Anderson’s Johnny Greene now pitches for Shasta College

Photo by Paul Robeson

SHASTA COLLEGE 2008: John Greene puts the ball into play during the Cosumnes River College game March 18, 2008. Shasta College won 4-3.

Photo by Paul Robeson

ANDERSON CUB 2007: Johnny Green misses a ball during the Anderson-Central Valley game on March 27, 2007. The Anderson Cubs won that game10-3.

A year can seem like an eternity or it can go by with the blink of an eye – or the crack of a baseball bat.

Last year, when the Anderson High School Cub Johnny Greene, with a number 7 on his uniform, got to bat or was on base, you could here his teammates yelling, “Go Johnny Greene, go” – to the tune of Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode.”

This year, at Shasta College, when John Greene gets on the mound, with a number 26 on his uniform, his teammates yell, “Go John Greene, go.” It doesn’t have the same beat but it is still a term of endearment.

The quiet and polite Green said it doesn’t matter if they call him ‘Johnny’ or ‘John’ because if they are calling him - he knows he is playing baseball – a sport he enjoys.

“Everyone started calling him ‘Johnny’ to differentiate between him and me,” said his dad John Greene.

The senior Greene helps with the Anderson Junior Varsity baseball coaching duties and is known around the West Valley High School campus as their school’s recourse officer as a Deputy Sheriff with the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office.

Johnny Greene loves playing baseball and wants to continue at Shasta College and then perhaps go on to a four-year school where he could continue to play baseball. He said that, in college, baseball is “a year round sport” and he has been practicing every day since last August – just a few months after his graduation from Anderson High School.

He has not chosen a course of study, but he dose like the scientific areas and, of course, has not ruled out a career in law enforcement like his father.