pepsi Basketball League. They beat Madison, Morse and Helix to reach the finals against Kearny, then one of the county’s top programs.
Because teams were not allowed to wear school uniforms, the Patriots wore tank tops from the track team with board shorts for games. But for the finals, which was a warm-up game to the City-County All-Star game at Peterson Gym, teams could wear their school uniforms.
Reilly and Sean Salisbury, then a junior, picked up the uniforms at school, but Merrill wouldn’t let his team wear them. He told them to wear the track jerseys and board shorts.
“He said we were on a run in the other things, so we had to finish with them,” Reilly said Friday. “Kearny was out on the court styling with their cool uniforms and we were in our mismatched board shorts and track jerseys.
“Merrill told us we were on a run, and you can’t break a run.”
Orange Glen went on to win the championship.
Ten years after graduation, Reilly crossed paths with Merrill again, this time on the softball field in a fast-pitch game. Merrill was pitching, and quickly got ahead of Reilly with two strikes before throwing a changeup that Reilly blooped down the right-field line for a double.
“He was destroying us and talking trash,” Reilly said. “After the game the first thing he said was, ‘How could I throw a lame hitter like you a changeup?’
“That’s why I loved playing for the man.”
Salisbury, who played football at USC and later in the NFL, remembered Merrill’s competitive nature as being legendary and how it became infectious.
“If you didn’t pick up his competitiveness, you got left behind,” Salisbury said. “We weren’t a big X’s and O’s team. He taught us how to compete with what we had.
“This loss is a very sad day for me. I’m devastated by this loss.”
Lori Becker played for Merrill at Orange Glen, coached with him at San Pasqual and he later helped her with the girls basketball team at Escondido.
“This is a huge loss,” said Becker, the girls volleyball coach at Escondido. “It has left a void in my life.
“The last time I saw him Brad remembered a play he called for me to win the league title at OG. I think it was the old picket fence, but he remembered it in detail.
“That 1-3-1 defense of his stopped so many teams we had no business beating. I know I could never coach basketball again without Brad around to help me with the defense.”
An open-house celebration will be held by Merrill’s family from 1-4 p.m. on March 28 at the Mission Hills Church in San Marcos, 400 Mission Hills Court.
Contact staff writer Terry Monahan at (760) 739-6648 or tmonahan@nctimes.com.
