Just before a recent move, 52-year-old former Major League relief pitcher Scott Radinsky was going through some junk in his garage. He found an old suitcase full of fan letters.

"It was such a flashback of these kids that would reach out and write from Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, or somewhere in Toms River, New Jersey, places I wasn't even aware existed," Scott says. "And it was a lot of fun."

But these letters weren’t from baseball fans. They were from music fans, and they were written over three and a half decades ago, when Radinsky was the frontman of a hardcore punk band.

Cal Punk

In 1982, punk rock was booming in California. Bands like The Dead Kennedys were making national headlines.

Scott Radinsky and his junior high friends from Oxnard, in Southern California, were captivated.

"We started going to the record store, and it was like any time you heard another band being mentioned, you'd go check it out," Scott says. "Or some of the older kids might say, 'Hey, there's a show going on at Florentine Gardens, the Dead Kennedys and T.S.O.L.' "

Scott and his friends were also influenced by so-called "straight edge" hardcore bands from the East Coast, which, along with some of their followers, avoided drugs, alcohol and tobacco. Scott and his friends started their own band.

"You know, we were all skateboarders growing up in suburbia," Scott says. "The group came together, we developed pretty quick. Imagine 14-year-old kids, 15-year-old kids, just learning how to play instruments, full of energy."

Scott and his bandmates called themselves "Scared Straight." They put together shows wherever they could.

"You know, vets halls and legion halls and little bars, and there was a place out by an airport, like a little hut," Scott says. "And it was a lot of do-it-yourself parties and gigs. And this pretty tight group of, you know, maybe 100, 150 kids."

The hardcore punk scene they helped create in Oxnard was dubbed "Nardcore." In 1984, with Scott on lead vocals, Scared Straight was featured on a compilation LP.

"This is a 14-year-old kid screaming at you!" Scott says. "And, once that record came out, it kind of went a little more national. It made you feel a little worthy."

But noise was a problem.

"You know, we would rehearse in our garage at my house, and the neighbors would get super mad. And at times they would call the police," Scott says. "And my dad actually built this extension off my bedroom. We had, like, a soundproof little ... 10' by 10' room. It was pretty cool."

Scott’s dad was a big part of his life. He’d drive the band and all their gear to shows in the family station wagon. He also coached some of the baseball teams Scott and his brother played on.

(Courtesy Scott Radinsky)

Scott made his high school baseball team as a second string first baseman. But Scott asked his coach if he could try pitching. In the final game of his sophomore season, Scott got his chance. He threw a complete 7-inning game, and his team won.

"This is something I wanna do," Scott remembers thinking. "This is pretty cool. I’m gonna be a pitcher. "

Scott went on to become his team’s ace.

I ask him if he ever got crap from the punk rock crowd for being a serious ballplayer.

"Oh, yeah," he says. "Gosh, I always would do my best to try to keep the music and the baseball separated. I didn't like speaking about music to the baseball people, nor did I like speaking about baseball to the music people. I don't think either side really got it."

But that same year, his dad was diagnosed with cancer. The prognosis was not good. Scott started skipping his last class to drive his dad to the doctor and, later, to visit him at the hospice.

"To have my dad throughout my whole life, being active and a part of my life, to see that and witness, over the course of probably a solid year and a half, watch him just kind of go downhill was just ... it was brutal," Scott says.

Scott’s dad died his senior year. But Scott was determined to do all the things his dad had supported. He kept singing with the band and playing baseball.