SCASD is proud to claim many prominent individuals as alumni of our schools, including Stan Belinda ’84 who pitched for 12 years in the Major League.
It takes a mentally tough individual to endure the rigors of playing professional sports, and that’s definitely a characteristic that Stan Belinda ’84 possesses. Born and raised in a rural part of the State College area, he pitched three seasons of varsity baseball at State High. He was also part of an intramural boxing league during that time.
He graduated from there in 1984 and went on to play baseball at Allegany Community College in Cumberland, Md. for the next two years where he won a National Championship there. After graduating from Allegany, Belinda signed a letter of intent to play baseball at Penn State, but two days later decided against it and signed a contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Belinda can remember the days of playing Wiffle ball in his backyard with his five other brothers. He developed a distinct competitive nature in those games that he says led him to the MLB. At the age of 23, Belinda played in his first Major League game with the Pirates on September 8, 1989.
He is notoriously known for throwing the last pitch in game 7 of the 1992 NL Championship series that allowed the winning run to the Atlanta Braves, which ultimately clinched the pennant for them. Despite his infamous blunder in that game, Belinda went on to pitch eight more seasons in the MLB, playing for the Kansas City Royals, the Boston Red Sox, the Cincinnati Reds, the Colorado Rockies, and the Atlanta Braves after he left the Pirates.
In 1998, he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Even though he sustained this disease, Belinda went on to pitch two more seasons with his last game being in September of 2000, which rounded out his 12-year career.
