THE TIMES 1991 ALL-COUNTY BASEBALL TEAM : Pines Keeps Santiago on the Winning Track : Coach of year: He guides Cavaliers to their first outright Garden Grove League baseball title since 1969.

By TOM HAMILTON

June 12, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

GARDEN GROVE — Myron Pines, who led Santiago High School to its first outright Garden Grove League championship in 22 years, is The Times Orange County baseball coach of the year.

Pines, in his sixth season, led Santiago to a 21-7 record with a team that included nine players from last year’s junior varsity squad. Santiago advanced to the second round of the Southern Section 3-A playoffs before losing to Saugus.

Last year, Pines culminated four years of rebuilding by guiding Santiago to the co-championship of the Garden Grove League with La Quinta.

“The baseball program was in pretty bad shape when I got here (in 1986), so we basically started all over,” Pines said. “All the equipment had been lost or stolen. We had no baseballs, catcher’s equipment, helmets or bases. I didn’t even have enough uniforms for a complete team.”

Pines coached at Pacifica High from 1979 to 1984 before moving to Golden West, where he was an assistant to Fred Hoover for one season. He credited team chemistry for turning around Santiago’s program.

“Getting the right kids in the program is so important,” he said. “It took a couple of years, but pretty soon you get a feel for which kids will stay with the program for four years.”

Santiago won last year’s league title without a standout player in its lineup. Every starter hit at least one home run, but no player had more than four.

“This year was very unexpected,” Pines said. “No one had a great year, but nearly every starter had a good year. It took a true team effort in every aspect to win the league.”

Pines attended Garden Grove High, Golden West College and Chapman. He was drafted by the Kansas City Royals and was a center fielder in their minor league system for 3 1/2 seasons.

For the past 14 years, Pines has been a scout for the Royals and New York Mets. He also began coaching a Seattle Mariners’ scout team in Arizona this week. He teaches mathematics at Santiago.

Santiago’s outright league title this year was its first since Bert Blyleven was a standout pitcher for the Cavaliers in 1969.