Greg Hansen : Baseball coach has his cake; with 500th win, he can eat it, too

On a Tuesday afternoon drive through Oro Valley and Catalina, the temperature dropped a degree every four or five miles on the climb toward San Manuel. At Oracle, I turned off the air conditioner and rolled down the windows.

It would be a good day for a baseball game, especially one of historic connotations.

By the time I arrived at the high school baseball field it was 85, with a breeze. I found a piece of shade and hoped to watch Donnie Payne, Hall of Fame coach of the San Manuel Miners, hit infield practice.

Instead, I heard the umpire bellow, "play ball." Three people occupied the bleachers behind home plate.

If this was to be a special occasion — it was the afternoon Payne could win the 500th game of his distinguished career — you would not have known. "I didn't want to call any attention to myself," he would say two hours later.

And so on a special day in San Manuel, 20 minutes before the scheduled first pitch, with three fans in the house, Payne walked to the dugout without fanfare of any sort.

"He always gets the games started early," said San Manuel principal John Ryan, who had quietly ordered a celebratory cake for the occasion. "Maybe it comes from all those long bus trips; if you get started earlier, you get home sooner."

Since Donnie Payne earned his first victory as San Manuel's coach on March 2, 1981, an 8-5 victory over Nogales, he has taken his baseball team to every conceivable corner of this state. To Baboquivari. To San Carlos. To Yuma. To Tuba City. His teams have beaten Many Farms and Antelope, as well as Salpointe Catholic and CDO.

"I was figuring that all of the bus rides and van trips that I've driven have taken up about six months of my life," he said with a chuckle. "It's about two times around the world."

So much for those who say Donnie Payne, son of a miner, San Manuel Class of '63, has spent all of his life in the San Pedro River Valley.

By the fourth inning of Tuesday's game, the visiting San Carlos Braves were rallying. San Manuel led 3-2, but it started to look like the cake Ryan ordered might grow stale. Someone told the principal that Wednesday was national Secretary's Day; if the Miners lost, the cake could be used for secretaries.

"We're eating the cake today," Ryan said with a tone of finality.

An inning later, after dozens of SUVs and pickups and family automobiles had lined the bluff above the left field foul line and parked in a ring around the outfield — many of them tailgating at an April baseball game with umbrellas raised and blankets on the ground — Mark Webber ripped a triple to right-center.

As Webber rounded the bases, he was accompanied by a cacophony of horns-a-honking. The Miners would win 10-2. The cake would be eaten. Coach Payne would be doused by a large cooler of water, record career win No. 500 and, while holding a microphone at home plate, modestly say, "in all seriousness, I didn't win any ballgames. The players won all of them."

Payne's teams won state championships in 1985 and 1992. At one period, in the early '90s, they won 46 consecutive games. Those accomplishments earned him induction into the Arizona Coaches Hall of Fame.

In between, Payne sang in the choir, drove a church bus, became an EMT at the local fire department, coached defense for the football team, manicured the baseball field, bought a Harley motorcycle, was a member of the town library board and became everybody's friend.

"All the kids want to be in his class," said Al Trejo Jr., the school's assistant principal. "Everybody likes him."

Here's how much they like him: They come back to help him. Payne's coaching staff includes three of the legendary players, Mike Sloan, Trent Brown and Travis Barney, from a tradition-rich school that won state championships in 1963, 1972, 1985 and 1992.

"He's one of the best mentors a guy could ever have," says Sloan. "He coached me on the JV team in the '70s. I'm still learning from him."

After the cake was eaten and the crowd dispersed, Payne said that he's uncertain how long he'll continue to coach. He's 63, and the former shortstop at NAU and Cochise College said he's not driven by a victory total but by the classroom.

"I'm a teacher first, and when teaching's no longer fun, I'll fire myself," he said. "The baseball numbers, they aren't about me. They're about longevity."

Payne is partly correct about the longevity thing. On Tuesday, Ryan announced that the coach's jersey, No. 24, will be retired the same day Payne does.

It was a perfect day for baseball after all.