Category: Uncategorized

No. 51: Randy Johnson

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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. 51:

= Lauren Betts: UCLA women’s basketball
= Randy Cross: UCLA football
= Chip Banks: USC football
= Alex Vesia: Los Angeles Dodgers

The not-so obvious choices for No. 51:
= Randy Johnson: USC baseball
= Jonathan Broxton: Los Angeles Dodgers
= Terry Forster: Los Angeles Dodgers
= Larry Sherry: Los Angeles Dodgers

The most interesting story for No. 51:
Randy Johnson: USC baseball pitcher (1983 to 1985)
Southern California map pinpoints:
= Downtown L.A. (USC, Dodger Stadium)

Randy Johnson’s 2015 National Baseball Hall of Fame induction came with 97.3 percent of the 549 electorate in agreement, in his first year of eligibility.

It had everything to do with acquiring five Cy Young Awards (including four in a row at the turn of the century), second all-time in strikeouts with 4,875 (behind Nolan Ryan’s 5,714), four ERA titles, 100 complete games, a no-hitter (1990) and a perfect game (2004), 10 All-Star teams, and the fifth left-hander in MLB history to exceed 300 wins. In all caps, the bronze plaque describes his “crackling” fastball and “devastating” slider that provided assistance to six teams over 22 seasons.

The honor has nothing to do with the three years he spent at USC some 40 years earlier, throwing a baseball in the general vicinity of opposing hitter lucky enough to wear a helmet.

“The Big Unit” didn’t have a big-man-on-campus status. He was just in the process of trying to figure how to make his 6-foot-10 collapsible body work as a one unit, to create a body of work.

“The Human Tripod,” a name that could have been pinned on him when he was representing the Daily Trojan newspaper as a photographer, had bigger things to focus on.

Continue reading “No. 51: Randy Johnson” →

No. 31: Cheryl Miller and Reggie Miller

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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. 31:

= Mike Piazza: Los Angeles Dodgers
= Cheryl Miller: Riverside Poly High basketball, USC women’s basketball
= Ed O’Bannon: UCLA basketball
= Reggie Miller: UCLA basketball
= Kurt Rambis: Los Angeles Lakers
= Dean Chance: Los Angeles/California Angels

The not-so-obvious choices for No. 31:

= Carnell Lake, UCLA football
= Karch Kiraly: UCLA volleyball
= Chuck Finley: California/Anaheim Angels

The most interesting story for No. 31:
Cheryl Miller: USC women’s basketball (1981-82 to 1985-86) via Riverside Poly High
Reggie Miller: UCLA basketball (1983-84 to 1986-87) via Riverside Poly High
Southern California map pinpoints:
Riverside; Westwood (UCLA); downtown L.A. (USC)

During the 2005 season, rumors percolated that Reggie Miller was ready to retire from the NBA after a hot-shot, 18-year run, all of them with the Indiana Pacers. He was coming up on 40 years old. It made sense.

TNT reporter Cheryl Miller denied the story was true.

She was even a bit adamant about it as she told her broadcasting partner on air to cease and desist with reporting such inaccurate information. Besides, if anyone should know, would be her.

Two weeks later, during a Lakers-Pistons telecast, Cheryl Miller reported on TNT that Reggie Miller would, in fact, be retiring. Reggie had told his coach, Rick Carlisle, first. Then he gave the scoop to Cheryl.

Proving again: Older sisters protect younger brothers, no matter what their age or their eventual Basketball Hall of Fame status.

For both of them.

Reggie Miller – aka Uncle Reg, The Knick Killer, Killa, Funk and Mighty Mouth, as they are listed on his BaseballReference.org biography – was born 19 months after his sister Cheryl. They were the last two of the five kids from Saul and Carrie Miller at their Riverside home. Included in that was oldest son, Darrel, a catcher for the California Angels (who wore No. 32, 1984 to 1988).

As basketball players, Cheryl was the bigger deal even if, at 6-foot-2, she was at least five inches shorter than pencil-thin Reggie in their adult lives.

It was Cheryl who once scored 105 points in a 32-minute game in 1982 for Riverside Poly High – the same night Reggie scored 40 in a game for the boy’s varsity team. Guess who got the bigger headlines?

In leading Poly to a 132-4 record, averaging 37.5 points a game, Cheryl was also said to be the first female player to dunk in a game. She was the national High School Player of the Year. As a junior and senior.

She picked USC to continue her play, a place making a name for itself with the McGee twins on the front line. USC won a national title her freshman year — the Trojans were 31-2. And in her sophomore year — the Trojans were 29-4. She took a detour to win a gold medal for US basketball in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, and won the Naismith Player of the Year Award three times.

There’s little argument, even today, she is among the most dominant players in women’s basketball history. In October of 2025, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the women’s basketball poll, The Associated Press assembled a list of the greatest players since the first poll in 1976. Without ranking them, Miller was included on the AP first team with Caitlin Clark, Diana Taurasi, Brenna Stewart and Candace Parker.

“I grew up watching Cheryl Miller play,” said Chicago native Parker, who ended up a star with the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks. “She’d be No. 1. My dad was like ‘This is who we wanted you to be.’ I’m honored to be on this list with her.”

In March of 2020, HBO Sports created a documentary celebrating Miller, and it included NBA analyst Doris Burke exclaiming: “She was a bad … mother … fucker.” (Even if our story in the L.A. Times misconstrued that quote).

That nickname is not on any of Cheryl Miller’s internet biography stats pages. It should be.

Continue reading “No. 31: Cheryl Miller and Reggie Miller” →

No. 26: Gene Autry

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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. 26:

=Jon Arnett: USC football; Los Angeles Rams
= DeShaun Foster: UCLA football
= Chase Utley: Los Angeles Dodgers
= Slava Voynov: Los Angeles Kings

The not-so-obvious choices for No. 26:

= Kirk Altenberg: UCLA football
= JoJo Townsell: UCLA football, Los Angeles Express
= Willie Brown: USC football; Los Angeles Rams
= Wendell Tyler: Los Angeles Rams
= Eric Karros: UCLA baseball

The most interesting story for No. 26:
Gene Autry: Los Angeles Angels inaugural owner (1961 to 1998)
Southern California map pinpoints:
Anaheim, Palm Springs, Hollywood

How does the No. 26 become decommissioned from Los Angeles/California/Anaheim/rebranded Los Angeles Angels wardrobe department and truly honor the founding owner of the sometimes-treated second-class Major League Baseball team in the city’s history?

In simple terms: Rosters (for a long time, until somewhat recently) were limited to 25 players.

Autry was considered, by this gesture, the “26th man.”

Who, then, in 1982, decided this needed to happen?

“The players,” as a group, is pretty much the answer if anyone asks. More specifically, the gaggle of handsomely overcompensated employees receiving a generous Autry-signed pay check felt some guilt pangs as they too often rambled toward another an AL West title only to get trip up miserably en route to a World Series.

Among that Class of ’82 bamboozlers was Reggie Jackson, Rod Carew, Bobby Grich, Fred Lynn, Don Baylor, Ken Forsch, Bruce Kison, Doug DeCinces, Bob Boone and, for some reason, 41-year-old Luis Tiant. They were beneficiaries of Gene-Gene the ATM Machine on the Anaheim “Gong Show.”

Autry may have given them all seven-digit incomes, but some felt a need to throw him back some gratitude with their loose change. In the end, did we really need to see the then-75 year old Autry wear the pull-over jersey and sansabelt slacks to prove his ownership of No. 26? More appropriate might have been giving him No. 61 — the year the team was created? Or No. 00, for all the titles they re-reimbursed him for during his lifetime?

By this point, Autry was already a Hollywood success story, all dressed up as a cowboy, with real stirrups. Not the nylon baseball type. That’s the visual we wanted to keep.

Continue reading “No. 26: Gene Autry” →

No. 9: Lisa Leslie

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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. 9:

= Lisa Leslie: Los Angeles Sparks
= Paul Kariya:  Mighty Ducks of Anaheim
= Matthew Stafford: Los Angeles Rams
= Nick Van Exel: Los Angeles Lakers
= Bernie Nicholls: Los Angeles Kings
= Zlatan Ibrahimovic: Los Angeles Galaxy
= Wally Moon: Los Angeles Dodgers

The not-so-obvious choices for No. 9:

= Marquis Lee: USC football
= Juju Smith-Schuster: USC football
= Damon Allen: Cal State Fullerton football
= Bryce Young: Mater Dei High football
= Mickey Hatcher: Los Angeles Dodgers
= Adrian Kempe: Los Angeles Kings

The most interesting story for No. 9:
Lisa Leslie: Los Angeles Sparks (1997 to 2009) via USC and Morningside High
Southern California map pinpoints:
Inglewood, downtown Los Angeles (USC, Staples Center)

Lisa Leslie says she never felt entitled wearing No. 9.

But it would have been quite bold, and actually very cool looking back on it now, had she requested that now-retired number she wore for 12 years on her purple-and-gold Los Angeles Sparks jersey been represented in Roman numerals.

“I’ve called myself a Title IX baby — I’ve been called a lot of things — (but) to be one of the first children of Title IX, an amazing piece of legislation, has really changed my life and the path I’ve gone down,” she told us once.

The three-time WNBA MVP, eight-time All Star, three-time All Star MVP, eight-time All-WNBA first team member (and four time second-team member) and two-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year to go with two WNBA championship as a representative of the Sparks was born on July 7, 1972 — just two weeks after the bill leveling the playing field for boys and girls sports was signed into law, and six days after it took effect.

Blessed with height and athletic skills is one thing. But timing is important as well.

The 37 words that reshaped the landscape of higher education go as: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

It goes back to how the 14th Amendment of the Constitution and its Equal Protection Clause was draw up and ratified in 1868 in the post-Civil War era.

Lisa Leslie at the 2008 ESPY Awards at the Nokia Theater in L.A. Live in 2008.

Leslie said in the ninth grade during a civics classes at Morningside High in Inglewood, she read about Title IX in a textbook.

“When I was reading all this in ninth grade, I finally got it — sports are bigger than me,” she told us. “To me, that was my responsibility. Maybe it was the fact I had a really good history teacher. It changed my life.

“I remember feeling like, ‘Wow, if this didn’t exist, we couldn’t play?’ It was shocking. I’d only been into sports a few years at that point, starting with the seventh grade. I guess it made me realize how much of a privilege it was.

“But you know what – it’s almost like girls are brainwashed because we are made to feel as if: `You better be thankful that you can play’ and `This is a privilege, you don’t always get to do this.’ We believed it!

“That got me so much on track to focus on school – if you don’t get your grades up, you can’t play.”

She likely felt more empowered by it during her days representing the United States on four Olympic gold-medal basketball teams.

We’re all still learning how Title IX has shaken out on the sports landscape. But Leslie remains a powerful force in playing it forward.

Continue reading “No. 9: Lisa Leslie” →

No. 10: Landon Donovan

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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. 10:

= Ron Cey: Los Angeles Dodgers
= Landon Donovan: Los Angeles Galaxy
= Carlos Vela: LAFC
= Norm Nixon: Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers
= Gus Williams: USC basketball
= Justin Herbert: Los Angeles Chargers
= Pat Haden: USC football
= Rick Neuheisel: UCLA football

The not-so-obvious choices for No. 10:

= Willie O’Ree: Los Angeles Blades hockey
= Mauricio Cienfuegos: Los Angeles Galaxy
= Giovani dos Santos: Los Angeles Galaxy
= Marta: Los Angeles Sol
= Cooper Kupp: Los Angeles Rams
= Lyman Bostock: California Angels
= Justin Turner: Los Angeles Dodgers
= Don Klosterman: Loyola University and Los Angeles Rams

The most interesting story for No. 10:
Landon Donovan: Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder (2005 to 2014, 2016)
Southern California map pinpoints:
Ontario; Redlands; Rancho Cucamonga; Carson (Galaxy Home Depot Stadium)

In early 2024, Landon Donovan lamented about the state of the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Once the brightest star in the Major League Soccer universe, the franchise had logged more losses than wins over previous last eight seasons and had been lapped, by almost measurements, by the expansion LAFC team across the city.

“It feels to me,” Donovan told the Los Angeles Times, “like the Galaxy has lost its soul.”

A soulful response from someone who had led the Galaxy to the MLS Cup five times. To the playoffs eight times. Who retired as the league’s all-time leading scorer. Whose league MVP Award is now named after him. Plus, there’s that statue of him outside the Galaxy’s home field.

If Donovan’s words carry a lot of weight, it’s because he once carried the weight of the franchise, as well as the league.

When he assumed custody of the number 10 from 2005 to 2014 in Galaxy lore, it was the core point of the 15 MLS seasons he has a player. It can be argued that he saved the league when it was in danger of going bankrupt.

Donovan became the face of U.S. soccer and marked its growth. He played in the most World Cup games and scored the most World Cup goals of any American. He played with the with San Diego Sockers of the Major Arena Soccer League in 2019. He coached the San Diego Loyal of the second-tier USL Championship and the San Diego Wave of the National Women’s Soccer League while doing work as a broadcaster for Fox.

He’s also carried a lot on his own shoulders — now even more evident as he is assessing his life and how he might help others reach their ultimate goal of personal happiness.

Continue reading “No. 10: Landon Donovan” →