Mark Dewey was a hard-throwing baseball pitcher who excelled at Jenison High and Grand Valley State University and ended up having a six-year career in the Major Leagues primarily as a relief pitcher with the San Francisco Giants, Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Mets.
Through 2019 he was still involved in baseball working as a pitching coach for the Milwaukee Brewer’s organization.
He had the attention of major league scouts while he played at Grand Valley from 1984-87. He set 17 Grand Valley game, season or career records along the way including career pitching record, innings pitched and strikeouts. In the ’87 season he struck out 87 batters in 97.2 innings for the Lakers, and that same season was the first Grand Valley pitcher to no-hit a Division I team in a win over Butler University. He helped the Lakers win three GLIAC championships and an NCAA Regional title.
His playing career in the majors was from 1990-96 after three years in the minor leagues. The Giants, whom he played for at the start and end of his career after stops with the Mets and Pirates, drafted him in the 23rd round of the 1987 amateur draft. He had a career ERA of 3.64 with a 12-7 record. His best season was 1993 with seven saves and an ERA of 2.36 for the Pirates. His final year in the Major Leagues was his busiest when Giants’ manager Dusty Baker used him in 78 games. Overall, he appeared in 205 major league games and had 168 strikeouts, 70 games finished and eight saves.
He was inducted into the Grand Valley State Athletics Hall of Fame in 1995.