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There’s nothing better than the magic of major league baseball.
Or is there? Spiro Psaltis lives for the love of sport.
There’s nothing better than the magic of major league baseball. Or is there? Spiro Psaltis lives the answer.
AU Brother Spiro Psaltis is relentless. Throughout his life, he has never let big obstacles stop him from enjoying the love of sport.
When in the mid-1970’s he broke his ankle three times in high school and had to quit basketball, instead he became the basketball public address announcer.
With basketball no longer possible, Spiro (AU 1981) pivoted to baseball and played for the Trojans starting as a 1978 walk-on and concluding with a team national championship and the best team record in USC history.
When he played minor league professional baseball for five seasons but could not elevate to play in major league games, he went back to his Glendale High School to coach baseball.
When he retired from high school baseball coaching, he kept participating as the public address announcer.
When he wanted more, he became a team advisor, alumni coordinator, private instructor, Director of the U.S. Baseball Academy, and multi-term president of the YMCA President’s Club.
“Still to this day,” Spiro says, “I am deep into it, and one benefit is I get to be up close and personal with players, families and supporters in a very special way.”
Even further, he kept agreeing to do public address announcing at other schools for high school football, basketball and baseball and added Glendale College and state championship games to his duties.
You might’ve guessed by now that Spiro Psaltis loves amateur sports.
“I have come to enjoy baseball at these levels because it is something that has become a part of me,” Spiro says.
So, it’s supremely fitting that the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Association is about to honor him with their President's Award.
Sure, he wishes he could have experienced life at the major league level – whether as a player, a coach or a broadcaster. But he found what might have ended up being a better life in high school and community college athletics where it’s the love of the game that drives everything. Not money. Not egos. Not careers. Just sports.
“Not that I didn't want to move upwards (and there is still time),” he jokes, sort of. “But it has become a nice convenience and reward at these levels.”
Spiro has kept close with his Alpha Upsilon chapter mates and is involved with the Four Pillars Capital Campaign building a new chapter house at USC. Sigma Chi runs deep in his family. His brother Arthur is also a USC Sig and Arthur’s son Nicholas is a Sig from Arizona State and a 2014 chapter Balfour Award recipient. His sister’s son Robbie is a USC Sig. His late father was a Sigma Nu who played for the only USC basketball team to ever reach the Final Four. Importantly, his father stayed on at USC as an assistant coach and made Spiro a ball boy. That seemed to start his lifelong love of sports.
Sigma Chi brother Sprio Psaltis is a legendary Public Address Announcer in and around Glendale. He builds a personal relationship with fans in the stands because he's the voice of the game.
Spiro was drafter into Major League Baseball and played several seasons with minor league clubs like the Midland Angels before returning to Glendale and continuing with his love for sport.
Spiro came to USC in 1977 where he pledged Sigma Chi and was initiated into Alpha Upsilon and starred as a left-handed pitcher for USC baseball. He was drafted in 1984 by the California Angels and was assigned to play AA ball in Midland, Texas. Single-A ball in Peoria, Illinois followed. He was scheduled to elevate to AAA “but at the last minute, the major league club stopped the movement when they acquire a left-handed pitcher from another team.” Spiro asked to be let out of his contract to seek another team. There were no takers. As Spiro has done so well, he pivoted back to where his love was embedded: Glendale High School, to coach. The Angels even hunted him down later to offer him a minor league coaching job, which he declined. “So, as it works out, I stayed with Glendale High and have been there ever since.”
Spiro’s love of the game did not stop after he retired as Glendale High School baseball coach. “I stay on today, as new coaches come and go, as an advisor, assistant coach and liaison in hopes we can bring the program back to where it can be. “
In the busy years since, it’s hard to imagine how Spiro could have found time to get married, start a beautiful family and succeed in a career in construction management. But remember, this is the guy who always finds a way to win.
“There are three obligations that a baseball player has. One is to learn the game. Then love the game. And then to pass it on to others. I am experiencing all that now.”
