SALINAS – Richard Douglas Aldrete, a man who was once a San Francisco Giants minor league player turned revered youth softball coach, was taken into custody on Wednesday after being sentenced to two years in the California Department of Corrections and ordered to register as a sex offender for engaging in sex acts with a minor.
Aldrete
Aldrete, 58 of Monterey, ran a private coaching business where he met Jane Doe when she was 14 years old and he began coaching her in softball, according to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office. He continued as her coach for several years and when she was 17, he began making sexual advances toward her and offering her drugs and alchohol. After a time of resisting his pressure, Doe did give in to his requests.
Judge Stephanie Hulsey noted that Aldrete had established a position as a mentor and role model in the community for young softball players during her sentencing of Aldrete, and that he used his position to have sex with Doe when she was 17 and he was a married man in his 50s.
Judge Hulsey imposed the requirement that Aldrete register as a sex offender due to his violation of the trust of his students and their parents.
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Aldrete is a Monterey High School graduate who excelled in football and baseball. He went on to play baseball at Cal – UC Berkeley – and was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in 1987 in round 31 of the amateur draft, spending nearly a decade in the minor leagues. He was a replacement player during the 1995 Major League Baseball strike though he never played an official MLB game. Aldrete played independent minor league baseball for the Salinas Spurs in the 1990s before becoming a hitting coach for boys and girls. In 2010 he became CSU Monterey Bay’s first baseball coach when it transitioned to Division II. Aldrete later became an assistant coach at Santa Catalina School. His brother Mike Aldrete is a first-base coach for the Oakland A’s.
The case was investigated by officers Austin Scaggs and Anthony Avila of the Salinas Police Department, as well as District Attorney Investigator Pablo Andrade. Jane Doe was assisted by Victim Advocate Kristen Peterson.
Sports Writer John Devine contributed to this story.
