This is the latest post for an ongoing media project — 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 highlight an athlete — person, place or thing — most obviously connected to it by fame and fortune, someone who isn’t so obvious, and then take a deeper dive into the most interesting story tied to it. It’s a combination of star power, achievement, longevity, notoriety, and, above all, what makes that athlete so Southern California. Quirkiness and notoriety factor in. And it should open itself to more discussion and debate — which is what sports is best at doing.
The most obvious choices for No. 99:
= Wayne Gretzky, Los Angeles Kings
= Aaron Donald, Los Angeles Rams
= Manny Ramirez, Los Angeles Dodgers
The not-so-obvious choices for No. 99:
= Hyun Jin Ryu, Los Angeles Dodgers
= Denis Bouanga, LAFC
The most interesting story for No. 99:
Charlie Sheen, as Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn, Cleveland Indians relief pitcher (1989) in the movie “Major League.”
Southern California map pinpoints:
Santa Monica, Malibu, Hollywood
Carlos Estévez, Charlie Sheen and Ricky Vaughn walk into a bar …
The hope is at least one of them comes out alive.
This also seems to add up to more than just two-and-a-half men. The algebra and physics are far more complicated.
Carlos Estévez, as known to his friends when he grew up playing in Malibu Little League, the Pony-Colt transition, and then on the Santa Monica High baseball team, was good ol’ Charlie. His true center.
Charlie Sheen is the Hollywood flip-side, best explained in a 2025 Netflix documentary appropriately titled, “aka Charlie Sheen.” Good time Charlie. You know him to some degree, and then you don’t.
Ricky Vaughn, a role Sheen played as the steel-focused wild-child relief pitcher in the 1989 film “Major League,” amplified his Hollywood persona. It would have a notable ripple effect within the culture of Major League Baseball bullpens. Art reflecting life reflecting relief artists. All the way down to wearing No. 99 for some psychological advantage when staring down a tepid hitter in the late innings.
Meanwhile, there is an art to understanding this “concept” of the Estévez/Sheen/Vaughn triumvirate.
“I think there’s so many stories and many ingrained images in people’s minds about the concept of me,” Sheen says in the documentary, sipping something from a coffee cup while seated in a booth at Chips Restaurant, one of the last iconic Googie diners across the street from a Catholic church in Hawthorne where Sheen is making his confession.
“(People don’t even) think of me as a person. They think of me as a concept or a specific moment in time.”
As this SoCal sports project hits the far end of numbers — starting at 00 and ending here — it seems obvous we found our closer. Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn is called in to provide the Hollywood ending.
Charlie “Wild Man” Estévez/Sheen will get credit for the save. A tip of the coffee cup for those in his circle who’ve saved him time after time.
Grab a beverage and we’ll see where it leads.
Baseball is the connective tissue ultimately in the Estévez/Sheen/Vaughn concept. It become evident sorting through film, TV, tabloids, depositions, affidavits and general convoluted hearsay. Whenever Estévez/Sheen needed the serenity, security and sweet spot of baseball, troubles became secondary.
There’s the famous Jim Bouton quote: “You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.”
Estévez/Sheen might relate to that in a different way.
Continue reading “No. 99: Carlos Estéves, Charlie Sheen, and Ricky Vaughn”
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