College Baseball:

By Brian Reed-Baiotto

One of the San Gabriel Valley’s all-time great coaches and leaders died today.

Former Azusa Pacific University graduate and baseball coach, Tony Barbone, was 71.

Barbone was surrounded by his family, including his wife Beth, and daughters, Jennifer and Ashley.

On Sunday, dozens of his former players and coaches spent most of the day with a man they loved and learned so much from at his Glendora home.

‘Bones,’ as he was affectionately called, battled a number of medical maladies, including having his left kidney removed to eradicate cancer from his body.

In early 2021, for a story I put together on his career, Barbone talked about a recent diagnosis in which a tumor, the size of a quarter, resided on his brain stem.

And because of the location, they couldn’t touch it.

Back then, he was told that he had years to live, but not a decade.

He was determined to keep fighting and working.

Bones got treatments at City of Hope, all the while serving as the Director of Athletics at Pasadena City College.

Barbone was a man of great faith.

But even with his certainty that his next destination would be an eternal spot in God’s Kingdom, Tony voiced to this reporter how much he’d miss his wife, daughters and especially his beloved grandchildren.

He loved being a grandpa, because he didn’t have to be Tony the disciplinarian.

Barbone lived for attending their ball games, family gatherings or any event that afforded him the opportunity to be with his grandkids.

And he didn’t hesitate to acknowledge that he spoiled them from time to time.

He said with a smile and with an easy to recognize audible joy in his voice that being a grandpa allows one to deal with the good, and not the challenges of having to keep children in line, and all of the accumulated drama (good & bad) that comes with a parent’s 24/7/365 responsibility.

In 16 years at APU, Barbone went 516-261 overall, and 250-98 in GSAC play.

When he retired in 2002, he was the winningest coach in program history.

Barbone had a .664 winning percentage at Azusa Pacific, and they claimed eight GSAC titles.

The Cougars finished second five times.

Barbone also went on to win 109 games at Concordia over a four-year stretch in Irvine.

His tree of former players that went on to coach is incredible.

It includes Ruben Niebla (SD Padres pitching coach), Pat McGee (Pasadena City College), Scott Winterburn (University of La Verne), Mike Regan (San Dimas High), Mike Salazar (Rio Hondo College), John Knott (Mt. SAC), Chris Stevens (Hancock College), Steve Allyn (PCC assistant coach) and George Barnes (APU pitching coach).

His ‘99’ mantra is probably the most used slogan by his former players and coaches that went on to lead their own programs.

It means to play the ninth inning nine times, which was Barbone’s way of saying that each of the first eight innings are just as important as the ninth and final frame.

As well respected as he was, Barbone himself would say not to sugarcoat his story.

TB, as I would call him in texts and phone calls, could rub people the wrong way from time to time.

However, if you asked those that Tony shared heated moments with, they would almost always recognize that it was tough love, and that Barbone had their best interest in mind.

Daniel Robertson, who played for Barbone at Corcordia, went on to play in MLB for the Rangers, Angels, Mariners and Indians.

Robertson proudly recounted being part of Concordia’s first GSAC championship team.

Robertson said Barbone’s “99 is who I am. I learned from the best.”

He’s currently the Triple-A bench coach and base running coordinator for the Guardians.

Robertson said that he and Coach Barbone Face Timed just last night before he went to sleep.

“That was the last time we shared a moment. He was a great friend, and I’m grateful that I had him in my life for as long as I did. It’s amazing to see how many former friends came to see him. He wasn’t going to leave until he got to be with them.”

At today’s Padres’ game, Ruben Niebla paid tribute to Barbone through the San Diego announcers.

As he mentioned in a 2021 story on this site, Barbone’s true happiness began in 1980, when he met his beautiful, intelligent and independent wife-to-be.

Tony and Beth went to an LA Dodgers game on their first date, and they hit it off immediately.

A couple weeks had gone by since the first date, and Beth called Tony, and invited him to an Angels game.

In more than five hours of conversation for that story, I can still remember the way he described the second date with Beth.

“The tickets weren’t good, but the company I kept was the best.”

Tony and Beth would have celebrated 41 years together this coming July.

While 71 is far too young, Bones can rest comfortably knowing that he made an impact that men or women in their 90’s would dream of having.

And this impressive photo (just below) of talent that gathered around their leader on Sunday speaks volumes.

May God bless Tony Barbone, and the family and friends he loved so deeply.