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. 37:
= Donnie Moore: California Angels = Lester Hayes: Los Angeles Raiders = Ron Artest/Metta World Peace: Los Angeles Lakers
The not-so-obvious choices for No. 37:
= Kermit Johnson, UCLA football = Bobby Castillo: Los Angeles Dodgers = Ron Washington: Los Angeles Angels manager = Tom Seaver: USC baseball
The most interesting story for No. 37: Tom Seaver: USC baseball pitcher (1965) Southern California map pinpoints: Los Angeles (USC), Manhattan Beach, Twentynine Palms
Tom Seaver was a stellar bridge player.
Bridge can be a tricky game. The trick is to gather the least the number of tricks bid by the partnership at the four-person table. The rules seem simple, but mastering the strategy and complexity of it all takes time and practice. Intelligence and patience are rewarded.
During his brief time as a USC student — a pre-denistry major, because he sensed he might need a fallback career — Seaver sometimes could be found with friends hanging out at the 901 Club on Jefferson Blvd., famous for its hamburgers and beer.
And bridge building, when he was there.
In the abridged version of how Seaver went from college baseball to a pro career, there should have been a simple bridge there for him to cross from USC to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ stellar starting rotation of the 1960s.
Instead, there was a toll to pay, and the Dodgers balked.
That’s where Seaver’s poker face came into play. A fantastic 2020 book by acclaimed author and former minor leaguer Pat Jordan revealed how deep a Seaver was. But when it came to his MLB future, Seaver wasn’t bluffing on contract demands. Eventually, both the Dodges and USC lost out.
As the Vietnam War started in 1962, Seaver wasn’t keen on being drafted out of Fresno High, where he just finished his senior baseball season with a 6-5 record but made the Fresno Bee All-City team. Still, he had no pro offers, nor any college interest.
So Seaver enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves in 1962 and ’63, with bootcamp at Twentynine Palms. He realized eventually the extra weight and strength he gained in that training allowed him to eventually throw a more effective fastball and slider.
His roadmap to the bigs started with one season at Fresno City College as a freshman, then earning a scholarship to play at USC, the perennial NCAA title team under coach Rod Dedeaux (see SoCal Sports History 101 bio for No. 1).
After Seaver posted an 11-2 mark at Fresno City, the Dodgers were interested. But not more than $2,000 interested. Maybe it was $3,000. That was their reportedly their offer in 1964, the last time MLB teams would have the freedom to sign whomever they wanted before the draft kicked in.
Seaver declined the Dodgers’ gesture and went panning for gold elsewhere.
Dedeaux, who called Seaver the “phee-nom from San Joaquin,” agreed to give him one of his five USC baseball full scholarships — if Seaver first played in Alaska summer ball in ’64. Dedeaux worked out a deal for Seaver to pitch for the Alaska Goldpanners of the Alaska Baseball League, which showcased college talent. The 19-year-old experienced his first Midnight Sun Game in Anchorage — the 10:30 p.m. start on June 21 for the summer solstice that has become part of baseball lore.
In 19 games, starting five, Seaver was 6-2 with a save and 4.70 ERA to go with 70 strike outs in 58 2/3 innings. Later that summer, playing in an National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kansas, Seaver, now with the Wichita Glassmen, hit a grand slam in a game where he had been called in as a relief pitcher. Seaver would say that was one of his career highlights.
At USC, Dedeaux slotted Seaver as the Trojans’ No. 3 starter – also on the staff was junior Bob Selleck, the 6-foot-6 older brother of eventual USC basketball, baseball and volleyball player and actor Tom Selleck.
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. 53: = Don Drysdale, Los Angeles Dodgers = Keith Erickson, UCLA basketball = Rod Martin, Los Angeles Raiders
The not-so-obvious choices for No. 53: = Jim Youngblood, Los Angeles Rams = Lynn Shackleford, UCLA basketball
The most interesting story for No. 53: Don Drysdale, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher (1958 to 1969), California Angels broadcaster (1973 to 1981), Los Angeles Rams broadcaster (1973 to 1976), Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster (1988 to 1993)
Southern California map pinpoints: Van Nuys, Bakersfield, Hollywood, Los Angeles (Coliseum, Dodger Stadium), Anaheim
A mural at Dodger Stadium down the first base line for an exclusive section of field-level seats.
The dogma of Don Drysdale presents itself as an expanded truth-or-double-dog-dare discussion of the “Big D” legacy.
No question it covers Southern California culture, as well as pop culture, and the culture of a Hall of Fame athletic and broadcast career.
There are bigger-than-life discoveries about the 6-foot-6 right-handed sidewinder, a San Fernando Valley-grown kid who spent all 14 years of his big-league career with the Dodgers organization and circled back for his final six years on the planet broadcasting their games:
From the 1960 issue of Sport magazine, the self-authored story: “You’ve Got to Be Mean to Pitch”
Truth that’s been told: Don Drysdale led the league in putting the “mean” in what constituted a meaningful pitch.
Dare to discover: The dastardly stat was never kept, but if some SABR-cat researcher was compelled to go back and confirm, we’d suspect there was enough evidence to confirm he threw more brushback/purpose pitches during his 14-year career, all with the Dodgers, the last dozen in Los Angeles, than anyone else in his era.
He did hit 154 opponents, which breaks down into leading the majors for four seasons and the National League a fifth time. That can be interpreted from what Drysdale put out as his stated philosophy: You knock down/hit one of my guys, I knock down/hit two of yours.
The footnote to that: Why waste four pitches on an intentional walk with one pitch to the ribs will do? That line attributed to Drysdale may not take into the fact he did issue 123 IBB in his career.
Further research from Fangraphs on the essence of the “Two For One Special,” aka the “Drysdale Revenge Factor,’ shows of 18 times in his career where he hit two or more batters in a game. But deconstructing relative facts and figures from previous games and what else was happening is far more difficult to document. That mindset, however, leans into learning the art of intimidation by former veteran Brooklyn teammate Sal “The Barber” Maglie. Properly stated, it puts the idea in a batter’s mind that things could go south quick if you decided you owned the half of the 17-inch home plate that Drysdale decided was his for a particular at-bat.
“Batting against him is the same as making a date with the dentist,” Pittsburgh’s Dick Groat once said.
In a 1979 interview with the New York Times’ Dave Anderson, Drysdale said delivering the inside pitch was a “lost art” 10 years after his retirement.
“I just feel,” he was saying now, his right forefinger swirling the ice in his Scotch, “that when you’re pitching, part of the plate has to be yours. … The pitcher has to find out if the hitter is timid. And if the hitter is timid, he has to remind the hitter he’s timid.”
Back by somewhat unpopular demand — maybe query a few authors whose books in the recent past I might have ended up splaying with an intent to de-boned, all in the name of honest criticism — the 2025 version of the newest spring/summer baseball book reviews returns for another attempt at education and entertainment.
It coincides with the start of the Dodgers-Cubs series leading off the ’25 MLB season in Japan. The clocks are being adjusted as we try to spin forward.
Here, as we have done since 2011*, reviews are more an exercise in empathy for those who open their veins to write these things in the first place, along with our attempt at explaining how the subject matter connects in our universe. Then, there’s an efficiency trying to cover more than a couple dozen new titles that have come into the marketplace since the end of the ’24 season.
This whole thing, initially focused on the insane premise of posting 30 reviews once day over the 30 days in a row in April, challenges us to stay current while also adding some context.
*Our memory is fading and we weren’t actually sure, but that’s the best guess, since we’ve got The Wayback Machine to find things we’ve posted going to the InsideSoCal.com platform that started in 2006.
This ’25 baseball book review project again deviates a bit from its original calisthenics stress test. We can’t do 30 in a row, but the target remains at least 30 reviews. All done by summer.
There’s also a new stipulation: No more links to purchasing books on the website named after a river in South America and empties into the Atlantic. Reviews are no longer posted on the social media site once known as Twitter.
Resistance isn’t futile. It’s long overdue.
Consider this: A book called “How To Resist Amazon And Why: Updated and Expanded — The Fight For Local Economies, Data Privacy, Fair Labor, Independent Bookstores and a People-Powered Future” by Danny Caine, owner of the Lawrence, Kansas-based Raven Book Store, sells for a reasonable $14.95 on the Microcosm Publishers’ website. As well as on Caine’s store site, a zine version for $3.
The website in question, meanwhile, not only offers this book that meticulously besmirches its existence, but has it at 40 percent off for those looking to prove everything the book points out.
From our storage unit, here’s what we plan to cover in ’25:
= “I Felt the Cheers: The Remarkable Silent Life of Curtis Pride,” by the former Angels outfielder who also played for Montreal, Detroit, Atlanta, Boston and the Yankees, and was a coach at Gallaudet, the world’s leading university for deaf and hard of hearing students and was also named Major League Baseball’s Ambassador for Inclusion.
The point it to let readers know these works exist, should you be tempted to pick them up for purchase without knowing their caveats. It’s also a way to uncover projects that otherwise might be off the radar. No fees attached. Enjoy.
Before the first reviews, a short Q&A:
Seinäjoki Library in Seinäjoki, Finland.
Q: What happens to all the baseball books collected during the course of the year to review?
A: Pay it forward, if that’s still a phrase. As in, donate them to the local library.
The 144-page book by Howard Liss released by Random House aimed at school kids interested in sports-related bios was first published in 1971.
Chuck Hildebrandt, a 63-year-old retired digital marketing exec living in Chicago, explained to the Detroit Free Press that he purposefully visited the public library in the Detroit suburb of Warren, Mich., while in town visiting family for Thanksgiving. The reason was to bring back a copy of “Baseball’s Zaniest Stars,” which he recalls borrowing from the city’s Walt Whitman Branch on Dec. 4, 1974, when he was a 13-year-old.
He had forgotten to return it. Fifty years later, he sought some closure.
Hildebrant said he came across it on his bookshelf about five years ago, noticed the Dewey decimal library sticker on the spine, and figured out what happened.
In December of 2024, he tried to give it back. The library declined.
“Some people never come back to face the music,” said library director Oksana Urban. “But there was really no music to face, because he and the book were erased from our system.”
Still, what would the fine have been for a return this late? More than $4,500 according to Hildebrant’s math. To be precise, it was $4,563.75 to be precise, if he had been charged the normal fees.
“I am still somewhat embarrassed so I want to make good on it in some way,” Hildebrant wrote on a social media post.
Hildebrant decided to start a GoFundMe.com fundraiser to see if he could match that $4,564 projected fine, and then donate it to Reading Is Fundamental, the nation’s leading children’s literacy non-profit since the 1960s that so many of us Boomer-types remember from our childhood as well.
To date, the effort raised more than $5,300 with more than 100 donations.
Maybe we can keep contributing. Or …
This book looked familiar, and my recollection must have been finding it at my own library when I was in middle school. The cover illustration of Casey Stengel taking off his cap and having a sparrow he kept hidden in his suddenly fly out was something I wouldn’t have forgotten.
In the book, it explains how Stengel, just traded from Wilbert Robinson’s Brooklyn Robins (pre-Dodgers) to the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1918, was back for the first time at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, playing right field. He noticed in the Brooklyn bullpen that former teammate Leon Cadore was able to scoop up a sparrow that landed. On his way to the dugout at the end of the inning, Stengel asked Cadore to give him the sparrow. When Stengel went to bat that inning, the fans gave him a rousing ovation. He stepped into the batter’s box, dropped his bat, bowed low and raised his cap — and the sparrow fluttered a moment and flew off.
“I always knew that Stengel had birds in his top story,” Robinson was reported to have said.
After reading the story about Hildebrandt — and realizing we are about the same age — I tracked down a New Jersey used book store called Between the Covers listed on AbeBooks.com (the one-stop used book store repository) and picked up a nice copy of “Baseball’s Zaniest Stars.”
It went for $20 (plus $5 shipping). I really did enjoy re-reading it from cover to cover this past winter. Simultaneously, I had been reading Andrew Forbes’ latest piece of fiction, “McCurdle’s Arm,” a 108-page novella released in August of ’24 by Invisible Publishing, and the two seemed joined at the spine.
Forbes’ ultra-creative use of 1890s quirky baseball prose told the story of Robert James McCurdle, who could have been a character in “Baseball’s Zaniest Stars,” along with Stengel, Bobo Newsom, Dizzy Dean, Babe Herman and Rabbit Maranville.
Re-reading that review recently was again somewhat as therapeutic as it was writing it four years ago. The cover illustrations were spectacular as well.
Armed with “McCurdle’s Arm” and star struck again by “Baseball’s Zaniest Stars,” I felt as if I was thrust back in time. No hurry for anyone to come to my emotional rescue.
So, with the start of this ’25 review, “McCurdle’s Arm” goes back on my shelf for safe keeping, and “Baseball’s Zaniest Stars” will go next to it, or I’ll deliver it to my local library with all the other books set to be donated this time around.
The hope is that everything will be fine, and there are no fines attached to anyone’s future enjoyment. And a RIF donation is forthcoming.
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. 16: = Marcel Dionne, Los Angeles Kings = Gary Beban, UCLA football = Pau Gasol, Los Angeles Lakers = Frank Gifford, USC football = Hideo Nomo, Los Angeles Dodgers = Rodney Peete, USC football = Rick Monday, Los Angeles Dodgers = Jim Plunkett, Los Angeles Raiders
The not-so-obvious choices for No. 16: = Brice Taylor, USC football = Willie Wood, USC football = Jarred Goff, Los Angeles Rams = Garrett Anderson, California/Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim = Lisa Fernandez, UCLA softball = Will Smith, Los Angeles Dodgers
The most interesting story for No. 16: Rick Monday, Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder (1978 to 1984) Southern California map pinpoints: Santa Monica, Dodger Stadium
On the 60th anniversary of Dodger Stadium in 2022, the Dodgers gave fans a Top 60 countdown of the greatest moments in the ballpark’s history.
An event that happened on a Sunday afternoon, April 25, 1976, planted its flag in the No. 5 spot. It was also important enough to be included in a 2000 Baseball Hall of Fame’s 100 classic moments in the game’s history.
It involved a SoCal guy playing against the SoCal team. The Dodgers were mere bystanders.
Rick Monday, front and center as he patrolled center field for the visiting Chicago Cubs, wore No. 7 as a tribute to his baseball idol, Mickey Mantle. In a game the Dodgers won 5-4 in 10 innings, Monday had three hits, score twice and drove in a run as the Cubs rallied from a three-run deficit.
In the play-by-play of each inning is posted in a Retrosheet.org account of the contest, this is how the Dodgers’ four-run fourth was recorded:
By more than one patriotic group or another, it has been referred to as baseball’s “greatest play.”
A colorized version of the Jim Roark/Los Angeles Herald-Examiner photo.
The most iconic image of Monday swooping with his right hand — the left-hander had taken off his glove and held it in his left hand — to snatch the American flag out of the hands of a man and his son as they knelt in the outfield grass, having already doused it with lighter fluid and unsuccessful in lighting a match as the wind blew out their first try, was dutifully captured by Los Angeles Herald-Examiner photographer Jim Roark. It was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
The late Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray referred to it as “the most famous picture of its kind since the flag-raising at Iwo Jima.”
It was “Francis Scott Key, Betsy Ross, Verdun and Iwo Jima—all wrapped up on one fleeting instant of patriotism,” added The Sporting News, and calling Monday’s run a resemblance of “Paul Revere at full gallop.”
The description Vin Scully conjured up for the Dodgers’ radio audience as Ted Sizemore was at bat with a 1-0 count was equally as etched in the fans’ psyche.
“Outside, ball one … and wait a minute … We’re not sure what he’s doing out there … It looks like he’s going to burn a flag … and Rick Monday runs and takes it away from him! (Crowd cheers) … I think the guy was going to set fire to the American flag! Can you imagine that? … Monday, when he realized what he was going to do, raced over and took the flag away from him.”
And Scully took our breath away.
Right away, Dodgers publicity director Fred Claire had the scoreboard operator, Jeff Fellingzer, type in a message:
As Monday continued running toward the Dodgers’ dugout, he handed the flag to Dodgers pitcher Doug Rau. Monday recalled seeing Dodgers third base coach Tommy Lasorda running past him toward the perpetrators and “called these guys every name in the longshoreman’s encyclopedia.”
After the game, Monday was still agitated as he told reporters: “If he’s going to burn a flag, he better do it in front of somebody who doesn’t appreciate it. I’ve visited enough veterans hospitals and seen enough guys with their legs blown off defending the flag.”
And you can still get the whole thing (for a discount) on a T-shirt.
Monday served as a reserve in the Marine Corps for the first six years of his MLB career. He said he had lost friends in Vietnam, a war that had just ended in 1976, the country’s bicentennial year. He had heard stories of his father and the Army. Now the country’s convoluted ideas of patriotism, politics, and protests had spilled onto a baseball field.
“Now we’ve got three great patriots — George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Rick Monday,” said Cubs teammate Jose Cardinal as mentioned in the game’s SABR recap.
President Gerald R. Ford called Monday after the game and issued a Presidential Commendation for “Service To Others.”
Two weeks later, when the Dodgers went to Chicago to play a series against the Cubs in Wrigley Field, Dodgers general manager Al Campanis presented Monday with the flag.
Some 30 years after it happened, Monday received a U.S. Senate Resolution.
It has since been commemorated on posters, coins, pennants, U.S. postage collectables and a Dodger Stadium bobblehead giveaway. The Dodgers gave away a copy of the Roark photo as a poster in 1977 when Monday joined the Dodgers.
“The blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment entwined four unlikely and disparate individuals: a Major League Baseball outfielder who instantaneously became a national hero; a photojournalist whose career was made, seemingly for life, with a single shot; and a father-son duo who faced so much mockery and castigation that they have chosen to remain anonymous.”
The stories that continue to be told by Monday as the anniversary comes around each year, and his reactions to it, resonate more.
“You know what’s really kind of strange is I get letters every week, some from people who were not even born at the time,” Monday told writer Mike DiGiovanna before a game in 2023 at Dodger Stadium. “And twice today, here at the ballpark, I’ve already had people say, ‘Thanks for doing something for the flag.’”
When asked about it through the years, Monday has had time to reflect on it.
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” said Monday in 2020. “But I knew what they were doing was wrong.”
“It brings you to tears, to be honest,” Monday admitted in 2013 about the stories he’s heard from veterans since then.
He also said in 2016: “It’s freedom of speech, but the flag itself, I look at it from a positive standpoint … I heard today from one of the moms who lost their son. It’s like Barbaralee (Monday’s wife) says, ‘We drape the caskets of our fallen warriors with the flag, and it’s presented to the family with the words, from a grateful nation.’”
Among the things Monday has on his professional resume:
= The first player taken overall in the first Major League Baseball official draft, in 1965, by the Kansas City Athletics, right out of Arizona State. The 19-year-old led the Sun Devils to the College World Series title. This was three years after he declined an $20,000 signing bonus from Dodgers scout Tommy Lasorda to join his hometown team out of Santa Monica High School because Monday had promised his mother he would attend college.
= A dramatic ninth-inning home run off Montreal’s Steve Rogers during the National League Championship Series that gave the Dodgers a 2-1 win and sent them into the 1981 World Series. It is still called “Blue Monday” throughout Canada.
= Two All-Star selections, including 1978 with the Dodgers, a year after he was traded by the Cubs to L.A. in exchange that included Bill Buckner. Monday wanted to keep the No. 7 as he wore with the Cubs, but Steve Yeager had it. So Monday picked 1 plus 6 = 16 instead.
= A total of 241 homers during a 19-year career, eight of them with the Dodgers, as well as 775 RBIs. He had a single-season best of 32 homers for the Cubs as their lead-off hitter for that 1976 season.
= A 30-plus year career as a Dodgers TV and radio broadcaster, brought on in 1993 after the death of Don Drysdale, after Monday had done four years of broadcasting for the San Diego Padres.
But saving that flag from peril …
It remains in a safe deposit box. Secure. Taken out occasionally for fundraising events, especially to help the U.S. military veterans and their families.
“I didn’t do anything that people I know would not have done had they been geographically close enough to do something about it,” Monday has said. “I’m proud to say that all of my friends would have done the same thing. I think it’s about respect. I respect this country and what that flag represents.
“It’s only a piece of cloth, but, boy, it represents a lot of lives and freedoms that we have available to us because of the people who stepped up and sacrificed. All I did that afternoon was step up. I’m not a hero. I’m just a guy who acted upon what I thought was right. I’m happy I was close enough to do something about it.”
A quote from 1996 on the 20th anniversary continues to resonate most: “I’ve gotten a thousand questions wondering if I’m disappointed being best known for something that had nothing to do with baseball. My answer is, absolutely not.”
He added 20 years later: “If I am remembered only as a guy that stood in the way of two guys trying to desecrate an American flag at a Major League Baseball game, and protect the rights and freedoms that flag represents for all of us, that’s not a bad thing to be remembered for.”
Monday also said in a piece repurposed for the Baseball Hall of Fame: “The back of a baseball card is only good for as long as someone does not put it in the spokes of their bicycle. The flag, hopefully, is going to fly forever.”
In a story posted in 2025 about Jim Marshall, who, at 90, was the oldest living member of the New York Mets, it mentioned that he was also the manager of the Chicago Cubs that day Monday saved the flag.
Marshall said Monday was his favorite player to manage.
“He was such a great, young kid,” said Marshall. “I was there the day he grabbed the American flag when those kids were about to burn it. That was the greatest play of his career. I told Rick, ‘You owe me money, man. I put you in the lineup so you could do that, now you have a lifetime job with the Dodgers!’ So now he gives me $1 every time he sees me.”
Who else wore No. 16 in SoCal sports history? Make a case for:
Marcel Dionne, Los Angeles Kings center (1975-76 to 1986-87):
The Little Beaver — a nickname that stuck to the Hockey Hall of Famer because of his 5-foot-9 stature — continues to lead the franchise in career points (1,307) nearly 40 years after he left L.A. He is also standing second in total goals (550) and total assists (757), collected in less than 1,000 games.
Add to that the all-time leader in hat tricks (24, 10 more than second-place Bernie Nichols and Luc Robitaille), goals created (507.5), even-strength goals (369), total goals on-ice for (1,723), power play goals on-ice for (670) and offensive points share of 101.0. All of which may mean nothing to the non-hockey fan.
But until the Kings pulled the trigger before the 1975 season and got him from Detroit in a multi-player deal involving Dan Maloney and Terry Harper, the legend of Dionne in Southern California sports wouldn’t have happened as he combined with Dave Taylor and Charlie Simmer on the “Triple Crown Line” from 1979 to 1984. Incoming coach Bob Berry was the one to put Dionne on the line with second-year right winger Taylor and career minor-leaguer Simmer. Taylor was the play maker, Dionne was the scorer and Simmer was the one who pulled the puck out of the corners. Perhaps by no coincidence, after the Triple Crown Line’s first season together, Dr. Jerry Buss bought the Kings, Lakers and the Forum from Jack Kent Cooke fr $67.5 million. the Triple Crown Line dominated the NHL in its first season, scoring 146 goals and 182 assists, good for 328 points and Dionne was also awarded the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s greatest scorer — two more goals than rookie Wayne Gretzky. By ’80-’81, the line did better: 161 goals, 191 assists and 352 points, and was voted into the 1981 All Star Game as a unit in a game played at the Forum in Inglewood.
Hideo Nomo, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher(1995 to 1998):
The “Nomomania” that erupted in Los Angeles upon the arrival of “The Tornado” during the ’95 post-strike delay generated a Japanese fan following that had not been seen before in Major League Baseball. The ’95 NL Rookie of the Year and league strike-out leader with his baffling forkball and deceptive windup was also the starting NL pitcher in the All Star game, striking out three of the six he faced. A no-hitter at Coors Field in Denver added to his legend. After stops in New York, Milwaukee, Detroit and Boston, Nomo returned to L.A. (wearing No. 10, as catcher Paul LoDuca had No. 16, the magical number for Japanese players) and had back-to-back 16-win seasons before undergoing shoulder surgery.
In honor of Nomo and the Japanese history of pitchers, Yusei Kikuchi made the 2025 Opening Day start with No. 16, having worn it with Houston and Toronto previously.
Gary Beban, UCLA football quarterback (1965 to 1967):
In ESPN’s 2020 list of the 150 greatest college football players in the game’s first 150 years, Beban managed to get in at No. 146, still the only Bruin to win a Heisman. The blurb reads: “Beban may be the classic example of the bromide: All he could do was beat you. He was not big (6-0, 191), didn’t have a particularly strong arm, and beat no one with his legs. But Bruins coach Tommy Prothro made two comments about Beban that defined his worth: “He has no weaknesses.” And: “The more pressure, the better he is.” As a three-year starter, Beban went 24-5-2, including an upset of national champion Michigan State in the 1966 Rose Bowl, 14-12. Beban and No. 1 UCLA lost to O.J. Simpson and No. 3 USC, 21-20, in 1967. Beban threw for 301 yards and two touchdowns, and he beat Simpson for the 1967 Heisman.” That ’67 season, by the way, showed Beban throwing for 1,359 yards and eight TDs, and UCLA finishing 7-2-1. But since he was fourth in the Heisman voting in ’66, Beban seemed to have the best qualifications, considering his career stats: 33 TDs, 3,940 of passing yards and 5,197 of total offense.
Still, if UCLA fans were to conjure a list of the Top 5 quarterbacks in its history, Beban might only be included with Troy Aikman, Cade McNown or Billy Kilmer because of the Heisman hardware, and because so much has happened to the game statistically in measuring success over the last 50-plus years. Since Beban’s time, only a few UCLA players have ever finished in the Top 3 in the Heisman voting: Quarterbacks Aikman (1988) and McNown (1998) were third. Prior to Beban, only Bruins running back Paul Cameron had made it into the Top 3 (in 1953). Quarterback Kilmer was fifth in the 1960 voting and Donn Moomaw finished fourth in 1952. A second-round pick by the Los Angeles Rams in 1968 — 30th overall — Beban’s rights were traded to Washington and only got into five pro games (also wearing No. 16 for the Redskins) as a backup to future Hall of Famer Sonny Jurgensen.
Frank Gifford, USC football multi-purpose player (1949 to 1951):
The Santa Monica-born Gifford wrote in his 2008 biography that he was given No. 16 by coach Jeff Cravath because USC initially recruited him as a quarterback after he spent a year at Bakersfield Junior College, trying to get his grades up as his dad provided for the family working in the oilfields. By the time Jess Hill took over as coach, Gifford became everyone’s All-American running back, piling up 841 yards on 195 carries, completed 32 of 61 passes, made 11 receptions, had three interceptions and kicked 26 PATs and two field goals. “Hill switched us from the T-formation to a combination of the winged T and the single wing and built his attack around me at tailback,” Gifford wrote in his autobiography. “Besides continuing to play defensive back, I ran, passed and blocked — and we won our first seven games.”
His first action was as a sophomore safety, recording two interceptions in a 42-20 season opening win against Navy at the Coliseum. He was also USC’s placekicker, making 25 of 31 PATs that season. A 22-yard field goal that season against Cal was USC’s first field goal made since the 1935 season, 14 years earlier. He led USC in scoring and interceptions in 1950.
Before he graduated, Gifford married his college sweetheart, USC homecoming queen Maxine Ewart, in early 1952, and they had three children. As a first-round pick by the NFL’s New York Giants — becoming a league MVP, an eight-time Pro Bowl pick and having his No. 16 retired by the franchise — he parlayed that into a longtime career as a TV broadcaster on “Monday Night Football.” Gifford was inducted into the inaugural USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994, after he made the College Football Hall of Fame in 1975, the Pro Football Hall of Fame in ’77 and the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2012.
Garrett Anderson, California/Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim outfielder (1994 to 2008):
The 15 seasons he spent in three different variations of the Angels’ franchise existence speaks to the fact — no one else in franchise history had done that before (until Mike Trout tied it in 2024). The Kennedy High of Granada Hills standout was picked by the team in the fourth round right out of high school in 1990. He was second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting in 1995 (.321 in 106 games, 16 HR, 69 RBIs). The three-time AL All Star was MVP of the 2003 game when he came off the bench in the sixth to hit a two-run homer and a double in the eighth to lead to an AL comeback win. Anderson led the league in doubles with 56 in their World Series title year of 2002 and 49 the next season. He also won two Silver Slugger Award. He finished his 17-season career wearing N0. 9 for the Dodgers in 2010.
Rodney Peete, USC football quarterback (1985 to 1988):
The three-year starter was a dual-threat Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year and as a senior combined to win the Johnny Unitas Award and Pop Warner Award — and finish second in the Heisman voting behind Oklahoma State’s record-breaking running back Barry Sanders. At a school known for its running game success, Peete finished as the all-time leading passer with 8,225 yards and 54 touchdowns, as well as 12 more rushing.
Willie Wood, USC football quarterback/safety (1957 to 1959):
After starring in Washington D.C. and coming West to play as a junior college All-American at Coalinga Junior College, Wood went to USC under first-year head coach Don Clark and became the first Black quarterback in the history of the Pacific Coast Conference (which became the AAWU, which became the Pac-8). Throwing for 772 yards and seven TDs versus eight interceptions, and running for two touchdowns, he was not picked in the 1960 NFL Draft. He wrote a letter to Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi to ask for a tryout, and the team signed him, but switched him from quarterback to free safety. From there he made it on five NFL Championships (including the first two Super Bowls), was a five-time All-Pro first team and four time second team, led the NFL in interceptions in 1962 with nine and, after 12 seasons, was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Pau Gasol, Los Angeles Lakers center/forward (2008 to 2013-14):
His seven seasons with the Lakers as Kobe Bryant’s running made brought him three All-Star selections and two NBA titles, resulting in the team retiring his number in 2023, the same year he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. The 7-footer from Barcelona who was the NBA Rookie of the Year with Memphis in 2002 came to L.A. in a deal that upset many league owners — the Lakers were able to unload Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie — along with his brother, future All Star Marc Gasol — to add him as Bryant’s teammate. In the first game Gasol played with Bryant, he caught a pass and scored, leading Bryant to yell to coach Phil Jackson: “We’ve got a big man that can catch and finish! We’re going to the Finals!” They did for the next three seasons. Gasol averaged 17.7 points and 9.9 rebounds in his seven seasons with the Lakers before leaving to Chicago. As for why Gasol wore No. 16: Rookies in Spain were given that number (or No. 17), as he was in his first season with F.C. Barcelona. He said he had so much success, he wanted to keep it.
Jarred Goff, Los Angeles Rams quarterback (2016 to 2020):
The Rams (and head coach Jeff Fisher) were so convinced they needed the 6-foot-4, 217-pounder out of Cal — even if it was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 draft– they gave Tennessee their first-round pick, two second-round picks and a third-round pick, plus their ’17 first- and third-round picks. Goff then signed a four-year, $27.9 million guaranteed contract. A two-time Pro Bowl pick, Goff wore No. 16 as a tribute to his idol, Joe Montana. Four noteworthy moments in his Rams career: On Nov. 19, 2018, he threw for 413 yards and four touchdowns as the Rams outlasted Kansas City, 54-51, at the Los Angeles Coliseum, the highest-scoring Monday Night Football ever. Goff then guided the team to a Super Bowl in the 2018 season (ending a 13-3 loss to New England. His contract option was picked up and extended to $134 million, with $110 million guaranteed, then an NFL record. In a Week 4 loss to Tampa Bay in 2019, Goff threw for a career-high 517 yards (completing a career-high 45 passes on 68 attempts with two TDs and three picks). But by the 2021 draft, the team changed course and traded him to Detroit in a deal (with a ’22 and ’23 first-round pick) for veteran QB Matthew Stafford.
Jim Plunkett, Los Angeles Raiders quarterback (1982 to 1986):
In 1985, a two-pannel billboard by Nike spanning the 605 Freeway near Irwindale showed Raiders quarterback Jim Plunkett, right, completing a pass to tight end Todd Christensen on the other side of the road. The Raiders had just started floating the idea about moving from the L.A. Coliseum to a new home in the San Gabriel Valley area of Irwindale. (Los Angeles Herald-Examiner photo/Mike Mullen/Los Angeles Public Library Digital Collection).
The last five seasons of his 15-year NFL career were in L.A., coming over with the Raiders after having spent three seasons previously in Oakland. In 1982 and ’83, he led the team to eight fourth-quarter comebacks, as well as eight game-winning drives. His record as a starter was 27-12. He arrived in L.A. after leading the Raiders to a Super Bowl XV title on Jan. 25, 1981.
Lisa Fernandez, UCLA softball (1990 to 1993): A three-time winner of softball’s Honda Award, Fernandez became the first in her sport to win the Broderick Cup in 1993, given to the most outstanding collegiate female athlete in all sports. A four-time, first-team All-American led the Bruins to national titles in ’90 and ’92, plus runner-up finishes in ’91 an d’93. The Pac-10 Player of the Year her final three years, she posted a 93-7 record with a 0.22 earned run average, 784 strike outs and 74 shutouts. The Long Beach native from St. Joseph’s High also garnished three Olympic gold medals, in the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Summer Games.
Andre Ethier, Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder (2006 to 2017): A two-time NL All Star had exactly 4,800 at bats in 12 seasons, where he collected a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger along the way. His top offensive season: 2009 when he hit 31 homers, 42 doubles, drove in 106, scored 92 times and played 160 games, finishing sixth in NL MVP voting. In Game 7 of the 2017 World Series against the Astros, he drove in the only run for the team in a 5-1 series-ending loss with a sixth-inning single. In doing so, he set a Dodgers franchise record by appearing in 51 career post-season contests.
Have you heard this story:
Brice Taylor, USC football fullback/offensive guard (1924 to 1926):
The Trojans’ first All-American player and its first African-American player was a descendant of African slaves and a Shawnee Indian chief, orphaned at age 5. Born without a left hand, he enrolled at USC as Gus Henderson’s starting fullback. When Howard Jones took over the next season, Taylor moved to the defensive line and was also its kicker. He played in all but four minutes of USC’s 11 games in 1924. Taylor was also a sprinter and hurdler at USC and picked to be on the U.S. Olympic track team in 1924. After he coached Southern University, a historically black college in Louisiana, where he started the Bayou Classic game with in-state rival Grambling State, Taylor circled back to become the coach at Jefferson High in L.A. as well as the associate pastor at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was honored as the L.A. City Teacher of the Year in 1969 and L.A. Mayor Sam Yorty appointed him to the Mayor’s Community Advisory Board in ’65. Inducted into the USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995, Taylor also has a plaque honoring his career at the Coliseum’s Memorial Court of Honor. The Brice Taylor Award is given annual to USC alums for outstanding civic service. That’s the bronze plaque included in the Los Angeles Coliseum’s Memorial Court of Honor above.
The 1962 National League Rookie of the Year for the Chicago Cubs as a Gold Glove winning second baseman rests today in Colton’s Montecito Cemetery, perishing in a private plane crash in February of 1964 at age 22. His funeral at Colton High’s Whitmer Auditorium drew some 2,000, including Cubs teammates and pallbearers Ron Santo and Ernie Banks. Wearing No. 16 for the Cubs — he came up as a 19-year-old wearing No. 33 for 10 games in the ’61 season — Hubbs played just two full seasons out. The number was never retired, but held out of circulation for nearly a decade. Hubbs was already a local legend a 12 year-old in the 1954 Little League World Series as the shortstop on the Colton team that made it to the championship game where it lost to Schenectady, N.Y. He hit a home run in the game with a broken toe. At Colton High he was All-CIF in football, basketball and baseball and was was a high jumper on the track team. The 1959 Los Angeles Examiner “Best All-Around Athlete in Southern California” was recruited to play basketball for John Wooden at UCLA as well as play quarterback at Notre Dame. A member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, Hubbs was considering going to BYU or USC when he was signed to a $50,000 bonus to join the Cubs. As a rookie in ’62 he set an MLB record with 78 consecutive games/418 chances without an error — his glove remains on display at the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Riverside-born athlete who was All-American in football and basketball is remembered with the Ken Hubbs Award from the family foundation for the top high school male and female athlete in San Bernardino, celebrating its 60th year in 2024. Notable winners have been Football Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott (1977) and eventual Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels (2019). The L.A. Times’ Jim Murray wrote: “Kenneth Douglass Hubbs was more than just another baseball player. He was the kind of athlete all games need. A devout Mormon, a cheerful leader, a picture-book player, blond-haired, healthy, generous with his time for young boys; he was the kind of youth in short supply in these selfish times.”
We also have:
Rocky Colavito, Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder (1968) Paul McDonald, USC football quarterback (1976 to 1979) Will Smith, Los Angeles Dodgers catcher (2019 to present) Paul LoDuca, Los Angeles Dodgers (1998 to 2004) Holly McPeak, UCLA women’s volleyball setter (1990) Eddie Joyal, Los Angeles Kings (1967-68 to 1971-72)
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. 91: = Kevin Greene, Los Angeles Rams = Sergei Fedorov, Anaheim Mighty Ducks
The most interesting story for No. 91: Dino Ebel, Los Angeles Dodgers coach (2019 to present), Los Angeles Angels coach (2006 to 2018) Southern California map pinpoints: Barstow, Bakersfield, Rancho Cucamonga, Dodger Stadium, Angel Stadium
Barstow, the spunky Mojave Desert city with just enough space for a few key street signals to warn motorists of a major railroad crossings, has become one of the most important pivot points on California’s section of Route 66.
From all points east, where motorists have likely having threaded their way through Needles via the Grand Canyon to get to this 40-square-mile spot, there are three main options toward a mirage of blissfulness. From what’s now called Highway 40, there is: a) go north on the 15 to Las Vegas; b) go south on the 15, eventually hit the 10 and divert to Palm Springs, or c) continue on to the Santa Monica Pier for the end of the Mother Road.
Dino Ebel, neither a dinosaur on a baseball diamond nor in danger of becoming extinct, is Barstow’s representative in every Major League Ballpark when it comes to options heading into third base. Ebel is able, ready and more-than-willing to throw up the stop sign. Or quickly wave someone past him. Flash a sign. Offer a high-five and a pat on the back.
It was calculated that in mid-June of the 2019 baseball season, the Dodgers had put aboard 1,756 base runners. Only six had been thrown out at home plate. If they made baseball cards for third-base coaches, that’s the kind of stats you’d have to work with.
“I honestly haven’t seen anyone better in baseball taking hold of third base,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said at the time.
Processing all sorts of data in a split-second of head space — a base runner’s runner’s speed, the arm strength of the outfielder who just took possession of the ball in play, how many outs and which inning we exist in, seeing where are the cut-off men are situated, does this run matter in the grand scheme of the game … That’s just the basics when a ball is in play. Otherwise, it’s communicating to a batter and runner that a hit-and-run play is on. Or a bunt. Or a take. All based on a series of deceptive touching the chest, cap, leg, belt or face.
Risk/reward has no middle ground. Ebel is that experienced gatekeeper. And, ultimately, the communicator. The traffic cop.
For the entirety of the 21st Century, the Dodgers and Angels can thank Ebel for his service. The Dodgers had first claim on him, as an undrafted player out of college, grooming him as a minor-league instructional coach and eventual manager. The Angels borrowed and promoted him for a 15-year run. The Dodgers got him back, and dividends have been paid with two World Series titles.
Because of his success, he has been retrofitted as a Barstow landmark. He’s had his enshrinement in the San Bernardino Valley College Hall of Fame in 2012, and his No. 6 retired by the Barstow High Aztecs in 2021. So next time you’re at the outlet mall, trying to find something to do between a trip to the giant In-And-Out or the Motel 6 sleepover, look up the Ebels. He’ll wave you over.
As the co-MVP of the San Andreas League during his senior year in 1984 at Barstow High, Ebel hit .409 with six homers and 19 RBIs as a middle infielder to go with a 7-2 record on the mound and a 2.78 ERA.
After playing for a couple of conference championship seasons at San Bernardino Valley College, where he posted a .295 average, he signed a letter of intent to go to Cal State Fullerton. A transcript review revealed Ebel was one class credit short. At that point, Philadelphia drafted him in the 27th round of the 1986 MLB Draft. Ebel instead diverted to Florida Southern in Lakeland, Fla. There, he was part of the Moccasins’ 1988 NCAA Division II title team, second-team All-American with a .365 batting average
After his senior season, the already multi-tasking second baseman/shortstop/third baseman signed with the Dodgers, undrafted, in 1988. He remembers watching Kirk Gibson’s Game 1 walk-off homer at a friend’s house in Barstow while eating pizza and cheering in his own home with his parents at a time when the Dodgers were to clinch the title over Oakland. Ebel said he already felt like he was a part of the team from a distance as a member of the Dodgers organization.
Six seasons in the minor leagues — a Dodgers’ Rookie Gulf Coast League Player of the Year in Sarasota, then at single-A Bakersfield and Vero Beach, double-A San Antonio and reaching two games at triple-A Albuquerque at the end of the 1991 season would be the peak of his playing days. He was in the Dodgers system with future stars such as Pedro Martinez, Mike Piazza and Raul Mondesi.
Ebel was pushed to learn the defensive nuances of every infield position from then-Dodger infield coordinator Chico Fernandez. Ebel learned about instincts and preparation from former Dodger longtime third base coach Joe Amalfitano.
At some point, the 25-year-old Ebel figured out he wasn’t going to get much better than a round-trip ticket back to Bakersfield, even as he played ball in the ’89, ’90 and ‘91 off seasons for the Adelaide Giants of the Australian Baseball League, a Dodger affiliate.
“I didn’t want to bounce around the minor leagues,” Ebel said. “Maybe that dream of getting to the big leagues might have come true, but I said I’m going to buckle down, and if I can’t make it as a player, I’m going to make it as a coach. You set goals for yourself and the goal was, if I’m going to start a coaching career, then the goal was to get to be in a Dodger uniform and be a part of that coaching staff.”
That year, Ebel toured the Dodgers’ farm system as a player-coach for four years. Dodgers farm director Charlie Blaney saw the way Ebel connected with players, serving as a mentor to some.
Ebel moved into full-time coaching for the San Bernardino Spirit (1995) and San Antonio Missions (1996). When Del Crandall resigned in the middle of a 13-game losing streak for the San Bernardino Stampede in ’97, Ebel stepped in and led the team to the championship series.
From 1998 to 2004, Ebel posted a 531-496 record as a minor-league manager in the Dodgers’ system. In that span, the Dodgers’ parent team hadn’t reached a World Series.
Mike Scioscia, the Angels’ manager who knew of Ebel while both were in the Dodgers’ system, added him to his big-league staff as a coach in 2006. Ebel first managed the franchise’s Triple-A Salt Lake (Utah) Stingers (formerly known as the Buzz, known thereafter as the Bees) to a 79-65 mark with a roster that included future big-leaguers Adam Kennedy, Ervin Santana, Joe Saunders, Casey Kotchman, Dallas McPherson and Curtis Pride.
Angels DH Shohei Ohtani listens to third base coach Dino Ebel during a game against the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium in 2018. (Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Wearing No. 12 (and later No. 21) in the Angels’ third-base box, Ebel was given free reign to do his work as Scioscia stressed an aggressive, National League type approach on the basepaths. Ebel was also a master at throwing batting practice, fine-tuning the likes of Angels’ Vlad Guerrero and Albert Pujols — eventually pitching to the two when they competed in the annual Home Run Derby during the All Star Game. Pujols even gave Ebel a new blue Corvette for helping him in 2021.
Moving from third-base coach to Scioscia’s bench coach in 2013, Ebel was known for his loud whistle to signal defensive alignments. Back in the third-base box in 2018, that would be his last year with the Angels (as well as Scioscia’s final year as manager). Ebel interviewed for the open Angels’ managerial job, but it was given to Brad Ausmus.
When the Dodgers saw their third-base coach Chris Woodward leave in 2019 to become manager of the Texas Rangers, Ebel got the callback.
“I was so thrilled,” Ebel said, taking back the No. 12. “When I got that call from Andrew Friedman asking me to join their staff, I can’t even explain it, it was exciting for me to just know I’m going to put that Dodger uniform back on and be on that Major League field at Dodger Stadium every day.”
Two World Series rings came Ebel’s way in his first five seasons. He was also back pitching in the 2024 Home Run Derby, trying to help the Dodgers’ Teoscar Hernandez.
Ebel switched to No. 91 after the Dodgers’ acquisition of Joey Gallo in 2022, who wanted to wear No. 12. No Dodgers’ player has ever wore No. 91.
“Dino is one of the best, if not the best, third base coaches in the game,” Roberts said, noting that Ebel has been the U.S. World Baseball Classic coach in 2023 and ‘26. “Working with (Scioscia), what he’s done with the infielders — and he’s done some outfield with the Angels — base running, they’ve been one of the better base running teams in the last decade. His experience, his preparedness and ability to connect with players and teach them.
“He’s very well-versed, a person who’s loyal and was a Dodger, I know he’s thrilled to be back in Dodger blue.”
Ebel, who goes back to Barstow every off season to work with local kids in baseball clinics, is famous for his 30-minute four-mile runs every morning at the gym, followed by a trip to Starbucks for four tubs of oatmeal, a handful of blueberries and walnuts.
The baseball success of Ebel’s sons have also kept him in the news, as he and his wife Shannon have lived in Rancho Cucamonga. Brady and Trey Ebel were a year apart at Corona High, having arrived as a pair from Etiwanda High. At one point in 2023, the two were hitting a combined .720 for the team (13 for 18).
Brady, a left-handed hitting shortstop and pitcher, finished his senior season as a Top 100 prospect for the 2025 MLB draft. At 6-foot-3 and 185 pounds, Brady, who has a commitment to LSU to play, was picked No. 32 overall in July by the Milwaukee Brewers. Brady was one of three Corona High players picked in the first round — the first time that has happened in the 60 years of the draft history that three from the same high school were chosen.
Trey, a middle-infielder with a commitment to Texas A&M, is closer in size to his father at 5-foot-10 and 165 pounds as he has one more year of high school.
In 2019, Brady and Trey first started tagging along to Dodger Stadium with their dad after the Dodgers hired him away from the Angels. They would take ground balls and shag in the outfield during batting practice before the start of Dodger game.
What sets them from typical high school prospects at draft time is how they were brought up on the big-league fields, on road trips, absorbing experiences and lessons.
“Watching those guys do it every day, just being able to be in the clubhouse and walk around and see how guys act, has helped me and my brother a lot,” Brady said. “I take pieces from everybody.”
“As a dad, I love it, because I get to spend more time with them, and I get to watch them get better,” Dino said. “The process of watching them work with major league players is something I’ll never forget.”
Shohei Ohtani should feel as much as a son to Ebel as his own two.
Ohtani, a rookie with the Angels in 2018 when Ebel coached third base for the team, reunited with Ebel in 2024 with the Dodgers. The two needed to get on the same page quickly.
In Ohtani’s first home game at Dodger Stadium, in his first at-bat, he drove a ball to right field. Ebel had tried to hold him up at second base, but Ohtani kept coming and was suddenly stranded in front of third base — where teammate Mookie Betts was standing. Ohtani assumed Betts would score from first base on the hit, but Ebel held Betts up. There were no outs. Betts at third and Ohtani at second would have provided No. 3 hitter Freddie Freeman with many opportunities.
Ebel, who positioned himself up the third-base line toward home plate, also wasn’t sure if St. Louis outfielder Jordan Walker could make a strong throw to the plate if Ebel was to have sent Betts. Ohtani couldn’t find Ebel in his line of vision, as Ebel was farther up the line, stopping Betts from going home.
“He was like, ‘I gotta learn from this,” Ebel said of Ohtani, after talking to him and interpreter Will Ireton when the inning ended. “He’s always learning. He’s never a guy who is gonna turn away a time to learn. So I thought it was good on his part. And it was good for me, learning again how fast he is.”
It’s always a teachable moment for Ebel.
Dodgers coach Dino Ebel, left, celebrates with Shohei Ohtani after the Dodgers’ star hits a solo home run in a game against the Chicago Cubs at the Tokyo Dome on March 19,2025. (Photo by Yuki Taguchi/Getty Images)
In the same week Ebel’s son Brady was drafted — and having missed the Dodgers’ final game before the All-Star break in San Francisco to be at home for the draft party — Dino Ebel was with the Dodgers coaching crew in Atlanta dispatched to the MLB All Star Game.
And when that game ended in a 6-6 tie, a new rule went into effect: A three-round “swing off” home-run contest between three hitters from the NL and AL.
Ebel was sent out as the pitcher for the NL team. First hitter Kyle Stowers of Miami managed one homer. But second hitter Kyle Schwarber got three homers in three swings to bring the NL from two down to one ahead. The NL didn’t have to use its last hitter, Pete Alonzo, because the NL built enough of a lead.
Some suggested Ebel be listed as the winning pitcher in the box score.
“What an exciting moment, I think, for baseball, for all the people that stayed, who watched on television, everything,” Ebel said. “That was pretty awesome to be a part of … I had like 10 throws just to get loose. And then it’s like, ‘Let’s bring it on.’ “
In 2022, Ebel got a reminder of how far he had come in his career.
Nearly 40 years after playing Little League Baseball with Ebel in Barstow, Lee Schroeder reconnected with him at a Dodgers-Brewers game in Milwaukee.
“Back in the ’70s, there were two season-ending Little League Tournaments where Dino played for East Barstow and I played for West Barstow, ” Schroeder told the Victorville Daily Press. “It was a great rivalry where our teams fought hard to win. I think we lost in ’77 and they won the following year.
“(After alerting a Dodgers official about their arrival), Dino comes out and says ‘You’re Lee, aren’t you?’” Schroeder said. “I introduced Dino to (my son) Austin, then we chatted for about 10 minutes just like old friends.”
Austin Schroeder said it “was amazing to be in this big ballpark, watching Dino and my dad talking about old times.”
Talking at a Barstow clinic event in 2019, Ebel explained his philosophy as a coach, which also applies to how he views life.
“It’s always been three things for me: Communicate, build the relationship and trust factor,” Ebel said. “Once you get those three things in place and the player knows you care, it just makes it easier. That’s how it’s always been with me.”
That’s where Barstow will get you when you’re connecting dots and directing traffic.
Who else wore No. 91 in SoCal sports history? Make a case for:
== Kevin Green, Los Angeles Rams linebacker/defensive end (1985 to 1992)
En route to a 2016 induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Greene and his long blond locks were a fifth-round draft pick of the Rams (113th overall) in the 1985 selection out of Auburn — a 6-foot-3, 247-pound dynamic force who grew up in an Army family and was in the U.S. National Guard while in college, learning to become paratrooper. A left-defensive end for the Rams, he didn’t earn the first of his 160 career sacks in an ’85 playoff game against Dallas, and didn’t start a game for head coach John Robinson for his first three seasons. By ’88, he led the Rams with 16 ½ sacks, second in the league to Reggie White, with 4 ½ of them coming against San Francisco’s Joe Montana in a key late-season game the Rams needed to win to make the playoffs. In a three-year period from 1987 to 1990, he had 46 sacks, more than any other NFL player in that span, thriving in a Fritz Shurmer five-linebacker defense that highlighted Greene’s speed and pass-rush abilities. The Rams’ change in 1991 to Jeff Fisher as the defensive coordinator moved Green to a right defensive end, and he moved around in 3-4 and 4-3 alignments with only three sacks. His 10 sacks in 1992 got him onto Sports Illustrated Paul Zimmerman’s annual All-Pro team because of the added skills he brought to the Rams with new defensive coordinator George Dyer under new head coach Chuck Knox.
But given the chance to become a free agent, he gravitated to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1993 to return to left outside linebacker. In a 15-year career that included stops in Carolina and San Francisco, with five Pro Bowls and a member of the NFL’s 1990s All-Decade Team, Greene was his team’s top sack leader for 11 of those seasons, retiring third all-time in sacks, plus 23 forced fumbles and five interceptions. Greene died of a heart attack in 2020 at age 58. The Rams offered a statement in that Greene “defined what it means to be a Los Angeles Ram, on and off the field, elevating everyone around him through his extraordinary leadership and commitment to serving others.”
= Sergei Fedorov, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim center (2003-04 to 2005-06):
After three Stanley Cups, a league MVP award, twice Hart Trophy recipient as the league’s best defensive forward and six All-Star seasons during his first 13 years with the Detroit Red Wings, a 33-year-old Fedorov came to Anaheim for a five-year, $40 million agreement (versus a four-year, $40 mil or five-year, $50 mil deal to stay in Detroit) to get more ice time in the shadow of Steve Yzerman. Fedorov had 40 goals and 554 assists in the bank already. The Russian star, one of the first to defect from his native country to join the NHL, had also helped his country to a silver medal in the ’98 Olympics and bronze in 2002. In Anaheim, he was reunited with Ducks GM Bryan Murray, his first NHL coach as the Ducks were coming off the first Stanley Cup Final appearance, but lost start left wing Paul Kariya as a free agent to Colorado. Playing with Teemu Selanne and Scott Niedermayer, Fedorov led the Ducks in goals (31) and points (65) his first season, playing 80 games, but Anaheim missed the playoffs. After playing in five games into the 2005-06 season, the Ducks decided to trade him — to Columbus, for Tyler Wright and rookie Francois Beauchemin. The Ducks were already in a salary dump with the new NHL cap in place. Anaheim won the Stanley Cup the next season without him. And after an 18-year career (wearing No. 91 every season) that ended in Washington, Fedorov made it into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2015, the first Russian to reach the 1,000-point plateau in league history (a feat he accomplished while with the Ducks), and the into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame in 2016.
= Tim Wrightman, UCLA tight end (1978 to 1981)via Mary Star of the Sea High Schoolin San Pedro (1974 to 1977):
From Mary Star of the Sea High in San Pedro, Wrightman led the Bruins in receiving in ’79 and was second-all time in the program when he left, logging 73 catches for 947 yards and 10 touchdowns in 44 games.
In his UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame bio, where Wrightman was inducted in 2003, it was noted that in 1999, he was voted by the Los Angeles Times as the best college tight end Southern California ever produced. A third-round pick by the NFL’s Chicago Bears, the 6-foot-3, 237-pounder instead went to the USFL’s Chicago Blitz, making him the first NFL draft pick to sign with the upstart league. He eventually went to the Bears in 1985 and was part of their Super Bowl team.
Tom Hoffarth's The Drill: More Farther Off the Wall 