DAN MacMILLAN

Richard Dunn

If you met Dan MacMillan on the street, you probably wouldn’t

think of him as a former basketball and baseball star, but the

5-foot-7 Corona del Mar High product once pitched a perfect game and

played on a CIF Southern Section Division IV-AA championship hoops

team for the Sea Kings.

MacMillan, whose tenacity in basketball earned him the right to

guard the opposition’s best player during CdM’s 1992-93 championship

campaign, was the type of player who didn’t mind taking a charge for

the team and would rather chalk up a steal on defense than score on

offense.

“When you play basketball, the best teams you see out there, from

elementary school to the NBA, are teams with players who will play a

role, and the year we won it, I played a role,” said MacMillan, a

junior that season under former CdM Coach Paul Orris. “I wasn’t on

the floor to score. We had Chris Quinn and Todd Merriman to score.”

MacMillan, a two-sport All-Newport-Mesa District selection as a

member of the Daily Pilot’s Dream Team, was asked to score more his

senior year, so he averaged 8.9 points per game, while dishing

assists and playing ferocious defense on Orris’ 1993-94 squad that

reached the CIF IV-AA semifinals with Ramin Bastani as the team’s

celebrated swingman. MacMillan also earned second-team All-Sea View

League honors.

In baseball, MacMillan made his biggest strides. A four-year

varsity letterman, mostly under Coach Scott Magers, MacMillan hurled

what is believed to be the only perfect game in CdM history on March

10, 1994, against Foothill in the consolation semifinals of the

Newport Elks Tournament.

MacMillan, coming out late from basketball, opened the ’94 season

with five sparkling innings in his debut on the road against Mater

Dei with several college and pro scouts on hand to look at various

Monarchs. By day’s end, many walked away scratching their heads,

wondering how this non-imposing 5-7 right-hander (though athletic)

could baffle the mighty Monarchs.

Among the colleges witnessing MacMillan’s moving fastball and

well-spotted pitches was the University of Miami, which called a

couple of weeks later to see how MacMillan was progressing. An

assistant coach phoned the night of March 10, 1994.

“I told him I threw a perfect game,” MacMillan said. “(The timing)

was kind of lucky for me.”

MacMillan, a four-time all-league selection, finished his senior

year 7-3 with a 2.33 earned-run average and three saves. He struck

out 75 in 57 innings, while walking only 15. In his prep career,

MacMillan was 19-6.

After accepting a partial scholarship to Miami, MacMillan realized

in one semester the then-top-ranked Hurricanes were stacked with

talent beyond anything he’d seen and it would be at least a few years

before MacMillan saw any real playing time.

MacMillan transferred to UC Santa Barbara, and, with an education

in his sight, ended up hanging up the spikes. MacMillan, the son of a

distinguished college professor and author, loved school, but didn’t

love getting on a bus on Wednesday and coming back late Sunday night.

After transferring and taking smaller class loads because of

baseball, MacMillan was still able to graduate in four years with a

business economics degree and a minor in sports management.

MacMillan, 26, took advantage of an opportunity when he met John

Houten, his current boss at California National Bank in Newport

Beach, where MacMillan is an assistant vice president.

MacMillan plays basketball and softball regularly, but his wife

insists he should save his legs for future kids they’re planning.

“I can’t wait to have kids,” said MacMillan, who married the

former Brandi Comella, a nationally ranked gymnast in her day, in

February 2001. “We’re planning to have kids in the next year or two.

I really can’t wait. I grew up baby sitting and having kids around.”

MacMillan, the latest honoree in the Daily Pilot Sports Hall of

Fame, lives in Tustin Ranch with his wife.

They’re planning to move into a new home in Irvine this summer.