Author: fartheroffthewall

This post is part of a media project called SoCal Sports History 101: The Prime Numbers from 00 to 99 that Uniformly, Uniquely and Unapologetically Reveal The Narrative of Our Region’s Athletic Heritage. Pick a number, and consider the list of athletes attached to it. Who wore it best? Or, what’s the most compelling story linked to it? Any person, place or thing is in play with Southern California connections. Star power, transformational achievement, longevity, notoriety and quirkiness all factor in. Whatever leads to a lively discussion and interpretation.

The most obvious choices for No. 2:

Tommy Lasorda: Los Angeles Dodgers
Kawhi Leonard: Los Angeles Clippers
Derek Fisher: Los Angeles Lakers

The not-so-obvious choices for No. 2:

Morley Drury: USC football
Lonzo Ball: Chino Hills High basketball, UCLA basketball, Los Angeles Lakers
Gianna Bryant: Mamba Academy basketball
Robert Woods: USC football, Los Angeles Rams
Adam Kennedy: Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels
Cobi Jones: UCLA soccer
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: Los Angeles Clippers

The most interesting story for No. 2:

Lonzo Ball: Chino Hills High basketball guard (2012-13 to 2015-16), UCLA basketball guard (2016-17), Los Angeles Lakers guard (2017-18 to 2018-19)
Southern California map pinpoints:
Anaheim, Chino, Westwood (UCLA), Los Angeles (Staples Center), plus C anoga Park, Long Beach

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For the sake of historical and hysterical accuracy, providing what little guardrails might be needed, an expanded bibliography here has to factor in:

The father:
LaVar Ball: West L.A. College basketball (1985-86 to 1986-87), Cal State L.A. basketball (1989-90), Long Beach City College football (1991) via Westchester High and Canoga Park High (1983-86)

The mother:
Tina Slatinsky: Cal State Los Angeles softball (1990)

The brothers:
LiAngelo Ball: Chino Hills High basketball (2013-14 to 2016-17), UCLA basketball guard (2017-18), Los Angeles Ballers (2018)
LaMelo Ball: Chino Hills High basketball (2015-16 to 2016-17), Los Angeles Ballers (2018)

The six-year run they had on a Facebook reality show called, “Ball in the Family” proved this isn’t just a 21st Century version of “My Three Sons.” It was a celebrity family affair some cared to forget. But they couldn’t. The family wouldn’t let that happen.

Especially LaVar Ball.

“Speak it into existence,” LaVar told ESPN The Magazine in 2017 about his hoop dreams for his kids. “Keep talking about it until it happens.”

Which he what he did about his kids not only playing in the NBA, but, why not the same team together?

“Nobody has ever built a franchise around a family,” LaVar told The Association on Fox in 2021. “That’s why I’m saying, do something new. Build around the Ball boys and watch what happens.”

We pause for station identification.

To begin this male-driven, hit-and-run version of the Kardashians, start with LaVar and Tina meeting up at Cal State L.A., marrying in 1997, living in Anaheim, moving to Chino, and parenting Lonzo, LiAngelo and LaMelo into three NBA draft picks and with various degrees of success. Some even in basketball.

When the family was named the 2017 Southern California News Group Sports Persons of the Year, it was based on TheRinger.com referring to Lonzo Ball as a “Superstar for the Reddit Generation,” TheComeback.com saying “sports content producers need eyeballs right now, and they’ve found a savior in Lonzo and LaVar Ball,” and SBNation.com referring to the whole package as disruptors.

A 2017 headline in the Los Angeles Daily News proclaimed: “How LaVar Ball and his 3 sons intend to change basketball forever.”

Pardon the interruption, but the Balls were on your TV, in your magazines and newspapers, fodder for podcasts and sports-talk show debate, they lived rent-free in your subconscious. They were like having tinnitus. Doctors still have no cure for that incessant ringing in your ears. You just learn to live with it.

The foundation was poured when LaVar Ball figured out he was pretty good at football and basketball at Canoga Park High in Van Nuys.

He was in the middle of four brothers vying for attention — LaFrance, LaValle, LaRenzo and LaShon. You can see where this name-dropping is going.

LaVar played both football and basketball at various levels in college, with varied results.

At West L.A. College, then at Washington State University, and back at Cal State Los Angeles for basketball to join three of his four brothers. For the 1986–1987 season at WLA, he averaged 22.2 points and 12.0 rebounds. During the 1989-1990 season, Ball averaged 15.8 points and 8.9 rebounds and was named to the All-CCAA first team at CSULA.

Long Beach City College and, for two weeks, Washington State University, gave him a shot at football.

Aside from sports, Ball majored in criminal justice with hopes of being a U.S. Marshal.

He played in the NBA Summer Pro League for a free-agent team in 1992. He got to wear a New York Jets’ No. 99 jersey for one team photo as a free-agent defensive end and tight end for head coach Pete Carroll. Ball also was in a Carolina Panthers’ team photo to document he actually had an association with the NFL, albeit with the practice squad. He then played on the World League of American Football’s London Monarchs.

It produced a headline later in BleacherReport: “LaVar Ball’s Pro Football Career, According to His Teammates, Was ‘Garbage'”

All of that activity gave him a resume to further his idea that he could be a personal trainer. Especially his own family.

LaVar and Tina met at CSLA, with LaVar not hiding the fact he was attracted to her 6-foot stature.

“That’s why I married my wife … with the way I’m built, and the way she’s built, I knew I was going to have three killers,” LaVar told CBS Sports in 2015. “So this thing was planned long ago. Because I knew if you put two basketball players together, this is what you’re going to get.”

His three sons would be the prime targets of his training.

LaVar Ball Madness had a method, he insisted.

In a story titled “Between LaVar Ball and LaVar-ology,” pops told GQ magazine in 2017: “You thought Tiger Woods’ dad was crazy. You thought Michael Jackson’s dad was crazy. Venus and Serena’s dad was crazy. I’m on the right path! If I’m not crazy, they’re not good enough.”

Lonzo, born in the fall of 1997, was the No. 3 ranked player in the country following a senior season at Chino Hills High when he averaged a triple-double: 23.9 points, 11.3 rebounds and 11.7 assists, plus 4.7 steals. His team went 35-0. In 2025, on MaxPreps’ list of the Top 10 California high school athletes of the 20th Century, Lonzo was listed at No. 2. On its list of the Top 25 high school basketball players in the country in the 21st Century, Lonzo was No. 6.

The first was the most important because it established a Ball template.

When LaMelo Ball scored 27 points in his summer high school debut as a 13-year-old, the momentum of forming a once-in-the-lifetime team with three brothers leading the way seemed unstoppable.

With younger brothers LaMelo and LiAngelo, as well as future USC star Onyeka Okongwu, Lonzo Ball pushed Chino Hills to an average of 98.4 points a game, going over the 100-point mark 18 times. The team was ranked No. 1 in the country. The brothers could play that one season together because LaVar pushed LiAngelo up a year to get into high school earlier.

“Their legacy was putting Chino Hills on the map during a five-month basketball run that entertained fans at a level no school has reached since,” the Los Angeles Times’ Eric Sondheimer wrote in 2025, 10 years later.

In one freshman season at UCLA, Lonzo led the nation with 7.6 assists a game, shot 72 percent from the field, averaged 14.6 points a game and was a consensus All-American. The Bruins started 13-0 and finished 31-5 when they dumped out of the Sweet 16.

The plan also seemed for all three brothers to go to UCLA. In August 2015, when he was just 13 years old, LaMelo verbally committed to UCLA, where Lonzo had played and LiAngel was attending. By 2017, both were playing for the L.A. Ballers of the newly launched Junior Basketball Association, an “alternative path” to the NBA for players bypassing college. LaVar Ball was the creator/commissioner/promoter. At this point, LaVar also had his Big Ball Brand launched, a controversial shoe company that also had other strange items for sale.

LaVar’s shtick was too irresistible for “Saturday Night Live” to parody.

The hometown Lakers had the No. 2 overall pick in the 2017 draft. Who else would they take except Lonzo Ball, to fulfill LaVar’s prophecy? Lonzo signed a multi-year contract with the Lakers and Magic Johnson Himself proclaimed the kid would break all his franchise records. Before his 20th birthday in August, Lonzo was the NBA Summer League MVP in Las Vegas. He was the youngest in NBA history to post a triple-double when the season started.

He cut off his locks so he didn’t look like Sideshow Bob, left it to others to talk up his potential, and was listening to LeBron James’ take about some possible L.A. relocation plans. ESPN used him in commercials promoting their telecasts as “the Lakers’ new face of ‘Showtime’.”

Flash forward to two seasons later, when the Lakers failed to make the playoffs two seasons in a row. LeBron James was now the de facto GM, and Lonzo was part of a complicated three-team trade involving 13 players and draft picks that ultimately brought Anthony Davis from New Orleans to the Lakers.

When releasing his latest album in 2024, Dhani Harrison, the 46-year-old son of the late Beatles guitar player George Harrison, said he believed society’s most valuable form of currency these days was attention. His album, Innerstanding, was about how to “clean the mirror of your consciousness.”

The Ball Family matters still matter to some, pleading for constant attention. As long as a Ball was bouncing around in the NBA, there would be social media to produce.

The update as of the summer of ’26:

== LaVar and Tina split up. LaVar revealed the news during an appearance with streamer N3on on his YouTube channel. He admitted: “I had that with her. And I found somebody else, but it is what it is.” LaVar disputed the split was a result of their health issues –Tina, a middle school athletic director, suffered a stroke in 2017, but remained a central figure in the family’s story. LaVar had had an amputation of his right leg after complications from diabetes in 2025.

== Lonzo’s NBA run — two seasons in New Orleans after his time with the Lakers, then a pivotal season in Chicago — would start to spiral as he missed all of 2022-23 and 2023-24 with a left knee injury. He tried a meniscus and cartilage transplant after two prior surgeries failed. Lonzo came back to Chicago to start 2024-25, played another 35 games, and, at age 28, found himself in Cleveland, playing another 35 games and averaging only 4.6 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 3.9 assists. He was traded to Utah with some draft picks for cash at the trade deadline, then waived by the Jazz the next day. He starts the 2026-27 season without a team. Lonzo knows that, during seven NBA seasons, he had eight career triple-doubles and single-game highs of 33 points, 16 rebounds and 17 assists.

He also bought his parents an eight-bedroom, nine-bathroom, 13,800-square-foot mansion on three acres in Chino Hills for $5.2 million. It includes a guest house, pool, and home theatre. In July 2018, Lonzo and girlfriend Denise Garcia had a daughter named Zoey. That was all made part of the family reality show storyline.

== LiAngelo Ball (aka “Gelo” on IG), born in 1998, saw his UCLA career derail because of a shoplifting charge when the team was in China, leading to an international intervention in 2016. LaVar Ball pulled his son out of UCLA after the school suspended him and then got into a public spat with President Donald Trump because he refused to credit Trump for negotiationing the release of LiAngelo from Chinese authorizes.

His NBA pathway ended up this way:
December 2, 2020: Signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Detroit Pistons.
December 14, 2020: Waived by the Detroit Pistons.
October 14, 2021: Signed a contract with the Charlotte Hornets.
October 15, 2021: Waived by the Charlotte Hornets.
September 26, 2022: Signed a contract with the Charlotte Hornets.
October 15, 2022: Waived by the Charlotte Hornets.

Somewhere in there, he averaged 4.4 points, 1.1 rebounds and 13.1 minutes in 31 NBA G League games for the Greensboro Swarm from 2021-23.

In January of 2025, LiAngelo reportedly signed a deal with Def Jam and Universal Music Group, a representative from his label Born2Ball Music Group said, what was worth as much as $13 million, with $8 million guaranteed. It gave LiAngelo full ownership of music and his own record label. Ball’s debut song was called “Tweaker.” It was noted in the ESPN story about this contract that Lonzo already had a few rap songs release, including “Zo2,” used to promote his Big Baller Brand signature shoe.

Going back to the 2017 GQ story, LiAngelo’s fate seemed to have already been sealed by his father’s prediction that he was the son who wouldn’t make it to the NBA.

“I told my boys that one of them wasn’t going to make it,” he said. “Because if you’ve got three, only one, maybe two make it to the NBA. (LiAngelo will) be taken care of either way.”

In July 2023, LiAngelo with girldfiend Nikki Mudarris had his first child, a son named LaVelo.

== LaMelo Ball, who once had a 92-point game at Chino High at age 15, was deemed ineligible for an NCAA scholarship after releasing a shoe with his family’s BBB brand and hiring an agent. Two things that in 2026 wouldn’t matter. He also retracted his verbal commitment to UCLA in December 2017.

Days later, LiAngelo and LaMelo signed to play professionally in Lithuania. A whole other nutty sidetrip.

When LaMelo was selected No. 3 overall by Charlotte in the 2020 NBA Draft, he and Lonzo became the first brothers ever to both be drafted in the top 3. LaMelo also wore No. 2 with the Hornets and was the NBA’s 2020-21 Rookie of the Year, followed by an All-Star appearance in 2021-22 where he scored 18 points. After six seasons, averaging 20.8 points, 7.3 assists, 5.7 rebounds and shooting 36 percent from 3-point range, LeMelo, whose top single-game performances are 50 points, 17 rebounds and 15 assists with 11 triple-doubles, was part of a complicated four-team, 21-player-and-draft-pick deal and found him end up in Minnesota. This was days after he signed a contract extension with Charlotte, where he made $35 million and $37 million his previous two seasons and is slotted to make $40 million, $43 million and $46 million over the next three season.

Also in May of 2026, LeMelo and his girlfriend/model Analicia Chaves (better known as Ana Montana) told People magazine they had a child back in January.

Their son is named LaOne.

This story is likely not LaOne and done. Stay tuned on your favorite form of volume-controlled communication device.

Who else wore No. 2 in SoCal sports history?
Make a case for:

Tommy Lasorda: Los Angeles Dodgers manager (1976 to 1996):

What’s your opinion of Tommy Lasorda? Curses. We have quite a few to share.

One day, after an event in downtown L.A., Lasorda grabbed me by the left forearm. There was urgency.

“We’re going to Paul’s Kitchen,” he said, referring to the historic Chinese restaurant nearby. He leaned in: “You gotta go with us.”’

He was out the door within seconds of the Sports Museum of L.A., after a 2010 press conference that had to do with Kirk Gibson’s 1988 Game 1 bat and uniform going up for auction.

My reschedule, a few years later, was a rather spectacular three-hour lunch-turned-dinner at the Dodger Stadium dining room one night prior to a game. The nudge to do this may have been a bit less obvious to him. Our newspaper editors thought we should gather fresh material on him to start compiling a biography/obit on him — in the event that he might soon leave us for the Big Dodger in the Sky.

Before a game in 2013, between slurps of split pea soup, a side of cottage cheese, a scoop of tuna and a bowl of fresh peaches – Lasorda was watching his diet at age 85 – we chewed the fat on all sorts of subjects. It would be another eight years before all this material was even needed — Lasorda died in January of 2021 at age 93 at the height of COVID.

So it was Angelus News, the Catholic news organization of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, asking if I could compile “the Catholic life of Tommy Lasorda” profile based on my interactions with him as well as my research.

We could tell the story of the man who skippered the Dodgers’ last four games of the 1976 season and lasted through 76 games of the 1996 season, covering two World Series titles, four NL pennants, eight NL West titles, 48 ejections and one win short of 1,600 in the regular season. He had, by then, already admitted his life has been full of blessings, mixed in with plenty of foul words. That was just his rough-and-tough DNA, blaming it on his Pennsylvania-Italian heritage.

Artfully enunciated, dodging all sorts of backlash.

The model Catholic? There are saints in the church’s hierarchy who have done plenty worse things and repented. It’s all up for interpretation.

If we might frame Vin Scully was an Irish Catholic who openly practiced his faith, Lasorda would be far more a cultural Italian Catholic who leaned into his religion’s traditions and history when necessary to make a point. Church attendance was a Sunday requirement. So was blowing out someone else’s candle.

We noted that Lasorda had an oversized, gold-framed portrait of Mother Teresa on the wall of his cluttered Dodger Stadium office, the latest one given to him as a special consultant to the team’s current ownership. Mother Teresa was near a portrait of Roger Mahony, the archdiocese’s Emeritus Cardinal, and one of plenty of controversy in his own time.

There was also a picture of an unassuming nun wearing a white habit.

“That’s Sister Immaculata, my seventh-grade teacher,” Lasorda explained in “I Live For This! Baseball’s Last True Believer,” a 2007 biography. “She was the only one who believed in me.”

Los Angeles was a Lasorda Believer almost from the first time it met him.

This walking contradiction, a complete unruly force of nature, comedian and philosopher, harnessed his will to earn the Dodgers winning improbable championships in 1981 and 1988. The talent they had was always decent, but hardly the best on the field at that time. If there was SABR data back then, it couldn’t measure Lasorda’s contributions in the human element department.

As a few of the most highly-talented, well-built Dodgers from the 2022 and ’23 seasons wilted in the first round of the National League playoffs, one couldn’t help but wonder: What Would Lasorda Have Done?

Just follow the timeline. In no particular order, a dozen more Lasorda-related stories that never go out of style and are often committed to video. Such as:

== The Kingman rant and the Bevacqua rants:

After the Dodgers absorbed a 10-7 loss to the Chicago Cubs on May 14, 1978 where Dave Kingman hit three home runs, Lasorda was asked by radio correspondent Paul Olden: “What is your opinion of Kingman’s performance?”

Four years later, on June 30, 1982, Dodgers reliever Tom Niedenfuer hit San Diego Padres batter Joe Lefebvre in the head with an 0-2 pitch after surrendering a home run. Padres player Kurt Bevacqua regarded it as intentional and charged the field. A reporter asked Lasorda about Bevacqua’s accusation.

== The 1988 World Series: Lasorda finds a way to use NBC’s Bob Costas to inspire the underdog Dodgers, also known as “one of the weakest ever (teams) to take the field for a World Series,” captured in the MLB Network documentary “Only In Hollywood” (which we documented ourselves).

== The 1988 World Series L.A. City Hall celebration: Let’s Dance. (And let’s follow it up with something else years later)

== The on-field protest that led to the Dodgers having to forfeit a game after Dodger Stadium fans threw balls onto the field — did Lasorda instigate the crowd?

== The Rau rant: From the 1977 World Series.

== The Reggie rant: From the 1978 World Series, when there was no call of interference, Lasorda argues with the umpires.

== An episode of ABC’s “Fantasy Island.” The first season. Actor Gary Burghoff plays Richard Delao of Chicago, an accountant who dreams of major-league stardom. Wearing a Dodgers’ No. 37 jersey, the fantasy doesn’t become real until Tommy Lasorda makes it happen (“Smiles, everyone!”) This is likely where the term “Fantasy Camp” became an idea.

== The 2001 MLB All-Star Game tumble: Lasorda is coaching third base for the National League and nearly doesn’t live to tell about it (maybe this led to them wearing helmets?)

== Lasorda claims he discovered a great young broadcaster named Al Michaels as he was managing the Dodgers’ Triple-A team during a series in Hawaii in 1968.

== The time when Lasorda went bare-chested and swam laps in the LA Police Academy pool to amuse David Letterman on “Late Night.”

== The Hall of Fame speech, which includes the story of how Lasorda claims he snuffed out Cincinnati Reds manager John McNamara’s candle in the church.

When Lasorda’s number comes up in Dodgers’ lore, there are several to pick from.

As a pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1954, he had No. 29. He switched to No. 27 later that season, as well as through four games in ’55.

Somehow, there are photos of him wearing No. 21. And No. 64 in a shot with Duke Snider.

With the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League in 1957, coming to Southern California a year before the Dodgers, he wore … we are still checking.

Maybe he had it torn off him during a game where he instigated one of the most famous L.A. baseball brawls in history.

(There’s another great story to research: The time in 1948 with the Phillies’ Schenectady Blue Jays of the Canadian-American League when he struck out 25 batters pitching all 15-innings, then drove in the winning run)

As a manager in the Dodgers farm system with Triple A Spokane (1969 to ’71) and Albuquerque (1972), he wore No. 11.

In four seasons as the third-base coach for Walter Alston, Lasorda from 1973 to ’76, wore No. 52.

He changed to No. 2 for the 1977, his first full year as the Dodgers manager. (He was named to the position in September of ’76, but No. 2 was still being worn by backup catcher Ellie Rodriguez).

After Lasorda took No. 2, he kept that for the next 19 seasons, seeing it retired for him by the Dodgers. Not anyone else. Even though Lasorda said he took the number a way to honor Leo Durocher, who wore it as a Brooklyn Dodgers shortstop for six seasons spread out between 1938 to 1945, some of which overlapped with his time as a player/manager from 1939 (picked over Babe Ruth) to ’46 (skipping the ’47 season of Jackie Robinson because of a suspension) and coming back in ’48.

Durocher was also a coach for Walter Alston’s Los Angeles Dodgers from 1961 to ’64 — often playing himself in various TV shows. It led to a Hall of Fame induction in 1994 based on winning more than 2,000 games over 24 years with his  “combative, swashbuckling style,” according to the words on his Cooperstown plaque.

(When Ken Gurnick put together a list of the Best Dodgers Players by Uniform Number, he gave Durocher the number 2 based on the fact he was a two-time All-Star NL shortstop wearing at the end of his playing career — which began with the 1929 New York Yankees).

There is also the fact that a players who was one of the closest to Lasorda, shortstop Bobby Valentine, wore it for the Dodgers from 1969 to ’72, having come up to the team at age 19 while still at USC.

Yet No. 2 is all Lasorda legacy.

In Joe Posnanski’s project, “The 50 Most Famous Baseball Players of The Last 50 Years,” the author admits to going off script and picking a manager, Lasorda, as No. 48 on his list. His justification is that under Lasorda’s watch, there were nine NL Rookie of the Year Award winners on his teams during his 21 seasons.

How could that be?

“Was there some sort of magic that Tommy Lasorda created as manager of the Dodgers, something that inspired young and raw players to step in and start playing at a high level? Lasorda never seemed to me an especially dynamic strategic manager. On the field, he was a pretty bland, old-school, set-lineup guy, stay-with-the-starter guy, bunt-’em-over guy. argue-with-the-umpire guy.

“What Lasorda did as well as anyone—hell, probably better than anyone—was create this mystique about his team. Lasorda’s Dodgers were different than any other team because he said so. Lasorda’s Dodgers were more of a family because he said so. Lasorda’s Dodgers were glamorous because he said so—and he kept bringing around Frank Sinatra and Don Rickles to emphasize the point.

“It does feel like baseball teams used to have outsized personalities in a way that’s missing today. I suppose that comes down to managers having outsized personalities in those days. Lasorda probably took that to the greatest degree. He was a showman as much as a manager. He was all hearts and hugs and rah-rahs and rage and expletives.

“In his last game as manager (in 1996), the Dodgers trailed Houston 4-1 going into the bottom of the ninth. They faced Billy Wagner, and Mike Blowers hit a home run. Then, after a single and a typically ordered Lasorda bunt, Greg Gagne singled in the tying run. In the ninth, Mike Piazza —Lasorda’s hand-picked superstar — hit a long, walk-off home run.

“Lasorda never wanted the ride to end. But if it had to end, that was the right way for it to end.”

There are several ways to toast Lasorda into perpetuity.

At the neighborhood Costco, one might come across the Lasorda Family Wines #2 Tuscan Red Blend from Paso Robles.

Lasorda Family Wines has been around awhile, and Lasorda himself used to make public appearances promoting it. The project was spearheaded by his nephew, David, who found a wine maker in Paso Robles to produce a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Chardonnay that seem to pair nicely with a lot of things, selling in the $25 range.

Lasorda apparently was introduced to wine making by his father, Sabatino, an immigrant from the small town of Tollo in the Abruzzo wine region. Tommy would “often help his father procure and press grapes before distributing the finished wine to family, friends, and neighbors,” it says on the website. “We embody Tommy’s fearless spirit and passion in our wine making, and in doing so, seek to honor and preserve his legacy as baseball’s true ambassador.”

The wine goes fine with anything on the menu at the pizza/sandwich/chili dog place called LaSorted’s, named in his honor by owner Tommy Brockert. The photo in the window gives it away.

There’s one on Sunset Blvd. and Silver Lake Blvd. about two miles north of Dodger Stadium. The other is on Broadway in Chinatown, a few blocks from one of Lasorda’s other favorite food hangouts, Little Joe’s, which closed in 1998.

Lasorda declared for many years he wanted his tombstone to read under his name: “Dodger Stadium was his address, but every ballpark was his home.” Team owner Peter O’Malley actually had someone create a piece of granite with that phrase withdroplets of painted Dodger blue blood, dripping. He gave it to Lasorda as a gag gift. Lasorda’s wish was to also have the Dodgers’ current schedule available on the stone for people to come by and see where the team was playing.

Instead, he rests at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, next to his son.

One of Lasorda’s favorite quips went this way:

““If someone came up to me and said he’s with the Padres, I would say: ‘When did you become a priest?’ If someone said he was with the Indians, I’d ask what reservation he came from. If he said he was a Twin, I’d ask, ‘Where’s your brother?’ If he said he was a Cardinal, I’d say, ‘Work hard, the next step up is to be Pope.’

“But if someone comes up to you and says he’s a Dodger, you know he’s in major league baseball.”

Just like you know you can’t spell Lasorda, or lasagna, without the first two letters L and A:

Reference books on the subject:
“The Artful Dodger,” by Tommy Lasorda with David Fisher, 1985
“I Live For This! Baseball’s Last True Believer,” by Bill Plaschke and Tommy Lasorda, 2007
“Tommy Lasorda: My Way,” by Colin Gunderson, 2015
“Miracle on Grass: How Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda led Team USA to a shocking upset over Cuba, capturing the only Olympic gold medal in USA baseball history,” by David Fanucchi, 2012
“Before They Wore Dodger Blue: Tommy Lasorda and the Greatest Draft Class in Baseball History,” by Eric Vickery, 2025

Kawhi Leonard, Los Angeles Clippers forward: (2019-20 to 2025-26):

Best known: The 6-foot-7, 225-pounder born in Los Angeles and out of Martin Luther King High in Riverside came to the Clippers with a reputation as one of the league’s most influential offensive and defensive players after winning an NBA titles in San Antonio and Toronto. After his seven seasons in L.A. included four All-Star appearances, but also missing one entire season with an injury, he was called by Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke in July of 2026 as someone who “abused an organization, alienated a fan base and basically collected $300 million of Steve Ballmer’s money and burned it … he has been injured, apathetic, entitled, disconnected and generally nothing but a pain in the backside … (he) was the worst free-agent signing in Los Angeles sports history.” As a senior in high school where he averaged 22.6 points and 13.1 rebounds a game as a senior, he found a pathway through San Diego State (where his No. 15 is retired) to become the 15^th overall pick by Indiana. A three-year, $103 million contract as a free agent with the Clippers in 2019 brought him back to Southern California, and seemed to make an immediate impact when he scored 35 points with 12 rebounds in the Clippers’ 111-106 win over the Lakers on Christmas Day.  He extended his Clippers deal in January of 2024 with a three-year, $153 million contract — and posted a triple double (25 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists) in an 11-point win over the Lakers two weeks later. Leonard, represented by his uncle Dennis Roberton, was coddled by the Clippers as they used the term “load management” to keep him from overextending himself. “The Clippers basically have spent Leonard’s entire tenure being scared of him, hoping that their subservience would make him comfortable enough to lead them to a championship,” Plascke continued. “The joke has been on them.” Only twice in his time did he play as many as 65 games. The team got past the first round of the playoffs in that time twice, but Leonard injured himself in the second round in 2021. The Clippers made it to the Western Conference final for the firfst time but he sat out with a leg injury. The Clippers were sued twice over their initial attempt to sign him, and the NBA has fined the team for trying to protect him during an investigation into how Leonard was given a $28 million endorsement deal by a failed banking company called Aspiration.
Not well known: His first name was something his father invented. He wanted something that sounded Hawaiian, like Kauai, one of the Hawaiian islands.

Derek Fisher, Los Angeles Lakers guard (1996-97 to 2003-04; 2007-08 to 2011-12):

Best known: The number he’s best linked to is 0.4, for his ability to catch, turn and shoot a buzzer beater to win Game 5 of the 2004 Western Conference semifinals against defending champion San Antonio (final score: 74-73). He played in more than 1,000 games for the Lakers (915 regular season, 193 post season) and was part of five title teams. He ended up as the head coach of the WNBA Los Angeles Sparks from 2019 to 2022, and then at Crespi High in Encino in 2023.

Adam Kennedy, Anaheim Angels/Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim second baseman (2000 to 2006):

Best known: The former North High of Riverside and Cal State Northridge star will be remember for his three-homer game in the decisive Game 5 of the 2002 ALCS against Minnesota, making him the series MVP. He ended up hitting seven homers that post-season after just four total in the regular season. Also wore No. 3 in his final pro season (2012 with the Dodgers).

Cobi Jones, UCLA soccer (1988 to 1991):

A 2002 UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame inductee, Jones was a walk-on out of Westlake High and earned a scholarship as he moved into the starting line-up midway through his freshman year and started all four seasons. Team offensive MVP in ’89 and ’91, he helped the team to a 1990 NCAA Championship, was twice named first-team All-Far West (1990, 1991) and as a senior set a record with 18 assists. He finished UCLA with 23 goals and 37 assists.

Robert Woods, Serra High of Gardena receiver (2007 to 2009), USC football receiver (2010 to 2012), Los Angeles Rams receiver (2018 to 2021):

Best known: After wearing No. 2 as a star at Serra High in Gardena and at USC, Woods was finally able to go with No. 2 while with the Rams when the NFL changed its rules in 2021 about allowing single-digits jerseys for receivers. “Just being number 2 my whole life, always was the deuce – ‘the deuce is loose’,” said Woods at the time. “Got to jump on that opportunity to wear the 2 in the hometown. It’s a must.”
Woods, who also wore No. 13 at USC in 2010, initially wore No. 17 for the Rams from 2018 to 2020 when he came back to Southern California.
In high school, Woods was the 2008 Daily Breeze Football Player of the Year when he had 1,378 receiving yards on 81 receptions during a junior season that ended in a CIF Southern Section title game loss to Oaks Christian. Woods added seven interceptions as a defensive back and had six touchdown returns on kicks and punts. As a senior in 2009, Woods caught 66 passes for 1,112 yards, had five carries for 70 yards, and had 96 total tackles along with eight interceptions and a forced fumble on as his team won the CIF Northwestern Division Championship over Oaks Christian and the CIF Division III state title to finish 15-0. Woods also added three individual CIF-SS titles – in the 200 (21.43), the 400 (47.31) and in the 400 relay (41.21) to help Serra claim the Division IV team title.
In three years at USC, Woods caught what remains a school-record 252 passes over 38 games for 2,930 yards (seventh-best all time) and 32 touchdowns (second-best all time). He also ran 14 times for 142 yards.
With the Rams, Woods signed a five-year, $34 million contract in 2017 and finished his first with 56 receptions for a career-high 781 yards and five touchdowns in 12 games. The next year: 86 receptions for 1,219 yards and six touchdowns in 16 games, plus five receptions for 70 yards in a Super Bowl loss to New England. In 2019: 90 receptions for 1,134 yards and two touchdowns. Signing a four-year, $65 million contract extension with the Rams in 2020, Woods finished the season with 90 receptions for 936 yards and six touchdowns to go along with 24 carries for 155 yards and two touchdowns. As the Rams went to the Super Bowl LVI against Cincinnati, Woods tore an ACL in practice in November of 2021 to end the season after 45 catches for 556 yards and five TDs in nine games. After playing in Tennessee, Houston and Pittsburgh, Woods signed a one-day contract to retire with the Rams on February 17, 2026 and become a receivers coach.

Have you heard this story:

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Los Angeles Clippers guard (2018-19):

Best known: Kawhi Leonard could take No. 2upon his arrival in L.A. because Gilgeous-Alexander, the Clippers’ All-NBA Rookie guard during his one and only season, was shipped to OKC in a deal for Paul George, who was to be Kawhi Leonard’s second half of a dynamic duo. The quick fix only paid off for the Thunder. Shaivonte Aician Gilgeous-Alexander, aka SGA, has been an NBA regular-season MVP and scoring champion (’24-’25), two-time All-NBA and three-time All Star, plus a star player for Team Canada in the 2024 Summer Olympics. The Clippers traded for him on 2018 Draft Day. Yet by July 2019, they sent him with Danilio Gallinari and five first-round draft picks, and the rights to swap two other first-round picks, to get George, a player who hung around for five seasons and made about $200 million before leaving Leonard and taking a free-agent trip to On December 22, 2019, OKC’s Gilgeous-Alexander scored a then career-high 32 points with five assists, three rebounds, and two steals in a 118–112 win over the Clippers. On December 18, 2021, Gilgeous-Alexander scored 18 points and made a game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer to lift the Thunder over the Clippers, 104–103. On November 11, 2024, Gilgeous-Alexander scored a then-career-high 45 points with nine assists, five steals and two blocks in a 134–128 win over the Clippers.

Jessica Mendoza, Camarillo High softball shortstop (1994 to 1998):

The U.S. women’s national softball star from 2004 to 2010, after being named first-team All-American in her sport at Stanford and being part of two Olympic medal-winning teams first drew attention at Camarillo High. The Los Angeles Times Player of the Year in 1998 was her school’s Female Athlete of the Year as a junior and senior, as she was also the team MVP of the girls’ basketball team as a junior and senior as well. As Mendoza got into broadcasting, she was hired as the first female commentator for a MLB game by ESPN, and soon after was doing the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball game from Dodger Stadium for a game where Chicago’s Jake Arrieta threw a no-hitter against the Dodgers. When Mendoza was on ESPN’s 2015 AL Wild Card game, she was the first female commentator in MLB postseason TV history.

Morley Drury, USC football halfback/quarterback/safety (1925 to 1927):

Why was he called “The Noblest Trojans of Them All”? Mark Kelly, a former sports editor of the Los Angeles Examiner, wrote it about him, paraphrasing a line from Shakespeare that referred to Julius Caesar as the “noblest Roman.” Coach Howard Jones, who arrived at USC at the same time as Drury and included him in his Thundering Herd offense where the tailback was in a single wing formation, called him “the greatest player I ever coached,” as Drury also played basketball, water polo and ice hockey for the school.

A Long Beach Poly grad at age 21, he worked two years in the shipyard docks as a roughneck on Signal Hill after finishing grammar school and entering high school. He led Poly to a CIF football title in 1924 and then its basketball team to a state title). As USC was 27-5-1 in his career, Drury became the Trojans’ senior captain and first All-American player. His 1,163 yards rushing in ’27 stood as a school record until Mike Garrett broke it (1,440) during his 1965 Heisman Trophy season of 1965. Drury also had a 45-carry game in ’27 (part of his 223 carries), a mark that wasn’t passed until O.J. Simpson had 47 in 1968. Drury’s legend also includes his a 180-yard, three touchdown game against Washington in his final game that, as he left the field,  apparently prompted a 10-minute standing ovation by 70,000 at the Coliseum (also prompted by the public address announcer who said “Morley is coming off the field the last time, folks, give him the hand that he deserves.”) Drury later said he had just scored and Jones told him that instead of going to the dressing room he should walk across the field. “I reached the track (circling the field) and looked up at all those people … my knees got so weak even if I did feel fresh as a horse, and I bawled like a baby. The opposing team stood up. The ovation lasted until I reached the tunnel.” Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954, he was in the first USC Athletic Hall of Fame class of 1995.

Darryl Henley, UCLA football defensive back (1985 to 1988): The Damien High of La Verne star became a consensus All-American. His complete bio is in the No. 20 post, the number he wore for the Rams.

Gianna Bryant, Mamba Academy: The Lakers could still retire No. 2 — if only to honor Kobe Bryant’s daughter, who died in the 2020 helicopter crash with him and wore that number. When the Lakers honored the Bryants in the first game after the tragedy, Gianna’s No. 2 was draped over the seat in which she last sat at Staples Center next to her dad’s No. 24.

We also have:

Darren Collison, UCLA men’s basketball (2005-06 to 2008-09)
Taylor Mays, USC football defensive back (2006 to 2009)
Andrelton Simmons, Los Angeles Angels shortstop (2016 to 2020)
Freddie Patek, California Angels second baseman (1980 to 1981)
Alexei Zhitnik, Los Angeles Kings defenseman (1992-93 to 1994-95)
Matt Green, Los Angeles Kings defenseman (2009-09 to2-2016- 17)
Terry Harper, Los Angeles Kings center (1972-73 to 1974-’75)
Zoilo Versalles, Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop (1968)
Don Demeter, Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder (1959 to 1960) Also wore No. 27 in 1958 and No. 7 in 1961
Sandy Alomar, California Angels infielder (1971 to 1972) Also wore No. 4 from 1969 to ’71 and No. 24 from 1973 to ’74
Bobby Dollas, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim defenseman (1993-94 to 1997-98)
Cam Fowler, Anaheim Ducks defenseman (2011-12 to 2023-24) Also wore No. 54 in 2010-11.
John McNamara, California Angels manager (1983 to ’84, 1996)
Cookie Rojas, California Angels manager (1998)

Anyone else worth nominating?

This post is part of a media project called SoCal Sports History 101: The Prime Numbers from 00 to 99 that Uniformly, Uniquely and Unapologetically Reveal The Narrative of Our Region’s Athletic Heritage. Pick a number, and consider the list of athletes attached to it. Who wore it best? Or, what’s the most compelling story linked to it? Any person, place or thing is in play with Southern California connections. Star power, transformational achievement, longevity, notoriety and quirkiness all factor in. Whatever leads to a lively discussion and interpretation.

The most obvious choices for No. 84:

Jack Snow, Los Angeles Rams
Jerry Robinson, UCLA football
Bob Klein, USC football
Charlie Weaver, USC football
Shaun Cody, USC football

The not-so-obvious choices for No. 84:

Andy Robustelli, Los Angeles Rams
Paul Maguire, Los Angeles Chargers 

The most interesting story for No. 84:
Jack Snow, Los Angeles Rams receiver (1965 to 1975) via St. Anthony High in Long Beach
J.T. Snow, California Angels first baseman (1993 to 1996) via Los Alamitos High
Southern California map pinpoints:
Long Beach, Los Alamitos, Los Angeles (Coliseum), Anaheim

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Whatever joy came from hearing about a “snow day” for kids going to school is pretty much lost for anyone growing up in Southern California.

The closest thing anyone could make of that term was that, if you followed the Los Angeles Rams in the ’60s and ’70s, it meant Jack Snow had himself quite a day.

Ironically, and for what it’s worth, Jack Snow’s aversion to snow was what kept him L.A. bound.

The Long Beach native from St. Anthony High gave the Minnesota Vikings the cold shoulder after they picked him in the third round of the 1965 NFL Draft, following a season where he set several school records at the University of Notre Dame — a place where rain and snow and gloom of chilly nights in South Bend, Indiana were rather common.

On the bright side, Show was also picked in the ’65 AFL Draft by the San Diego Chargers. At that time, the rival leagues could bargain with players. Alabama quarterback Joe Namath was a prime example.

When the Los Angeles Rams engineered a trade with Minnesota to get the rights to Snow, it turned out that greater Southern California was all the greater for it.

Soon would come a California Angels sure-handed first baseman who earned an MLB Gold Glove. Maybe not such a surprise as he was a chip off the block coming from a sure-handed NFL Pro Bowl wide receiver.

There’s your weather update on what a real SoCal “Snow day” looked like.

Jack Snow, Class of ’61, was inducted into the St. Anthony High inaugural Hall of Fame ceremony in 2013, five years after he had passed away. He was 62, and was taken down by tragic complications from a staph infection.

His son, Jack Thomas Snow, better known as J.T., admits he didn’t know his father’s true athletic ability until it was too late to really nail him down on it.

J.T. had retired from a 16-year MLB career — four of them as the Angels’ first baseman, after enjoying three-sport stardom at Los Alamitos High — and was talking to a Long Beach Press-Telegram reporter about how he found out more about pop’s legacy. It came from just hanging around with his dad’s former teammates, coaches and friends at the funeral.

“Every one of them came up to me and said, ‘Your dad was probably one of the best athletes in Long Beach at the time, if not of all time.’ And I was like, ‘You’re kidding me. He never said that.’

“They said, of course, he was a hell of a football player, he was a great baseball player, he could have played basketball or ran track. I got a big smile on my face because he never let on to me about that. He just said he was someone who had to work really hard and give all he had.”

J.T. had always seen a different side.

A father who was demanding, tough and strict. Just as his father was.

For two years, Jack and J.T. didn’t even speak to each other — overlapping a period where Merry Carole, Jack’s wife and J.T.’s mother, was undergoing cancer treatment that eventually took her life.

That dynamic was difficult for everyone in the family. Now, J.T. had a time to reflect on it all.

“He was just an old-school guy who was very black and white; not a lot of gray,” said J.T. “He stuck to his word and he expected the best out of all of us whether it was school or sports. Until we were all grown and had kids, then he had grandkids, he softened up a lot. But I don’t think I could have ever made it to where I got without him. I think if he would have been easier on me, like a lot of parents, there is no way I would have gotten to where I got.

“He was a great father.”

The background

St. Anthony High honored Jack Snow with 10 varsity letters– all-state in football where he played offensive and defensive end, all-city and all-league in baseball where he had a .458 batting average and was captain of the 1960 Catholic League title team. Jack’s father instructed him to stay in shape by going to the local YMCA every day after school to work out.

A scholarship offer to Snow from the University of Notre Dame appealed to his religious upbringing, and as a mecca of college football at that time, Snow made that initial journey to the Midwest.

By his senior season, Snow was on a 9-1 Irish team ranked No. 3 ranked in the polls. He had become not just an All American receiver, but also fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting after he led the nation and set school records with 60 catches for 1,114 yards and nine touchdowns, with an 18.6 yard-per-catch clip in just 10 games.

Snow had spent the first two years there in near obscurity. As a senior, the breakthrough was that he had passes thrown to him by eventual Heisman winning quarterback John Huarte, the former Mater Dei High of Santa Ana star and a SoCal high school rival. Snow accounted for more than half of Huarte’s individual passing stats of 114 completions for 2,062 yards and 16 TDs that season.

The Rams might have been primed to take Snow in a star-studded 1965 NFL Draft — they had the No. 9 overall choice — but Minneosta blocked them out by snatching him away with the No. 8 pick. The Rams settled on Washington State defensive back Clancy Williams.

A chill must have gone down Snow’s spine.

Snow dreaded the idea of playing in snow, frigid, dreary Metropolitan Stadium. The Vikings head coach was former Rams legend Norm Van Brocklin, and their quarterback was a 25-year-old Fran Tarkenton, coming off his first Pro Bowl season.

For Snow, it was a mater of practicality and survival. And the fact the San Diego Chargers plowed through its own ’65 American Football League Draft and figured out that all it would cost them for the rights to Snow was a modest seventh-round choice/No. 57 overall.

And, the AFL had juice at the time.

Namath would reject the NFL — the St. Louis Cardinal’s first-round, No. 12 overall pick — and take up residence and financial gain in the AFL as the New York Jets’ first pick, No. 2 overall. Another future Pro Football Hall of Famer, receiver Fred Biletnioff, also took the AFL (Oakland, second round, No. 11 overall) over the NFL (Detroit, third round, No. 39 overall).

Snow had leverage to shovel out of whatever snow bank he felt was burying him.

Since the Vikings feared they would lose Snow straight out for nothing, their people started talking to the Rams’ people. The Vikings worked a deal for Snow’s right, receiving Red Phillips, the Rams’ three-time All-Pro flanker who by then had lost his starting role, and reserve second-year defensive lineman Gary Larsen, who would have two Pro Bowl seasons with Minnesota in ’69 and ’70.

“It’s a question of values,” Rams president and principal owner Dan Reeves told the New York Times, after he had also help orchestrate trades during that time with general manager Elroy Hirsch to acquire former All Pro linebacker Dan Currie and former All-Pro flanker Tommy McDonald from other teams.

“You know exactly what you’re giving away, but you don’t know what you’re getting in return. Every trade is a gamble. Sometimes a trade may open up a new horizon for a player. But you can never count on that happening.”

Snow’s track record also left some questions. At Notre Dame, he had just 10 receptions in his sophomore and junior years, listed as a hybrid fullback. He was moved to split end by new head coach Ara Parseghian during his senior season and lost 15 pounds to be more effective in that position.

Could he make it in the NFL with that body frame? Was his success due in most part to his partnership with Huarte?

As a 22-year-old rookie in 1965, on what would be a 4-10 team, Snow was immediately put in the Rams’ starting lineup at left end and had 38 receptions for 559 yards and three touchdowns. McDonald, at flanker, more than doubled those stats, and the 1966 season was similar.

But in 1967, Snow’s first and only Pro Bowl season coincided with the emergence of Roman Gabriel as the Rams’ starting quarterback, George Allen figuring things out during his second year as the head coach, and Howard Schnellenberger coming inn as the Rams’ receivers coach. The team had an 11-1-2 finish to win the NFC Coastal Division. 

While Rams flanker Bernie Casey was also a Pro Bowl pick, making 53 receptions for 871 yards and eight TDs, Snow did more with less.

His 735 yards came on just 28 receptions, creating a league-best 26.3 yards per catch. Two of his eight TD catches that season came in a noteworthy 24-24 tie at Baltimore in Week 5, where he had a 53-yard scoring reception in the first quarter and 80-yarder in the third quarter, both from Gabriel. Snow had just three catches in that game for 151 yards.

For that ’67 season, Gabriel also made the Pro Bowl, along with halfback Les Josephson (800 yards rushing, 400 yards receiving, eight total TDs). The Rams were flying.

Insert here that during the 1967 off season, in February of ’68, J.T. Snow was born in Long Beach.

Even though the Rams build a 10-3-1 record in 1968, Snow somehow remained a bit under the radar, a third option behind tight end Billy Truax and flanker Casey. His 29 catches for 500 yards amounted to 17.2 a catch, with a long of 54 yards.

Snow didn’t lead the Rams in balls caught until 1969 — 49 for for 734 yards (15.0 per catch, a long of 74 yards) and six touchdowns during an 11-3 season. Snow followed that up a team-best 51 catches for 859 yards and seven TDs (16.8 per catch, a long of 71 yards) during a 9-4-1 season in 1970.

More comfortable in his own skin, Snow also took his cue from other Rams teammates and tried to see what he could do in movies and TV. There’s an uncredited Snow reference in the 1969 space flick “Marooned” with Gregory Peck and Gene Hackman, playing the role of a NASA space flight control center screen-watcher. He looked the part as a clean-cut, rugged man of knowledge. Snow is also the 1971 movie “Doctors’ Wives,” uncredited as an orderly.

Snow was in an ’69 episode of the popular TV series “Bewitched” – Season 5, Episode 29, “Samatha’s Shopping Spree,” playing himself as a store manikin come to life when Samatha’s cousin and mother played a practical joke on her.

The most realistic thing he did came after his retirement — playing a version of himself, a Rams’ player named “Cassidy,” in the 1978 “Heaven Can Wait” with Warren Beatty. It features the Rams playing Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl. Look fast for a shot of Snow in a locker room scene.

In 1971 and ’72, as Tommy Prothro took over Rams’ teams hovering around the .500 mark, the franchise was in some limbo for a new buyer after Reeves’ death. With Allen gone, Prothro’s offense relied more on a diverse crew of receivers. Snow still had a team-best 666 yards receiving and five TDs in ’71 (18.0 per catch, long of 68), plus 590 yards receiving and four TDs in ’72 (19.7 yards per catch, long of 57).

Chuck Knox’s arrival as head coach came in 1973, and an NFC West title with a 12-2 record came with Carroll Rosenbloom as the new owner saw change. John Hadl was the quarterback. Harold Jackson was the new top big-yard receiver (coming to L.A. from Philadelphia in exchange for Gabriel). Snow, at age 30, had just 16 catches for 252 yards and two TDs. Fullback Jim Bertelsen actually had more catches (19) and yards (267) to go with 854 yards rushing, even his key role was blocking for 1,000-yard rusher  Lawrence McCutheon.

Snow had 24 catches for 397 yards (16.5 per catch) during the Rams’ 10-4 season of 1974, with James Harris the primary QB. The Rams won the NFC West but lost the conference title to Minnesota. That was the beginning of the end.

By 1975, Snow found himself not starting a game for the first time in his career. He had just four catches for 86 yards and a TD. Jackson and Ron Jessie were primary targets for Harris on Knox’s 12-2 team that lost in the NFC title game.

Snow’s career ended with him second all-time in Rams’ history with 6,012 yards and 45 touchdowns, and third with 340 receptions. He missed only one start in his career prior to that ’75 season — 139 starts in 150 games. His 17.7 yards-per-reception average is third behind tight end Bob Boyd (20.5) and Elroy Hirsch (18.4) for Rams players with more than 3,500 total career yards.

At the end of the 2025 season — 50 years after he retired — Snow remained seventh all-time in Rams’ games played, sixth in reception yards and touchdowns, 11th in receptions, and 10th in the ProFootballReference.com Approximate Value with 76.

After trying the real estate business in Newport Beach, Snow came back as Ray Malavasi’s receivers coach for the Rams in 1982. The team finished 2-7 and Malavasi was replaced by John Robinson for the ’83 season.

By 1992, Snow found a new audience as the Rams’ radio game analyst for KMPC-AM (710). That started with the team’s final three years in Anaheim, and he moved with the franchise to St. Louis to continue.

Snow’s former offensive coordinator coach at Notre Dame, Tom Panga, had never doubted Snow could be a good broadcaster.

“He understood the game,” Panga told the South Bend Tribune. “Many announcers don’t. They fake their way through and give you hackneyed expressions they’ve used for a thousand years. Jack was on top of it. He knew what he was talking about. He was fair and clean.”

By 1992, J.T. Snow debuted as a 24 year old first baseman with the New York Yankees. A season later, he was sent to the Angels in a trade for pitcher Jim Abbott.

The Angels valued him for the four seasons, but with Terry Collins as the new manager in 1997, they wanted to move young center fielder Darrin Erstad to start at first base. The Angels dealt Snow to the San Francisco Giants before that ’97 season for some help at the top half of the starting rotation, left-hander Allen Watson. He gave up an AL-league high 37 homers in his 35 starts and finished 12-12, leaving for free agency after his second year.

That time frame also marked the high-tension Snow family split. Years of Jack’s hypercritical approach to J.T.’s career seemed to have worn thin on his son, who was upset that while he was playing in Anaheim, his dad decided to stay with the Rams when they left Southern California at a time when Merry Carole started cancer treatments. J.T. and Jack Snow didn’t talk for more than two years, starting in ’96.

In J.T. Snow’s first spring training with the Giants, on March 11, 1997, during an exhibition game in Scottsdale, Ariz., he was hit in the eye by a fastball from Seattle’s Randy Johnson, a pitch that had ricocheted off his wrist. Doctors worried about long-term effects.

J.T. called his parents’ for their help, mostly to talk to his mother. It started the process of repairing the family rift.

Merry Carole, named so because she was born on Christmas Day 1943, died in 1998. She and Jack, her high school sweetheart, had been married for 34 years.

“I got my sports, my drive and mentality and work ethic from my dad; I got my personality from my mom,” said J.T.

As for resolving the family issues, J.T. has also remarked: “It says more about people who can turn things around than to just sweep them under the carpet. My dad did a lot to provide for our family by going out every Sunday and getting his body beat up, and I’ll always be grateful for that. My mom was the calming influence in the family. He was a tough guy who demanded a lot from me and my sisters. If I was struggling, I called mom and she always put things into perspective.”

As J.T. played for the Giants in 2002 against the Angels during the World Series, Jack Snow added his take on it: “I played in two NFC championship games and neither one compares to watching your son in the World Series. … There comes a time when every son gets made at his dad, only you don’t hear about the other ones. What we went through was very normal. But we’re through it now.”

The wear and tear of his NFL career led to Jack Snow needed double hip replacement surgery in the spring of 2005. By Thanksgiving of that year, Snow developed a staph infection that started as a sinus infection but entered his bloodstream and seeped into his artificial hip joints.

He died at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis after two months of battling infections. He was just shy of his 63rd birthday.

J.T. Snow, then 37, had finished nine seasons with the Giants, and that winter he wanted to come back for one last full season as a DH and first baseman with Boston in 2006. It also gave him the opportunity to wear No. 84 in his dad’s honor.

“To me, J.T. wearing his father’s number is the most exceptional honor a son can bestow upon his father,” Roman Gabriel told USA Today. “Jack deserves such an honor. He was one of the greatest people I’ve every known. J.T. … came from great stock.”

J.T. said he remembered how his dad never let him quit the Los Alamitos High baseball team when he wanted to focus on football and basketball. That determination led to J.T. going to the University of Arizona to play baseball and become a New York Yankees draft pick.

Jack Snow had coached J.T.’s Seal Beach Little League team years earlier. He brought him into the Rams’ locker room in the 1970s when J.T. was still in grade school. J.T. saw what professional athletes looked like and did on a regular basis.

“Wanted to honor him and everything he did for me and meant to me in my life and career,” said J.T. Snow in the Fort Meyers News-Press, a story that noted he was 6 years old when his father was done with professional sports. “We sat down (when he was thinking of quitting baseball in high school) and he said if there was one sport he (thought I shouldn’t quit) it would be baseball because he thought I had a future in the game.”

Rewind to Jack Snow’s career at Notre Dame. He considered leaving the school before his senior year. Then-head coach Joe Kuharich and assistant Hugh Devore had limited him to just 128 receiving yards prior.

Huarte said that when he attended Snow’s funeral, he met Snow’s St. Anthony High coach, who said Snow confided in him that he wanted to transfer.

“His coach said, ‘No, you stay there’,” said Huarte in the South Bend Tribune. “You got get a quarterback who’ll throw to you and spend time with you. Run the patterns.’ Basically encouraged Jack to do exactly what he did (with me) — work on patters and catching the ball.”

Huarte also told the paper: “You look back and it’s a precious experience. I was lucky to go to Notre Dame. And so much of my success was related to Jack Snow.”

J.T. Snow was done with playing baseball in 2007, so he went to work in the Giants’ front office and do some broadcasting — like his father. There came an idea to sign a one-day contract, make one last more appearance with the Giants on Sept. 27, 2008 against the Dodgers at AT&T Park, and officially finish his career.

On that day, the Giants put Snow in the starting lineup and allowed him to take the field and throw infield practice from first base. He then came off the field as Travis Ishikawa replaced him.

J.T. Snow’s career totals reflect a .268 batting average, with a career-best .327 in 107 games for the Giants in 2004. He hit 189 home runs, drove in 877, and had six straight Gold Gloves from 1995 to 2000. His best statistical season with the Angels came in 1995: 24 homers, 102 RBIs and a .289 average.

Embedded in an obituary that appeared in the New York Times in January of 2006, Jack Snow was remembered as a reliable link on five division championships, bridging the time of Gabriel-to-Hadl-to-Harris.

“He was one of the few guys we had that would go across the middle and catch that football,” Rams star Deacon Jones told The Associated Press. “He was tough, tough as nails. Jack had the greatest hands in that time period. You won’t talk about his speed, but his speed was deceiving. He would catch that slant pattern over the middle, and I’ve seen him outrun some guys that we thought were fast.”

Added McCutcheon, a five-time Pro Bowl running back who stayed in contact with Snow: “I’ve always thought of him as a no-nonsense guy who took life by the horns. He enjoyed life, enjoyed his kids and was very proud of them.”

The Associated Press reporting also brought up how Snow’s fate mirrored other contagious infections that had plagued the Rams after their move to St. Louis in 1995. In 2003, five players developed drug-resistant infections after suffering turf burns, and two or three San Francisco 49ers developed infections after playing the Rams early that season. The outbreak was the subject of an article in the New England Journal of Medicine. In August of 2005, then-linebackers coach Joe Vitt was hospitalized three days with a staph infection in his left hand. Vitt took over as head coach of the Rams in October, when Mike Martz was found to have endocarditis, a bacterial infection of the heart’s lining.

The legacy

Back to the 2013 induction in the St. Anthony’s Athletic Hall of Fame: A story came up about how Jack Snow was once helping Jeff Severson, a seven-year NFL defensive back out of Long Beach Wilson High and Long Beach State, do some play-by-play work on his alma mater 49ers football games by acting as his game analyst.

Severson said he reminded Snow of a reception he made in that epic game against Baltimore, calling it “one of the most unbelievable catches of all time. … Roman Gabriel threw him a pass. The ball comes own at a point … was out of reach, but Jack caught the back half of the ball, which is like impossible because it’s like catching a bar of soap. And I would always kid Jack. I’d say, ‘Jack, I know you don’t remember this story, but I remember you catching a ball against the Colts.’

“He’d go, ‘No, I don’t remember … but it was against Lenny Lyles and the Colts and it was third down and 6.’ ”

Severson, who eventually turned to acting after an NFL career with Washington, Houston and Denver overlapped Snow’s last four seasons, recalled how after he was drafted by Washington and getting ready to play for George Allen, Snow invited him to sit down at the Elks Lodge in Long Beach and strategize.

“I thought that was very thoughtful because he kind of filled me in on what to expect next,” said Severson, who had set an NCAA record with 15 interceptions in 1970 while with Long Beach State. “When Jack and I sat down to have a beer, it connected me. It made me feel really good.”

J.T. Snow remembered again in 2013: “I have played a lot of celebrity golf tournaments where there are guys that played against my dad. And the one thing they all say is that he was just a good guy and a great teammate. Those are the things you like to hear.”

In the meantime, The Jack and J.T. Snow Scientific Research Foundation, also known as The Snow Foundation, was established in 2011 to benefit those suffering from Wolfram Syndrome, a genetic disorder. Jack’s granddaughter, Raquel Gebel, born to his daughter Stephanie, has the condition when she was born in 2005, nine months before Jack Snow died.

There are currently no drug therapies or cures that exist for Wolfram syndrome, which appears as Type 1 diabetes but leads to vision and hearing loss and cognitive decline. As a result, more than 60 percent of Wolfram patients die before age 30.

In a story former Kansas City Star reporter Randy Covitz wrote for the Snow Foundation website, it was noted that during Jack Snow’s playing career, he represented several charitable causes, including the Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer, the Epilepsy Foundation and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Snow’s other daughter, Michelle, has a son, Jacob, first afflicted with diabetes as a young child.

“We got this thing rolling,” said J.T. of the foundation. “We need to raise a lot more money to make sure people like Raquel are going to be taken care of. We’re kind of bummed out that my dad’s not around because he would have taken this and would have gotten a lot of attention for it. He would get people to buy in and to get into their checkbooks and help us raise money for these doctors who are studying Wolfram syndrome.”

Adds Stephanie about her father: “He was an out-of-the-norm athlete. He would go out and publicly speak and give his fee to the Rams’ charitable foundation. He was always doing things for people, and he never expected anything in return.”

Who else wore No. 84 in SoCal sports history?
Make a case for:

Jerry Robinson, UCLA football linebacker (1975 to 1978):

Best known: UCLA’s first three-time first-team consensus All American (safety Kenny Easley is the other), and the first in the country since the 1940s, Robinson was thought of enough to finish 10th in the 1978 Heisman voting as he ended his college career with a then-school record 468 tackles. A 1996 College Football Hall of Fame inductee, Robinson was also the first UCLA player to score three defensive touchdowns on interceptions returns, averaging 78.6 yards in return for those 18 points. He added one more pick returned for 26 yards as a senior. When the Associated Press named its All-Time All American team in 2025, Robinson was in the company of fellow linebackers Lawrence Taylor (North Carolina), Brian Bosworth (Oklahoma), Dick Butkus (Illinois), Derrick Thomas (Alabama) and Chris Spielman (Ohio State). On ESPN’s list of the Top 150 players in the 150 years of college football, Robinson rated No. 89, ahead Spielman (No. 143) as well as before USC’s Junior Seau (No. 105), Baylor’s Mike Singletary (No. 108), Florida State’s Derrick Brooks (No. 115) and Miami’s Warren Sapp (No. 122) at the linebacker position. In 1999, Sports Illustrated included him on its All-Century Team for college football. Drafted in the first round by the Philadelphia Eagles in 1979, Robinson played the final seven years of his 13 year NFL career with the Los Angeles Raiders, wearing No. 57. UCLA retired his No. 84 and inducted him into its Athletic Hall of Fame in 1991.

Not well known: Robinson came to UCLA from Cardinal Newman in Santa Rosa also as a star 100-yard sprinter and high jumper, and was pegged as a tight end by head coach Pepper Rodgers’ staff. But when Dick Vermeil took over as head coach, he persuaded Robinson to move to inside linebacker — just before the Rose Bowl against Ohio State, at the end of Robinson’s freshman campaign. Eventual new head coach Terry Donahue would help shaped Robinson into the position with the help of heralded linebacker assistant coach Jed Hughes.

Bob Klein, USC football tight end (1966 to 1968):

Best known: Born in South Gate, the 6-foot-5, 235 pounder out of St. Monica High in Santa Monica started on USC’s 1967 national title team. After his senior year, he was picked 21^st overall by the Los Angeles Rams (wearing No. 80, from 1969 to 1976). In a 1985 vote of the fans, Klein was named as the tight end on the Los Angeles Rams’ 40th Anniversary Team.

Charlie Weaver, USC football defensive lineman (1969 to 1970):

Best known: A junior college transfer from Arizona Western, Weaver was part of USC’s “Wild Bunch” in with Al Cowlings, Jimmy Gunn, Tody Smith and Bubba Scott, ending up 1970 All-American and first-team All-Pac-8 honors as well as USC’s Most Inspirational Player that season. Detroit picked him in the second round of the 1971 NFL Draft and he lasted 10 seasons in the league. He was inducted into the USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 2018.

Shaun Cody, USC football defensive tackle (2001 to 2004):

Best known: The 6-foot-4, 307-pounder was a freshman at Damien High in La Verne before moving over to Los Altos High in Hacienda Heights and helping the team to a 14-0 record and CIF Division VII title. USA Today named him its All-USC Defensive Most Valuable Player in 2000. At USC, Cody started the final eight games of his freshman season and was first-team Freshman All-American. A consensus All-American and Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year by his senior season, he had a career-best 45 tackles, 10 sacks, two forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries and three pass deflections. The Detroit Lions made him the 37^th overall pick/second round in the 2005 NFL Draft and he spent eight seasons in the NFL, starting 68 of 112 games. Cody became a USC radio game analyst starting in 2019, having spent the prior five years on the broadcast’s post-game show.

Have you heard this story:

Andy Robustelli, Los Angeles Rams right defensive end (1951 to 1955):

Best known: For someone picked 228^th overall and buried in the 19^th round out of the now-defunct Arnold College during the 1951 NFL Draft, and then ending up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, it seems rather preposterous. But Robustelli, a 6-foot-1, 230-pounder, did it after playing the first five of 14 NFL seasons with the Rams, who had to convince him not to sign a pro baseball contract with the New York Giants. In that time, Robustelli was in two Pro Bowls, made first-team All-AP twice, and was on the second AP team two more times. A two-way end in college, where he played after serving in the Navy during World War II, Robustelli returned the only two interceptions he had in his Rams career for touchdowns in 1952 and ’55. The Stamford, Conn., was done with L.A. when he was traded by the Rams to the New York Giants in 1956, and during his nine seasons, he had a larger spotlight winning in an NFL championship game his first season, playing in the title game five more times, and being named the 1962 winner of the Bert Bell Award at age 37 as the best player in the NFL, a rarity among defensive players when he recorded 12 sacks. He played in 174 NFL games, missing only one, and had the NFL record with 22 fumble recoveries when he retired, 13 of them coming with the Rams. Robustelli maintained a high profile in the NFL as the Giants first general manger in 1973 when he took over day-to-day control of the team from owner Wellington Mara.
Not well known: In the final game of the 1954 season, a 35-27 win at the Coliseum against Green Bay, Robustelli, who started as usual as right defensive end, lined up wide on the punt team during a fourth-down snap. Norm Van Brocklin faked the punt, pitched it 10 yards to Robustelli, and he bullied his way past defenders for a 49 yard touchdown. It was the only catch he had in his Rams’ career. So in the Rams’ all-time statistical leaders, he remains the leader in yards per reception according to ProFootballReference.com.

Paul Maguire, Los Angeles Chargers linebacker/punter (1960):

Assembling a roster their inaugural season of 1960, the Los Angeles Chargers of the American Football League took the 22-year-old Maguire out of The Citadel and gave him the job of right-side linebacker. But they needed his talents as a coffin-corner kick punter more. Maguire led the AFL that year with 40.5 yards a punt, but that would only rank ninth-best in his 11-season career. Moving with the team to San Diego, Maguire was in three AFL title games, became a Pro Bowl pick in ’62 when he led the AFL with 79 punts and 3,289 yards, and then it was off to play in Buffalo in 1964. In that year’s AFL title game, Maguire nailed a 78-yard punt that went out of bounds at the Chargers’ 2 yard line with two minutes left that sealed the Bills’ victory. Done with a pro football career at 33 in 1970, Maguire created a stellar career as a TV analyst, starting first with NBC, then going to the upstart ESPN to do college football in 1979. He became part of NBC’s No. 1 NFL team in 1995 with Dick Enberg and Phil Simms, and was in the network booth for Super Bowls XXX and XXXII in ’96 and ‘98. He did college game broadcasts through 2008.

Anyone else worth nominating?

The final post of 2026 new baseball book reflections, in a lineup posted between April 1 and June 16 covering more than 40 titles and leaving even more uncovered.

It leads us into this temptation to deliver baseball from its many evils. Instead of stewing, we read about its history, its culture, it’s pull on our psyche.

A few closing thoughts from a wanna-be set-up man and/or innings-eater who starts his day in the bullpen:

== Father’s Day gifts don’t always have to be the newest and shiniest books.

Ten years ago, Pete Drier pulled together what he believed to “The 51 Greatest Baseball Books of All Time” for the now-defunct Huffington Post. “These books will provide baseball fans with great enjoyment and food for thought,” the subhead read. “But readers with little interest in baseball will also discover much they didn’t know about American society through the lens of this fascinating sport.”

What books would I add to this list, if asked?

First, add a well-placed “0” to that “51,” and you’ve got Ron Kaplan’s “501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die,” released in 2013. It still has an impeccable shelf life, although Kaplan admits it’s worthy of a refresh. You go Ron. And thanks for the connection 13 years ago. Visit to his website, and he’ll send you an Excel checklist of all 501 books for you to knock out.

Admittedly, the newest releases keep us fresh on historical perspective, cultural trends, humanity, rules, trivia, Hall of Fame reconsideration. But our topics of interest keep evolving as well. I might do better now re-reading books I once reviewed. It’s healthy to see what we read years ago resonates differently now. It’s a newly-turned 65-year-old grandfather approach, I suppose. What do I want to pass along to the next generation? Start with kids titles, eh?

Reading, and writing reviews, and posting them with no charge is an honor. They are extended social media posts.

But what if the general flow of book reviews dried up? This annual exercise caused us to pause when the New York Times Book Review posted a piece last April titled “Where have all the book reviews gone? What the rise of A.I. and the gutting of books coverage across U.S. media will mean for literature.” It seemed to actually lament a competitor’s decision to shut down its review-centic publication:

“Only yesterday, it seems, nearly every American newspaper, dozens and dozens of them, even in midsize cities, ran book reviews by local critics. The alternative weeklies (I wrote for many of these) had feisty and clamorous and occasionally nutty book sections.
“Sometimes an off-the-wall review,” Norman Mailer said, “can be as nourishing as a wild game dinner” . . .
The recent shutting of The Washington Post’s Book World, one of the nation’s last free-standing books sections, feels like the end of something larger. It marks an inflection point in America’s literature, which can’t thrive without serious, fervent and quick-witted criticism: public talk, back and forth, between competing voices, in something like real time. The thin crust of American intellectual life, long flaking, has begun to show bald patches.”

From that came a response from the astute writer Craig Calcaterra: “It’s never been a mystery to me why newspapers and other outlets don’t really run substantive book reviews anymore. But it’s still a shame. There’s honor, utility and, sometimes, literary and intellectual merit in a well-written book review. A good book review is something that can nourish and inform readers in ways that a hell of a lot of stuff in the newspaper can only dream of providing. But there’s no money in it for the newspapers. And, honestly, not enough people care.”

I care. I feel a duty. I have a need. I also have no real data to back any of it up, except an occasional comment or email. Certainly, no data to show any consistent readings of these posts. It’s faith and a baseball community I hope generates some circulation. These are therapeutic to do in a set period of time at a point in time when some people just seem to be “settling.”

I sense a gradual erosion of mining the most accurate information, because it takes extra effort. Put in the work. Take the journey. Don’t AI this stuff.

In fact, curate a list like Ted Giola did here with “The Honest Broker.” It’s “A Reading List for the End of Civilization.” It’s a response to The Atlantic pinning him as “the ultimate source on the death of civilization.”

Don’t kill the messenger.

If you’re in search of a Father’s Day gift-gifting list, consider this 2026 spring selections, in order of enjoyment — and if the title is from the University of Nebraska, which eloquently provided the platform for “Perfect Eloquence: An Appreciation of Vin Scully” in ’24, the publisher is offering a 50 percent discount on its titles through July 31 with the 6SUMM26 discount code at the finish line. (Please, order them straight from the website and avoid the Amazon shitshow, even if it promises to deliver the order at 3 a.m.)

And before the next round of reviews: Could someone just make the typeface a little bigger?

Top of the lineup:

Day 15: “The Ballpark and Beyond: An Illustrated Celebration of Baseball’s Rich History” by Todd Radom (Sports Publishing/Skyhorse/Simon & Schuster, released May 26, ’26).
Also celebrated: “Art But Make It Sports: Where Art and Sports Collide,” by LJ Radar (Chronicle Books, released March 16, ’26.) 

Day 18: “Crossroads: A Memoir in Baseball and Life” by Dusty Baker (Crown Publishing/Penguin Random House, released June 9, ‘26)

Day 19: The Magical Game: The Spirit and History of Baseball’s Superstitions, Rituals, and Curses” by Addy Baird (St. Martin’s Press/MacMillian, released June 2, ‘26)

Day 16: “Nolan: The Singular Life of an American Original” by Tim Brown (Grand Central Publishing/Hachette, released May 19, ’26) and “So Young, So Great: Bob Feller Electrifies Baseball and America” by Jim Ingraham (University of Nebraska Press, released June 1, ’26).
Also mentioned: “Baseball As It Was: Building Champions Before Free Agency Changed Everything,” by John Ferling (Tatra Press, released April 26, ’26; $32)

Day 4: “Death in the Strike Zone: The Mystery of America’s First Baseball Hero” by Thomas W. Gilbert (David R. Godine Publishing, released March 24, ’26)

Heavy hitters:

Day 14: “Bleacher Seats and Luxury Suites: Democracy and Division at the Twentieth-Century Ballpark” by Seth S. Tannenbaum, Ph.D. (University of Illinois Press, released March 31, ’26)

Day 13: “How Retrosheet Saved Baseball” by Jay Wigley (Wiglesius Press/self published, released April 3, ‘26)
Also celebrated: “Out of the Ballpark: How to Think About Baseball” by David L. Henkin (Oxford University Press, released March 16, ’26)

Day 6: “Kings and Pawns: Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson in America” by Howard Bryant (Mariner Books/HarperCollins, released Jan. 20, ’26) and “Royal Treatment: Jackie Robinson, Montreal, and the Breaking of Baseball’s Color Barrier” by Sean J. McLaughlin/cover design by Gary Cieradkowski (University of Nebraska Press, released April 1, ’26)
Also celebrated: “Integration at Second Base: Jackie Robinson and the Quest for Black Citizenship” by Peter Eisenstadt (University of Virginia Press, released April 15, ’26); “Opening the Door for Jackie: The Untold Story of Baseball’s Integration” by Keith Evan Crook (McFarland, released Nov. 26, ’25); “Black Baseball’s Heyday: Capturing an Era in Art and Words,” by Denny Dressman; illustration by Anthony High (McFarland, released Dec. 4, ’25); “Simulating Satchel: A What-If History of Integrated Major League Baseball in 1934,” by John Graf (McFarland, released March 5, ’26)

Protecting the heart of the order:

Day 12: “The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop.,” by Robert Coover, new introduction by Ben Marcus (NYRB Classics, originally released in 1968; re-release March 17, ‘26)
Also celebrated: “Out of the Ballpark: How to Think About Baseball” by David L. Henkin (Oxford University Press, released March 16, ’26)

Day 3: “Before They Wore Dodger Blue: Tommy Lasorda And the Greatest Draft Class in Baseball History” by Eric Vickrey (August Publications, released Dec. 7, ’25)
Also celebrated: “The Gifts We Take from Baseball: A Dodger Photographer Memoir,” by Richard Kee (Taylor Publishing, published Nov. 8, 2025); “The Ross Porter Chronicles: Vol. 1: The Dodgers Years,” by Ross Porter (with Mike Kunert, Halcyon Street Press, released Oct. 13, 2025)

Day 11: “Ford Frick: Baseball’s Third Commissioner And His Four Decades of Shaping the Game” by Dave Bohmer (University of Nebraska Press, released April 1, ’26) and “A League of His Own: A. G. Spalding and The Business of Baseball” by Mark A. Stein (Lyons Press, released Jan. 6, ’26)
Also celebrated: “Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It,” by Jane Leavy (Grand Central Publishing/Hachette, released Sept. 9, ’25)

Day 10: “The First All -Star Game: Babe Ruth, FDR, and America at the Crossroads” by Randall Sullivan (Grove Atlantic, released June 2, ’26)

Role players:

Day 1: “Decoy Saves Opening Day” by Shohei Ohtani and Michael Blank/Illustrated by Fanny Liem (HarperCollins,released Feb. 3, ’26) and “Shohei Ohtani: A Little Golden Book Biography” by Nicole de las Heras/Illustrated by Toshiki Nakamura (Little Golden Book Biographies/Penguin/Random House, released March 3, ’26)

Day 9: “Baseball’s Most Outrageous Promotions: From Wedlock and Headlock Day to Disco Demolition Night” by Joseph Natalicchio (McFarland, released Dec. 4, ‘26)

Day 8: “Baseballisms: A Murders’ Row of Metaphors and Idioms” by Leonard Skonecki (McFarland, released May 22, ’26)

Day 2: “The Finest in the Field®: A History of Baseball Through 50 Iconic Gloves” by Ed Wheatley (Rizzoli USA Publishing, released March 24, ‘26)

Motion with the cupped hands over the ears …

Day 17: “The Complete Book of Baseball Trivia: Test Your Knowledge with 750 Questions” by Matt Chandler (Sourcebooks/Callisto publishing, released March 3, ‘26)

Day 7: “Unhittable: How Technology, Mavericks and Innovators Engineered Baseball’s New Era of Pitching Dominance” by Rob Freidman/aka Pitching Ninja (HarperCollins, released March 24, ‘26)

Day 5: “Metropolitans: New York Baseball, Class Struggle, and the People’s Team” by A.M. Gittlitz (Astra House, released March 31, ’26); “Willie, Duke, and Mickey: New York City Baseball’s Golden Age Amid Integration” by Robert Cottrell (Bloomsbury Academic, released Feb. 5, ’26); “The Subway Series: New York City’s Illustrious Baseball Tradition” by Rick Laughland (Lyons/Globe Pequot, released Feb. 3, ’26); “Mickey & Billy: The Glory and Tragedy of a Yankee Friendship” by Tony Castro (Diversion Books/Simon & Shuster, released Feb. 24, ’26); “7 Swings at 7: Mickey Mantle — Legend and Victim of American Culture” by Robert E. Weir (Summer Game Books, released November of ’25); “The Bosses of the Bronx: The Endless Drama of the Yankees Under the House of Steinbrenner” by Mike Vaccaro (HarperCollins, released March 24, ’26); “Hot Foot: My Hijinks and Upside-Down Life with the 1986 World Champion New York Mets” by Roger McDowell (with Doug Feldmann, Triumph Books, released March 24, ’26); “The 50 Greatest Players in New York Mets History” by Robert W. Cohen (Lyons Press/Globe Pequot,released March 3, 2026).

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Reading the room going forward:

Regrets for those authors whose titles we haven’t been able to carve the time or attention to absorb in a way that’s up to our standards, but are worthy to post here for further research and consider as they sit atop the pile of next-up:

Dodgers, kids, grandpa fun:

“¡Viva Valenzuela! Fernandomania Erupts in Los Angeles” by Nathalie Alonso/Illustrated by John Parra (Caulkins Creek Publisher/Penguin Random House, 40 pages, $19.99, age range 7-to-10 years, released on March 24, ‘26).

Available in English and Spanish. A wonderful piece of art and collectable for Dodgers’ fans. Young and young at heart. We still struggle to accept he’s gone. He’s the heart of our SoCal Sports History 101 bio project when it comes to sizing up No. 34. Astra Publishing House even has a download to print out a Valenzuela book coloring page. Alonso is a Cuban American bilingual writer and journalist working as a reporter and producer at MLB.com’s Spanish-language sister site, MLB Español. She also did “Call Me Roberto! Roberto Clemente Goes to Bat for Latinos.” Parra’s work includes “Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos,” which drew a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book Award.

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Inspirational:

“The Talented Misters Hoy and Taylor: The Remarkable Journeys of Baseball’s Greatest Deaf Players” by Jim Reisler (The details: Lyons Press/Globe Pequot, 376 pages, $34.95, released May 12, ‘26)

The review we pulled together on Curtis Pride’s 2025 book, “I Felt the Cheers: The Remarkable Silent Life of Curtis Pride” gave us a better window into this subject, as Pride described his connection to these players. The remarkable event is Hoy and Taylor once played against each other, in 1902. Here’s more from the SABR bio projects of Hoy and of Taylor. There a movement to get Hoy consideration for the Baseball Hall of Fame — Gallaudet University named its baseball field for him, he’s been the subject of two recent films, a documentary, at least three children’s books. Now, this. Taylor made.

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War history buffering:

“Warm Summers and Cold Winters: How Baseball Survived the Korean War,” by Steven Gietschier (Bloomsbury, 288 pages, $36, released April 16, ’26).

One of our favorite modern-day baseball historians — as we wrote about his 2023 epic, “Baseball: The Turbulent Midcentury Years,” which held our attention for 624 pages — so there’s a trust established. The Korean War came up on baseball as it was still trying to re-calibrate after World War II, so the seasons of 1950, ’51, ’52, and ’53 are now in the cross hairs. From our historic lens, that’s also when we got the debut of Sports Illustrated in 1954, sporting a cover that highlighted baseball. Gietschier notes that this period produced the Philadelphia Phillies’ Whiz Kids in 1950, the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” in 1951, the debuts of Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, and the final days of Bill Veeck owning the St. Louis Browns. How much could America, and baseball, afford to give to this conflict? It’s a conflicting time.

Side note I: Gietschier closed the 2024 NINE symposium of baseball writers in Arizona with a remark he said was once told to him and classmates by Father Ray Schroth, SJ: “Go forth in peace. Have courage. Hold on to what’s good.”

Side note II: Gietschier posted this recently on Facebook that resonated with us as well:

Former MLB umpire Dale Scott eventually responded: “It is ridiculous that the official rule book shows up when the season is halfway over. One of my biggest complaints when I worked for MLB.”

“Battlefields: The Chicago White Sox and the Great War,” by Jim Leeke (Bloomsbury, 280 pages, $32, released Feb. 19, ’26)

Leeke is another baseball historian with a significant track record of trust — we were last enamored with last year’s “Big Loosh: The Unruly Life of Umpire Ron Luciano,” which was a bit of a diversion from the previous dozen years of military themed baseball titles that include “The Gas and Flame Men: Baseball and the Chemical Warfare Service during WWI” in 2024; “The Best Team Over There: The Untold Story of Grover Cleveland Alexander and the Great War” in 2021; “From the Dugouts to the Trenches: Baseball During the Great War” in 2017; “Nine Innings for the King” in 2015; and “Ballplayers in the Great War: Newspaper Accounts of Major Leaguers in World War I Military Service” in 2013. If there’s more gas that needs to be added to the push to get Shoeless Joe Jackson into the Baseball Hall of Fame, why not add this to the mix.

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Global interests:

“In the Japanese Ballpark: Behind the Scenes of Nippon Professional Baseball,” by Rob Fitts (University of Nebraska Press, 312 pages, $36.95, released November, 2025)

If watching from afar as the Dodgers and Cubs excited the masses at the Tokyo Dome to start the 2025 season still leaves an impression — what would it take to jet over to Japan to see a honest-to-goodness Nippon Professional Baseball League game? — here’s the background knowledge on why it matters. Fitts interviewed more than 20 people associated with the NPB to see what’s behind all the commotion. Seek out Fitts’ previous works that we have reviewed including the 2021 “Pioneers of Japanese American Baseball” and “Issei Baseball: The Story of the First Japanese American Ballplayers” from 2020. Also “Mashi: The Unfulfilled Baseball Dreams of Masanori Murakami, the First Japanese Major Leaguer,” from 2015. Here is a recent review from The Japan Times and an excerpt from SABRAsianBaseball.com and at Howard Cole’s Substack account.

Fitts, who later this year will be at the Baseball Hall of Fame, has a visit to Southern California on July 11:

“We Sacrifice Everything to Baseball: How the Czech Republic’s Amateur Underdogs Became World Baseball Classic Heroes,” by Michael Clair (University of Nebraska Press, 224 pages, $34.95; released April 1, ’26)

Check it out: Author Jay Jaffe recently posted on Facebook that Clair “is more passionate about international baseball than anyone else I know — his colleagues at MLB even gave him an award to that affect.” Jaffe calls this book “a great and touching account” about how the Czech Republic figured out a way to make it to the 2023 World Baseball Classic (the one that ended with Ohtani striking out Trout to win the title for Japan). The Czech team, making its WBC debut, had to scramble out of a preliminary tournament against Panama, Great Britain and Nicaragua to make it Pool B in Tokyo. The Czechs then outlasted China, 8-5, in its opener lasting nearly four hours, then lost to host Japan (10-2), South Korea (7-3) and Australia (8-3). Here is an excerpt of the book as well as a sample of what he does for the MLB.com International Beat Newsletter. One more plus for Clair: He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and plays in the punk band, The Subway Ghosts.

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More SoCal connections:

“The Tragic Story of Willie Davis and Other Expos Vignettes” by Danny Gallagher (Dundurn Press, 288 pages, $19.99, released June 2, ‘26).

Aside from a beautiful cover illustration/image by Laura Boyle, the chapters Gallagher devotes to Davis as the lead to his latest Expos history project aren’t a real comfortable read. Our Davis infatuation stems from seeing him in the 1971 MLB All Star Game in Detroit, his first, and the lone Dodger represented in a contest better remembered for Reggie Jackson’s home run nearly leaving Tiger Stadium and the fact there were 22 future Hall of Famers (plus Pete Rose, and three more HOF managers and coaches) participating. That could have bode well for Davis. It didn’t. Davis came into that game in the bottom of the fourth to replace Willie Mays in center field — the game also included Willie McCovey and Willie Stargell — and Davis singled in his only at bat off Jim Palmer in the top of the fifth. We also snuck in a look at Davis’ Strat-O-Matic and ABPA cards from the board games from our youth in the mid 1960s during our recent review of “The Universal Baseball Association Inc.” reboot. We also did his obit for the L.A. Daily News in 2010 when he was 69. We included the graph about his financial issues in the piece with this quote: “I spent it as soon as I got it because I always knew there would be more,” Davis once told the Montreal Gazette. “I spent it on women, clothes, cars …”

“Destitute Darlings,” by Mel Proctor (self published, 91 pages, $15, released April 17, ’26).

A chapter in his 2013 book titled “I Love the Work But I Hate the Business” gave the former Los Angeles Clippers’ play-by-play radio broadcaster a chance to explain that time in his life when he called games for the San Diego Padres’ Triple-A Hawaiian Islanders. This edition offers a stand-alone version of the team that in 1975 and 1976 that won back-to-back Pacific Coast League titles despite searching for a solid home base, essentially kicked out of the league, and buried in debt. There hasn’t been a team that can survive in Honolulu since the Islanders went under water in 1987 and moved to the mainland. “Destitute Darlings” was the name Proctor stamped on those teams, and this one might feel more like a magazine story inserted into a yearbook-sized publication to accommodate the new cover illustration.

“Sacred Grounds,” by Robby Incmikowski with Kyle Fager (self published, 200 pages, $55): A lot of landscape to cover, and well done in this case. It’s just kind of an expensive whim purchase. Ah, what the heck. It’s dad we’re thinking about here:

“Big Fan: Two Friends, 82,490 Miles, and the Wild, Wonderful Sports We Love,“ by Mike Schur and Joe Posnanski (Penguin/Random House, 448 pages, $35):

If you had a chance to see the two of them recently in Hermosa Beach — their only West Coast appearance in an abbreviated run — or heard them as guests on Mason & Ireland/KSPN-AM (710), that was enough to whet the appetite. The baseball hook to this: “How Is This Even Possible? Shohei Ohtani, Rocket Launcher,” starting on page 55, which explains the fandom related to the Dodgers’ two-way unicorn and the homer he hit over the right field roof at Dodger Stadium on July 21, 2024. Schur put in 12 miles of the 82,490 for that visit. With the notation: “Since the method of transportation is “driving to Dodger Stadium,” it takes like three hours.” Schur writes: “What has stuck with me the most about that home run – besides learning in that moment that the laws of gravity are mutable – was how it slightly changed my concept of fandom. A guy on the opposing team (he’s a Red Sox fan) hitting a monstrous home run ins generally thought of as ‘bad.’ But in that instant, I was happy. I was a Shohei Ohtani fan, a baseball fan, and I felt what fans always hope to feel at sporting events: joy, awe, reverence, the thrill of watching an athletic genius do what he does, as well as it can be done.” One more note: Pages 371-391 are reserved for a chapter called “The Great Mookie Hug Caper,” where they try to figure out a way to measure the greatness of getting a hug from Mookie Betts. Awwwwww. Are you sure you want to do this, Schur?
There’s also this nice review in America magazine, so if the Jesuits find joy in it, this has to be working on many levels. More from NPR’s Scott Simon, AwfulAnnouncing.com, Kirkus and “Late Night with Seth Meyers” below:

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Midwest flavor:

“Baseball’s Outcast: The Story of Ron LeFlore,” by Adam Henig (Bloomsbury, 320 pages, $34, released April 2, ’26)

“Your Detroit Tigers: The Great, The Good, The Top 400,” by Tom Gage with Alex Avila (Triumph Books, 256 pages, $30, released March 31, ’26).

Henig let us know that he was able to make it to Los Angeles for the Baseball Reliquary’s Shrine of the Eternals induction last fall, as it included the celebration of LeFlore, who appeared despite some health challenges. “I finally got to meet Ron in-person, after speaking with him only by phone for the last five years,” Henig said. “It was a surreal experience.” It would have to be. The Detroit MetroTimes allowed Henig to promote the release of his book with this piece. In Kirkus Reviews, it notes that “Henig, an industrious author of books on Black history … has a solid biography” of a man LeVar Burton once portrayed in a 1978 TV movie called “One in A Million” after serving a three-years plus in a Michigan prison for armed robbery. The film was made as LeFlore, who led the AL with 68 stolen bases in ’78, topped that with 78 in ’79, and then led the NL with 97 during his only year in Montreal, was still amidst his nine-year career that started at age 26.

If you wonder about overlap with “Your Detroit Tigers”: A book that breaks the franchise down into the top 258 hitters and 142 pitchers slots LeFlore at No. 41 among the hitters, in between Bob Fothergill and three-time AL All-Star Pinky Higgins, and a bit ahead of Rocky Colavito. Every team should have a book like this one done on its history — and the Tigers, celebrating their 125th season this year, is prime for a roaring tribute. Longtime writer Tom Gage, who also did “Big 50: The Men And Moments That Made The Detroit Tigers” for Triumph Books in 2017, and “Joy in Tiger Town: A Determined Team, a Resilient City, and our Magical Run to the 1968 World Series,” for Triumph in 2017, screates 14 performance metrics for hitters and eight for pitchers before settling on this 400. So, where does Ernie Harwell land?

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Academics:

“Segregation Games: Boston, Busing, and the Making of Red Sox,” by David Faflik (University of Massachusetts Press, 192 pages, $29.95, released May 1, ’26)

We found this listed in an advertisement amidst the May 28, 2026 issue of The New York Review of Books, featuring a publisher blurb about how Faflik “erases the lines between politics and sport, which routinely blurred in a city suffused with an anti-Black racism that was both deceptively subtle and fiercely overt.” However, says a review in Publishers Weekly: “Frequent instances in which ordinary objects are freighted with heavy racial symbolism — most notably the Red Sox’s official hot dog, the Fenway Frank, which the author says ‘became as deeply implicated in Boston’s contest over racial equality as any other aspect of the club’ — feel like a stretch. The result is more of a lofty thought experiment than a successful argument.” We also put trust in Charlie Beavis for BevisBaseballResearch.com when he concludes: “This is a solid foundation for future research (and book sequel) to follow-up on the book’s sub-title ‘the making of Red Sox Nation’ and Faflik’s conclusion that ‘the White haven that was the Boston Red Sox’ home stadium of Fenway Park in the 1970s proved to be as difficult to racially desegregate as the city’s schools.’ : Otherwise, Beavis calls this “a ground-breaking, illuminating examination of the intertwining of sport and society in Boston during the 1970s.”

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Misc.:

“One Splendid Season:” Baseball and America in 1912,” by Phil Rosenzweig (PMR Books, $32.50): The kind of publication best enjoyed with a nice glass of scotch and a Macanudo. The Hassan Triplefolder Set of baseball cards are here in a nice glossy presentation — the American Tobacco Company designed that famous 1911 T205 set and added another dimension to it that fit in a pack of Hassan Cork Tip Cigarettes. It includes Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Tris Speaker, Napoleon Lajoie and Shoeless Joe Jackson.

“The Land of Sand and Cotton: Texas, Workingmen, and Professional Baseball in 1888,” by Bill Brewster (University of Nebraska Press, 336 pages, $39.95, released April 1, ’26): Austin was just branded the capital of Texas when it joined Galveston, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth and San Antonio, and Austin, where the new state capitol building had just opened when the Texas League was created. Enter cowboys, gunfighters, longhorns and wagon trains. Maybe even the first sighting of Nolan Ryan.

“Spitballer: Stan Coveleski and the 1920 Cleveland Indians,” by William C. Kashatus (University of Nebraska Press, 256 pages, $36.95, released May 1, ’26): Lickety split. Do we trust a Facebook post that someone named Edward Paul Gardner did for the Baseball Books platform: “(Spitballer) is solid and a quick read, but there wasn’t much to Coveleski outside of baseball. I recall his quote from ‘The Glory of Their Times’ (‘Baseball is a worrying thing’) and he’s a Hall of Famer who won a World Series in 1920, was grandfathered in to use the spitball. … Indians/Guardians fans will probably want to be sure it’s part of their library, but Coveleski’s SABR bio (written by Dan Levitt) will probably tell you as much as you need to know about him.” Thanks Ed.

“101 Lessons From the Dugout: What Baseball and Softball Can Teach Us About the Game of Life,” by Harley A. Rotbart and Ken Davidoff (Bloomsbury Academic, 240 pages, $19.95, released Feb. 5, ’26): This seems to be an offshoot of Rotbart’s 2007 “The On Deck Circle of Life: 101 Lessons from the Dugout” (iUniverse Press). What lesson do we learn from that observation? Not sure but maybe there’s 100 more to go.

“Baseball’s Imposters: The Dark Side of Fandom” by Rob Sheinkopf (self published, 160 pages, $24.99, released March 26, ’26): It’s a nice idea, a fun one to bounce around in a group of baseball fans, probably worthy of an expanded magazine piece. Dig into what W.P. Kinsella once called “The Eddie Scissons Syndrome,” inspired by a character in his novel “Shoeless Joe,” which inspired the film “Field of Dreams.” Probably worth half as many pages devoted to this topic — or just the 53 pages he dedicated to a master’s thesis on the topic in 1985. The LA84 digital library also offers this document scanned.

“Cape Cod Baseball League: From College Stars to Big League Futures,” (SABR publications, edited by Mike Richard and Bill Nowlin, associate editors Len Levin and Carl Riechers, forward by Peter Gammons, $29.95, released June 1, ’26): Formed in 1923, with roots back to 1885, the CCBL featuring top college players launched last week with 10 teams. Living more off the motto “Where the stars of tomorrow shine tonight,” there’s a SABR gang of 25 members wanted its own interpretation with analytical and historical pieces essays, plus biographies on players and teams. Editor Richard has been a CCBL historian since 2018.

Later this year:

“Shoeless: The Life and Times of Joe Jackson, 25th Anniversary Revised Edition,“ by David L. Fleitz (McFarland, $39.95, to be released August, ’26). “Shoeless Joe’s” posthumous reinstatement to baseball’s good graces in 2025 warrants this re-issue as those who will clamor for his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, in spite of whatever part he had in the 1919 Black Sox Scandal that led to his expulsion.

“Touching All the Bases: A Story of Power, Purpose, and Surviving the Bronx” by Dave Winfield (with Alan Malmon, Matt Holt Books/Simon & Shuster, 288 pages, $30, to be released Sept. 15, ’26)

“You Gotta Love These Guys: Fifth Years of Seattle Mariners Baseball,” by David M. Schmidt (University of Nebraska Press, 456 pages, $39.95, to be released Nov. 1, ’26): Schmitz is a history chair emeritus at Whitman College in Walla Walla Washington who did bios about FDR and Richard Nixon in the past.

“Crossroads: A Memoir in Baseball and Life”

The author: Dusty Baker
The details: Crown Publishing/Penguin Random House, 416 pages, $32, released June 9, ‘26
The links: The publisher, Bookshop.org

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A review in 90 feet or less:

Johnny B. Baker Jr. has had a good number of moments that he refers to as “crossroads”as he comes up on his 77th birthday.

At least, a baker’s dozen of these pivotal events. When things could have headed down some dusty road full of potholes and regrets.

So many of us have felt some cosmic connection to Baker over the years — tossing him bubblegum as he ran out to his left-field position at Dodger Stadium during his eight seasons, listening to him deconstruct the time he managed the rival Giants to the edge of a World Series title in 2022 only to see the Angels snatch it away — here is a road that opens up, to travel back in his time, reconnect and understand.

Baker almost lets us feel as now we’re qualified to be part of his “grand counsel of advisers,” people he could lean into “anytime I was at a crossroads,” as he writes on page 253. “I wasn’t always read to hear what they might have to tell me — or show me. Some of it was forced on me and I learned from it later …”

Now it’s time to share.

Baker embraced wearing the No. 12 for the Dodgers, as well as every team he played for and those five he served as a manager, because it honors Dodgers outfielder Tommy Davis, wh0 Baker admired as he grew up in Riverside. That’s the number he’s assigned as part of the franchise’s “Legends of Dodgers Baseball” as of August of 2024.

Knowing he had a brilliant writing sherpa in sports journalist Steve Kettmann, co-director of the Wellstone Center in the Redwoods, to keep him digging deeper, we offer these six experiential joys we took away from the project and encourage to find your own:

Chapter 1, page 11: This up-and-down relationship he had with his father — his first baseball coach — shows a path on how to forgive and move on to more positive memories:

My dad taught me … no one controls your own emotions but you, not unless you let them. My dad was one of the coolest dudes I ever met. … My dad explained something … that took years for me to understand, which was the difference between what he called outer dignity and inner dignity and the importance of knowing which was which. The outer dignity is what you’ll do to keep your job and feed your family. There has to be room for that to stretch a little sometimes. Your inner dignity is different. … (it) involves fixed points that cannot be moved. No man should intrude on your inner dignity. You can’t let that happen. … Along the way you have to  learn for yourself what you will take and what you will not take. You must be more determined and have more character. You have to find a way to pull strength from some of the negatives. … I’ve always been taken care of when I guarded my inner dignity.

Continue reading “Day 18 of 2026 book reviews: Life lessons baked into the journey” →