It’s one thing to be a baseball player, coach or scout, but quite something extraordinary to write a book.
Daniel Amaral’s “Steal a Base, Change the Game” digs deep inside the art of base stealing. It is written for the advanced baseball player, but it is a fascinating read for anyone interested in learning more about the intricacies of the game, insights of the stolen base, technical details, helpful drills and a peek into the mind of a professional base stealer. It is available on Amazon.
“Daniel came out and helped my team learn the shuffle steal and during that fall season (in 2024), which was 10 games and six intrasquads, we stole 81 bases,” Orange Coast College Coach Nate Johnson said.
The author is the son of former major leaguer Rich Amaral, an OCC and Estancia High product, and younger brother of Beau Amaral, the baseball coach at Pacific Christian High School in Newport Beach after a 12-year professional career. All three played at UCLA before their pro careers.
Daniel Amaral, a veteran minor leaguer in the Colorado Rockies and Pittsburgh Pirates organizations and entering his eighth year as a professional baseball player this year in Mexico, has penned an entertaining instructional book exploring the nuances that are often unnoticed or overlooked to the untrained eye in pitching, catching, hitting and base stealing. The antidotes, accounts from Major League Baseball and uncovered secrets to stealing bases at the highest level provide a rare glimpse into one of the game’s most exciting and interesting plays.
The family shares a profound passion for the game and a relentless pursuit of stealing bases and gaining the upper hand on the field.
Daniel Amaral was drafted in the 14th round by the Pirates out of UCLA – he played in the Bruins’ alumni game Feb. 1 and was able to tell friends, ex-teammates and coaches about his new book. Known for his speed and base-stealing abilities, Amaral set three team records in the minor leagues, one league record and led the league in stolen bases three times, amassing 279 steals in his American pro career.
Rich Amaral played 18 years of professional baseball, including 10 in the majors, eight with the Seattle Mariners and two with the Baltimore Orioles. Amaral played a key role in the Mariners’ momentous 1995 comeback, which saved baseball in Seattle, according to M’s Manager Lou Piniella.
Seattle trailed by 13 games in the American League West standings in August, while the Mariners’ future Hall of Famer, Ken Griffey Jr., was sidelined with an injury. But the Mariners rallied late in the season and erased the improbable deficit to force a one-game playoff against the Angels, which the Mariners won to advance to the American League Division Series against the New York Yankees.
In the postseason for the first time, they stunned the heavily favored Yankees in the playoffs, and the well-documented season led to the building of a new ballpark, Safeco Field, after reports earlier in the year of the team moving out of Seattle.
“It’s crazy that it’s been 30 years,” Rich Amaral said last week. “We might have a reunion for that anniversary team. They’re trying to get everyone together.
“The crazy part of that season is that it was borderline like a dream, but really another part can be as real as it can be,” he said. “It was amazing with the momentum we gained in August and September, and the fact that Griffey got hurt and we still did it. It’s a really cool story. (The MLB Network) did a really good job on the show (‘The 1995 Mariners, Saving Baseball in Seattle’).”
At age 31 in 1993, Amaral became the oldest rookie to crack the majors, when he beat out Bret Boone for the Mariners’ starting job at second base.
As a speedy leadoff hitter, Amaral was the first batter in the history of Jacobs Field in Cleveland in 1994. Dennis Martinez was the pitcher for the Indians and Sandy Alomar Jr. was the catcher. After the first pitch, the ball was quickly tossed away for keepsake purposes.
“The first pitch was a foot outside, but they called it a strike,” Amaral said. “I followed the ball all the way into Alomar’s glove. He caught it, then quickly underhanded it back to the dugout.”
Amaral, now a scout for the Baltimore Orioles, stole 112 bases in his major league career. What are his thoughts on the “shuffle steal” in his son’s book?
“I wish I knew this when I played,” he said.
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