Marty Valdez trotted over to the mound to throw out the first pitch of Cal State East Bay’s last baseball home game of the 2014 season.

Gathering himself atop of the hill, Valdez began his pitching motion: a short wind up, a quick glance to home plate and a follow through that shifted his body weight toward the bag. The pitch dipped slightly to the left, meeting the glove of the Pioneer catcher.

“It came on the one-hop, a bit wide, but I’m happy it got there,” Valdez said.

With a tip of a cap and a wave to the crowd, Valdez had thrown his last first pitch ever as Sports Information Director with the East Bay Athletic Department. Valdez, an employee with the Pioneers since 1977, will be retiring at the end of the school year after 33 years as an employee.

The opportunity to become the Sports Information Director for the athletic department fell in the lap of Valdez as a student reporter for the Pioneer Newspaper in 1977. In his final year as an undergraduate student, Valdez was assigned to cover the baseball team during the 1977 regional tournament.

“We went to Riverside and we beat Cal Poly when they had future baseball hall of famer Ozzie Smith and I covered it and wrote a story for the Pioneer,” Valdez said. “At the same time, the men’s track and field team had won their regional championship as well. So I am looking at this sports thing thinking, ‘Man, we’ve got some really good sports teams around here.’”

At the conclusion of the 1977 baseball season, Head Coach Doug Weiss approached Valdez about a potential job opening in the athletic department.

“Doug goes, ‘I think there is going to be an opening next year in the department. You can come in as a temp worker, but you can work as a sport information director,’” Valdez said. “So I applied, went for an interview, and got the job.”

At the time, the athletic department consisted of 20 sports teams, five more than the department has currently. Valdez loved football, baseball and basketball, but had little experience with any of the other sports.

“As far as hands-on, I wasn’t really up on these sports,” Valdez said. “In the first few years in the office, I was able to learn water polo, soccer, and track. It was a learning experience for me.”

Valdez became a staple in East Bay Athletics, attending every home athletic contest, which would normally add up to 60 hours a week.

Nailing down a favorite game during his tenure wasn’t easy, but Valdez ultimately chose a moment on the hardwood that he says he will never forget.

“My favorite game here at East Bay was in 1986 when the men’s basketball team won the West Regionals before 3600 people at Pioneer Gym. That was a tremendous moment,” Valdez said. “The gym was packed with fans dressed in all red. We had to turn away people because so many people were at the game.

“That was the most memorable moment when Jim Maran was standing on the rim, putting his arms up in the air and everybody going crazy. We had won the West and we were going to the final eight.”

Whether it was the victory on the hardwood in 1986 or the 13-match undefeated streak for the men’s soccer team in 1988, Valdez was there, compiling information on the games unfolding right before him.

His commitment to the department, however, has never gone unnoticed, evident by a simple question asked frequently amongst alumni: ‘Where’s Marty?’

“I happened to be at a doctor’s appointment and one of the nurses asked me what I was doing after,” Nancy Oporto, the office manager for the athletic department said. “I would later find out that she used to play basketball for the women’s basketball team at Cal State East Bay.

“When I told her that I was going back to work at Cal State, the first thing she asked me was if Marty was still there. Marty has been here for 33 years now and he had always been at the games for these athletes and they always remembered Marty.”

Valdez will get the opportunity to see these alumni at the Hall of Fame banquet May 18. But rather than seeing them in a familiar setting of his office or the university’s athletic venues, Valdez will rekindle memories at his farewell ceremony, something he still can’t believe is just around the corner.

“This was never a nine to five job to me,” Valdez said. “I always took my work home with me and after this month, I won’t be able to do that anymore.

“At the Hall of Fame banquet, I will be joining a lot of past athletes, coaches and faculty members as a retired member of the East Bay sports, which will be a little weird for me.”

Valdez insists that he will still be around the university for games, already looking forward to the upcoming 2014 fall season. He’ll be coming back to watch the student athletes, coaches and department faculty, all of whom he claims are a part of a greater team here at the university.

“That’s what I’ve always liked about working here is that we have always been a team,” Valdez said. “The athletes, the coaches, the department, we have always been a team throughout the years and it’s all about that Pioneer pride. I’m going to miss that.

“I’ve created some life-long relationships with these people and will always consider myself a lifelong Pioneer.”