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. 45:
= A.C. Green, Los Angeles Lakers
= Pedro Martinez, Los Angeles Dodgers
The not-so-obvious choices for No. 45:
= Henry Bibby, UCLA basketball
= Andre McCarter, UCLA basketball
= Tyler Skaggs, Los Angeles Angels
= Noelle Quinn, UCLA women’s basketball
= Jim McGlothlin, California Angels pitcher
The most interesting story for No. 45:
Tyler Skaggs, Los Angeles Angels pitcher (2014 to 2019) via Santa Monica High
Southern California map pinpoints:
Woodland Hills, Santa Monica, Anaheim
The jerseys became a stack of 45s. The Angel Stadium pitcher’s mound turned into an enormous turntable.
The sound of silence was painful.
One by one, the Los Angeles Angels’ players wearing special Tyler Skaggs tribute jerseys during a 13-0 win on July 12, 2019 against the Seattle Mariners took them off and laid them on the dirt, surrounding a large “45” already been painted behind the pitching rubber.
This was a place Skaggs started every time it was his turn in the rotation for the previous five seasons. A place where, a few hours earlier, his mother, wearing her own Skaggs 45 jersey, threw a perfect strike in a first-pitch ceremony amidst tears.
The fact that on this night, Angels pitchers Taylor Cole and Felix Pena combined on an improbable no-hit performance against the Mainers, and close Skaggs friend Mike Trout drove in six runs with a homer and two doubles, only amplified the emotions.
What was otherwise a time to celebrate tapped into deeper emotional pain.
It was the Angels’ first game in five days. They finished a road trip in Texas and Houston that ended abruptly, and that created a longer time span including the All-Star game.
The game scheduled for July 1 in Arlington, Tex., had been postponed. Earlier that afternoon, Skaggs was found dead in his hotel room. The cause was determined to be directly related to a reliance on opioids, attacking the pain that had been ongoing from an injury recovery but also becoming predictably addictive.
Consuming a mix of alcohol, oxycodone and fentanyl ended Skaggs’ life just a few weeks before his 28th birthday.
This mound of jerseys would have to be disassembled — there was a game to play the next night — but the impromptu gesture, inside the stadium and at another mound outside the main entrance amidst stuff Rally Monkeys, flower arrangements and hand-made cards from fans, had served its purpose.
The Angels had been through this kind of mourning process before related to the sudden tragic death of players — Lyman Bostock, Nick Adenhart, Donnie Moore, Mike Miley — yet there was nothing different about Skaggs’ passing. It was a reminder about a bigger issue in society that had been taking down too many people far too early.
The background
Growing up in Santa Monica, Tyler Skaggs was already into full T-ball mode at age 5 after trying to play basketball, football and soccer. By the seventh grade, he was already throwing in the mid- to-upper 80s fastball.
His mom, Debbie Hetman, knew the power of sports. She was a Cal State Northridge athlete and a longtime softball and volleyball coach at Santa Monica High, later a valued phys ed teacher when her son started attending. Hetman’s twin sister coached as well at various Southern California high schools.
“If you grew up in Santa Monica, you knew who my mom is,” Skaggs said.
Continue reading “No. 45: Tyler Skaggs”
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