Remembering Del Bandy: Beloved Cosumnes River College softball coach dies
Del Bandy was so into his job, his role and his school that he giddily purchased a truck with a hint of Cosumnes River College colors.
Maybe more than a hint, actually. Bandy cherished his bright-orange 1972 Chevy pickup, which made him easy to spot in the tule fog, and certainly on campus.
“Dad chose that truck on purpose because CRC’s colors are blue and orange,” Bandy’s son, Mark Bandy said. “He’d drop us off at school, and we were a little embarrassed by this truck. ‘Park a littler farther away, Dad!’”
That was among the many stories Mark Bandy shared about his father, who died last month from natural causes. He was 92. He was a man of many hats and one reliable old truck in his CRC stint, assuming command as athletic director when the school opened its doors in 1970s on a south Sacramento campus that was surrounded by open fields littered with jackrabbits.
Bandy’s tireless ambition and cool people skills allowed him to hire coaches to take on a new-school project in the Los Rios Community College District in a time when people asked, “What’s the name of the school and where is it?” A baseball man since his youth, Bandy spent his final 10 years at CRC coaching softball, retiring from education and coaching following the 1990 season. Bandy’s CRC softball teams went 254-70 overall and 150-33 in league play, with six conference championships and nine playoff teams. He is a member of a multiple halls of fame, including CRC’s hall.
“He’d never coached softball but he was willing to try it,” Mark Bandy said. “Dad took over on the heels of Title IX, a brand-new concept. He didn’t know anything about softball so he went to clinics, talked to people. He learned. He knew how to relate to players and he knew how to coach. He wasn’t a touchy-feely person and wasn’t super emotional but he made his players feel as if he cared for them.”
Bandy’s good touch impacted Larry Bowa, who was cut from the McClatchy High School baseball team and somehow carved out a 15-year major league career, earning five All-Star nods, and later managed the San Diego Padres and Philadelphia Phillies.
How? Bandy bridged that gap because he believed in the fireplug. Bandy was the head baseball coach at Sacramento City College in the 1960s when he invited Bowa to try out for the Panthers. He settled in, became a star and never looked back. Bowa once told The Bee, “If it wasn’t for Del Bandy, I wouldn’t be in baseball. Del Bandy gave me the encouragement I needed and a lot of valuable advice about playing in pro ball.”
Bandy attended Folsom High School and was a star pitcher at Sacramento State in the early 1950s. He once beat Stanford twice in a doubleheader. Bandy signed with the Sacramento Solons in 1953 and pitched for two seasons in their Class-C Pioneer farm team in Idaho Falls.
Bandy coached McClatchy High baseball from 1955 to 1960 and at Sac City from 1962 to 1970, where his final three teams won conference championships, and two of them reached the state finals. Eventual MLB players Bandy coached at Sac City included Bowa, pitcher Ken Forsch and catcher Buck Martinez.
Bandy was the first baseball coach at CRC and remained a fixture at games well after his retirement. From their father, Mark Bandy and sisters Lisa Linehan and Lynn Smith learned about work ethic and overcoming odds.
“Dad made an amazing life for himself,” said Mark Bandy, an English teacher at Franklin High in Elk Grove. “He came from almost nothing. He was poor but he didn’t know it, growing up in the Depression era. His brother, George, was his idol. He died at 56 in a boating accident. That weighed on Dad the rest of his life.
“Dad always focused on getting the job done and doing it the right way. He never complained. That’s how he spent his life. His father wanted Dad to get in the well-drilling business. He wanted to get into education, to do what we wanted, and he instilled that in us three kids, and all three of us have professionalism in what we do, which is indicative of Dad.”
Guy Anderson knew Bandy for nearly 40 years. The one-time Cordova High baseball coach said class best defines his old friend.
“Absolutely,” Anderson said. “I saw Del in a baseball or softball uniform coaching, and he generated that sense of professionalism. He was a gentleman and a half.”
About that old orange truck?
“That’s the kind of guy Del Bandy was!” Anderson said with a laugh. “That’s what a coach is all about. You buy into the school, the school colors. It’s more than just a job.”
Bandy’s service will be Oct. 22 at the CRC softball field from 2 to 5 p.m.
“That’s the perfect place to hold it, of all places,” Mark Bandy said. “Dad was so fond of CRC. He was their biggest fan.”