Gonzaga Athletic Hall of Fame
“Of all the second basemen I have ever seen, he leads in making plays I never saw made before,” is how one veteran baseball observer described Lenn Sakata in action. “Fiercely competitive,” is the way one of his coaches saw him. Intense desire and his fine fielding carried Sakata through two successful seasons here, a relatively brief professional apprenticeship in the minors and a major league career that spanned 11 seasons, most of them with the Baltimore Orioles, including the 1983 club that won the World Series. In just his second pro season, Sakata played with Spokane in the Class AAA Pacific Coast League where he hit a solid .280 and drove in 70 runs. Sakata came to Gonzaga by way of Kalani High School in Honolulu and Oregon’s Treasure Valley College. Not imposing at 5’9” and 160 pounds, he won fans with his glove and convinced opposing pitchers with his bat: Lenn led the 1974 team in hits, home runs and runs batted in.
