“Big Loosh: The Unruly Life of Umpire Ron Luciano”
The author:Jim Leeke The details: University of Nebraska Publishing, $32.95, 216 pages, to be released in July 1, 2025; best available at the publishers website and bookshop.org.
A review in 90 feet or less
The Los Angeles Times sports section of July 11, 1970 features a series of Ron Luciano photos, showing the second-year AL umpire in all “study of emotions” on the first-base line during a game at Anaheim Stadium.
In the 1980s, the baseball media world could count on three things:
= A movie that directors insisted “was not a baseball film at all but really one about (fill in the blank)” made it as a big box-office draw. The lineup included “The Natural” (1984), “Bull Durham” (1988), “Eight Men Out” (1988), “Field of Dreams” (1988) and “Major League (1989);
= Hearing John Fogerty’s song, “Centerfield,” meant whatever you were watching needed a sound track, over track or background score to clue you in that it had something to do with the game;
= Ron Luciano, retired umpire, wrote another self-deprecating book. While pitching Miller Lite beer. After trying to become a national baseball TV analyst. He needed to be heard, seen and, if possible, felt, and hope you were entertained.
If Fernando Valenzuela and Pete Rose generated the most baseball relatable headlines in the ‘80s, Luciano created the most commentary about it and much more.
The 6-foot-4, 240-pound former All-American Syracuse offensive/defensive lineman who bridged the Orangemen teams in the late ‘50s of Jim Brown and Ernie Davis was drafted in 1959 as the last pick in the third round, No. 36 overall, by the NFL’s Detroit Lions. He wasn’t healthy enough to pursue that, or to teaching, so he turned to umpiring school in Florida, thought he was decent at it, and that’s where his path took him.
“A Giant Among Giants: The Baseball Life of Willie McCovey”
The author: Chris Haft The details: University of Nebraska Press, $32.95, 240 pages, released Feb. 1, 2025; best available at the publishers website and Bookshop.org.
What is doesn’t show is that, during the last month of the 1976 season when the five-time defending AL West champion Oakland A’s, scrambling to overtake the Kansas City Royals, made a curious roster move.
It made Billy Williams and Willie McCovey, two National League big-time names, unlikely 38-year-old teammates trading mercenary at-bats. Based on decades of seeing these two on their baseball cards, the versions that appeared now were as jarringly abnormal in kelly green-and-yellow as Joe DiMaggio was when recruited to coach for the franchise in 1968.
In the course of their careers, Williams and McCovey each made the NL All Star team six times, but only once were they together — the 1968 exhibition at the Houston Astrodome. In a predictable 1-0 NL win (it was the Year of the Pitcher), the only run scored when McCovey grounded into double play in the first inning, pushing across Giants teammate Willie Mays, making Don Drysdale the winner. McCovey, starting at first base and hitting third, proceeded to strike out three times against Blue Moon Odom, Denny McLain and Sam McDowell. Williams got into the game as a pinch hitter in the sixth inning and flew out against McLain.
At WaxPackGods.com, here are seven reasons why “this card is cooler than you ever imagined.”
(Footnote: In the 1969 All Star Game, McCovey homered off both Odom and McLain and was named the game’s MVP in a season where he was also the NL MVP).
Now, in Oakland, eight years later, decline evident, Williams and McCovey were serviceable as a DH, a position that had only come about in 1973 when the American League rule-makers felt there wasn’t enough offense and this was a way to keep old, reliable hitters contributing if their time playing out on the field in the National League was a bit problematic.
Curtis Pride walks with his daughter Noelle on the Angel Stadium field after a game. (Photo by Lisa Pride, from the book, “I Felt The Cheers.”
The idea, as well as the fact, that Curtis Pride is still proudly identified these days as an MLB Ambassador for Inclusion since 2015 is worth mentioning right out of the batters’ box.
The announcement came in an MLB press release that remains on its website. The same proclamation noted that Billy Bean, hired as the first Ambassador for Inclusion a year earlier, was to be promoted to VP of Social Responsibility and Inclusion.
To be clear: Bean was actually named Senior VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Even if the press release now reads otherwise. At least Bean kept his title in tact when MLB.com did an obituary on him in August of 2024. Maybe that title dies with him.
In his new autobiography, waiting until almost near the end, Pride acknowledges the responsibilities he feels have come with that designation for the league’s DEI program.
“We worked together to find ways to be more inclusive, which can mean greater accessibility in every stadium, or finding ways for teams to build bridges with their local community,” Pride wrote on page 198. “We did programs for children with disabilities. In my travels I met everyone: the stadium director, the community relations director, marketing officials and attorneys. Basically I worked with a team’s different departments to cover as many different bases as possible.
“One day I believe those club executives will be made up of more minorities and people with disabilities. It was work I really enjoyed, probably because I believe it is so important. It’s a long process, but we are moving in the right direction. The goal is to make Major League Baseball the most inclusive and accessible of all the major sports.”
Pride puts his humility on the line here. It comes from birth.
The author:Gabe Lerman, with Shane Barclay The details: Independently published, 160 pages, $29, released Dec. 22, 2024; best available at JapanBall.com
“A Baseball Gaijin: Chasing A Dream to Japan and Back”
Three-hundred sixty five days later comes the fragile launch of the 2025 new book baseball review parade, aligned with the Dodgers’ trip to Tokyo, Japan, to open the season with a pair of games against Chicago’s Cubs. Again 16 hours ahead.
We’re told both contests start very early on Tuesday and Wednesday — 3:10 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time — meaning again we aren’t sure if we spring ahead 48 hours, fall back to realigned with the Ides of March or just check in with Greenland’s department of defense for proper synchronization of All Things Involving Islands.
According to the chirping of USA Today hipster/longtime baseball badass writer Bob Nightengale, this trip will be like the Beatles touring the United States in the ‘60s … like Michael Jordan and the Dream Team playing at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona … like Beyonce and Taylor Swift performing on stage together on a world tour.
You think Ohtanimania is something in Glendale, Ariz.?
MLB Network Radio’s Steve Phillips has said that with the Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto facing the Cubs’ Shota Imanaga in the first game, and the Dodgers sending Roki Sasaki in the second game, “I don’t think that everybody here in North America appreciates how big this is going to be in Japan for baseball fans.”
Still, this trip nearly didn’t happen, from what we were hearing.
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’ Top 60 countdown of the greatest moments in the ballpark’s history focused on event that played out on a Sunday afternoon, April 25, 1976. It planted its flag in the No. 5 spot.
Rick Monday, patrolling center field for the visiting Chicago Cubs and wearing No. 7 as a tribute to his baseball idol, Mickey Mantle, would have three hits and an RBI in a contest the Dodgers won, 5-4, in 10 innings.
But it’s what happened in the fourth inning that matters decades later. A play-by-play account offered by Retrosheet.org doesn’t do it justice, but there it is for the record:
By more than one patriotic group of onlookers, it still is referred to as baseball’s “greatest play.”
Monday, taking the glove off his right hand and swooping in to snatch an American flag away from a man and his son as they knelt in the outfield grass, having already doused the cloth with lighter fluid and were unsuccessful in lighting a match their first try, was dutifully captured by Los Angeles Herald-Examiner photographer Jim Roark.
It was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Monday continues to lifetime achievement recognition.
A colorized version of the Jim Roark/Los Angeles Herald-Examiner photo.
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. It called Monday’s run a resemblance of “Paul Revere at full gallop.”
Vin Scully conjured up the moment for the Dodgers’ radio audience as Ted Sizemore was at bat with a 1-0 count: “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.”
That’s where Scully took our breath away.
Dodgers publicity director Fred Claire’s quick thinking led to him having the scoreboard operator, Jeff Fellingzer, type in a message with the lighted block letters:
Monday continued running toward the Dodgers’ dugout, handed the flag to Dodgers pitcher Doug Rau, and said he recalled seeing Dodgers third base coach Tommy Lasorda run past him toward the perpetrators and “called these guys every name in the longshoreman’s encyclopedia.”
With reporters flocking to him after the game, Monday was still agitated: “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.”
Monday served in the Marine Corps reserves 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. It was a time when 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’s Wrigley Field for a series, Dodgers general manager Al Campanis presented Monday with the actual flag.
The Dodgers gave away copies of the Roark photo as a poster in 1977, after the Dodgers made a trade to get Monday on their roster.
Few journalists followed up to investigate whatever purpose there was to the two who tried to do this. The stories get kind of foggy.
“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 story is revisited every April 25 since then. Monday never tires of it.
In the run-up to the 50th anniversary of the event happened, the Los Angeles Times recapped both the event’s importance all this time later, and also allowed Monday more runway to ruminate on his experience, often repeated in previous accounting of it.
“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 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.’”
He 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.’”
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” Monday added 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.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame felt it important enough to be included in a 2000 for its 100 classic moments in the game’s history.
It has since been commemorated on posters, coins, pennants, U.S. postage collectables and a Dodger Stadium bobblehead giveaway. The Hall of Fame itself has a T-shirt available as well as limited-edition bats, pins and photo.
An artist who does mock ups of a retro comic book covers created something that can be part of more pop culture history.
The fact Monday is a Southern California native, someone whom the Dodgers scouts coveted out of Santa Monica High in the mid-60s, and then has contributed years as a Dodgers’ radio and TV broadcaster to the modern-fan narrative, only adds more layers to this.
Monday’s other notable moments 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, 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 went with 1 plus 6 = 16.
= 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 …
While it is most often secure in a safe deposit box, it has been taken out occasionally for fundraising events, especially to help the U.S. military veterans and their families.
The Baseball Hall of Fame has been granted the prviledge to exhibit the flag in Cooperstown from from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day Weekend in 2026, overlapping with the country’s 250th anniversary. It has never previously been exhibited in one public location for as many days. Monday was also at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown on May 23 for the Hall of Fame Military Classic, a seven-inning legends game.
“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.”
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.”
Maybe it’s time for another revision. Flag that for the “to-do” list.
Who else wore No. 16 in SoCal sports history? Make a case for:
Marcel Dionne, Los Angeles Kings center (1975-76 to 1986-87):
Best known: 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 was done playing in L.A. He is also standing second in total goals (550) and total assists (757), collected in less than 1,000 games.
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 put Dionne in the middle with second-year right winger Taylor and career minor-leaguer Simmer. Taylor was the play maker, Dionne was the scorer and Simmer 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 for $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 top scorer — two more goals than rookie Wayne Gretzky. By ’80-’81, the line did better: 161 goals, 191 assists and 352 points, and, for the 1981 All Star Game played at the Forum in Inglewood, the three were voted in as a unit. Not well remembered:Dionne remains the Kings’ 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.
Hideo Nomo, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher(1995 to 1998):
Best known: The “Nomomania” that happened 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.
Will Smith, Los Angeles Dodgers catcher (2019 to present):
Best known: His 11th inning solo home run in Game 7 of the 2025 World Series at Toronto provided the winning margin as the Dodgers clinched the championship. A three-time NL All Star, Smith was a first-round draft pick by the Dodgers out of Louisville. He went 2-for-4 in his MLB debut on May 27, 2019 and a month later, he hit a walk-off homer against Colorado. He served mostly as a DH in the Dodgers’ 2020 World Series run and became the full-time starting catcher in 2021. He signed a 10-year, $140 million contract extension in 2024 as he became the fourth catcher in franchise history to hit more than 100 career homers. Smith set a World Series record for most innings caught — 73 — as he handled every inning of the Dodgers’ 2025 run, including the 18 inning Game 3 victory and 11 in the Game 7.
Gary Beban, UCLA football quarterback (1965 to 1967):
Best known: 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 as 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.
Not well known: If UCLA fans were to draw up a list of the Top 5 quarterbacks in its history, Beban might be somewhat forgotten. Since Beban’s time, only a few UCLA players have ever finished in the Top 3 in the Heisman voting: Quarterbacks Troy Aikman (1988) and Cade McNown (1998) were third. Prior to Beban, only Bruins running back Paul Cameron had made it into the Top 3 (in 1953). Quarterback Billy 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 running back, quarterback, defensive backer and kicker (1949 to 1951):
Best known: As a senior, the Santa Monica-born Gifford ran for 841 yards on 195 carries and seven touchdowns, completed 32 of 61 passes for 303 yards and two touchdowns, made 11 receptions, had three interceptions, kicked 26 PATs and two field goals. Gifford benefited from incoming coach Jess Hill switching from the T-formation to a combination of the winged T and the single wing. 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. Not well known: 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.
Rodney Peete, USC football quarterback (1985 to 1988):
Best known: 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.
Pau Gasol, Los Angeles Lakers center/forward (2008 to 2013-14):
Best known: His seven seasons with the Lakers as Kobe Bryant’s running mate 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. Not well known: Gasol wore No. 16 because 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):
Best known: Rams head coach Jeff Fisher was so convinced the team needed the 6-foot-4, 217-pounder out of Cal they gave Tennessee their first-round pick, two second-round picks and a third-round pick, plus their ’17 first- and third-round picks, so they could take Goff No. 1 overall. Goff then signed a four-year, $27.9 million guaranteed contract. 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 guided the team to a Super Bowl in the 2018 season, ending with 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. Not well known: Goff wore No. 16 as a tribute to his idol, Joe Montana.
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).
Best known: The last five seasons Plunkett’s 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.
Garrett Anderson, California/Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim outfielder (1994 to 2008):
April 16, 2026
Best known: The 15 seasons he spent in three different variations of the Angels’ franchise existence speaks to the fact of his longevity at an odd time in the team’s identity crisis. The Kennedy High of Granada Hills standout was picked by the team in the fourth round in 1990 and five years later was second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting (.321 in 106 games, 16 HR, 69 RBIs). The three-time AL All Star was MVP of the 2003 game when hit a two-run homer and a double in the eighth during a 3-for-4 night 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 No. 9 for the Dodgers in 2010. Voted into the Angels Hall of Fame in 2016, he remains the franchise career leader in games, hits, RBIs and at-bats, and third in overall average. With his death at age 53 in the spring of 2026, he was remembered by columnist Mark Whicker: “He didn’t really mind being misunderstood. For one thing it gave him room to take care of business. There was no way he’d be a team spokesman. Too presumptuous. But the closer people got to him, the more they heard his incongruously throaty laugh and heard his wide range of opinions. He was a cheery skeptic about the analytics “revolution” and never abandoned his method of swinging hard at the first thing he liked, yet striking out only 13.3 percent of the time. Fifty-one percent of his batted balls went up the middle, just like the coaches tell you.” Not well remembered: Anderson is the first in MLB history to win a World Series title, a Home Run Derby and All-Star Game MVP in the span of a year (actually, nine months).
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 a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger in his 12 seasons. His top offensive year — 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. Ethier came to the Dodgers from Oakland in a December, 2005 trade for Milton Bradley and Antonio Perez and was the first Dodger to have 30 doubles in seven straight seasons.
Have you heard this story:
Brice Taylor, USC football fullback/offensive guard (1924 to 1926):
Best known: 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. Not well known: Inducted into the USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995, Taylor 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.
Willie Wood, USC football quarterback/safety (1957 to 1959):
Best known: The first Black quarterback in the history of the Pacific Coast Conference (which became the AAWU, which became the Pac-8), Wood threw for 772 yards and seven TDs versus eight interceptions, and also ran for two touchdowns. When he was not picked in the 1960 NFL Draft, Wood wrote a letter to Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi to ask for a tryout. The team signed him, switched him to safety, and he made it onto five NFL Championship teams (including the first two Super Bowls), was a five-time All-Pro first team and four time second team. He led the NFL in interceptions in 1962 with nine and, after 12 seasons, was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Not well known: 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.
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, having perished in a private plane crash in February of 1964 at age 22.
The front of a special Topps baseball card issued in 1964 after Hubbs’ death.
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.
The back of a special Topps baseball card issued in 1964 after Hubbs’ death.
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 LoDuca, Los Angeles Dodgers catcher (1998 to 2004) Paul McDonald, USC football quarterback (1976 to 1979) Holly McPeak, UCLA women’s volleyball setter (1990) Eddie Joyal, Los Angeles Kings center (1967-68 to 1971-72)
Tom Hoffarth's The Drill: More Farther Off the Wall 