OUR ANNUAL JACKIE ROBINSON COMMEMORATION ARTICLE: Remembering His Post Career Legacy

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42, African Americans, baseball, blacks, Brooklyn Dodgers, civil rights, Civil Rights Movement, Dodger Stadium, Dodgers, integration, Jackie Robinson, Major League Baseball, MLB, NAACP, UCLA Bruins, World Series

Jackie Robinson at his Hall of Fame induction in Cooperstown, NY in 1962, flanked by Branch Rickey (left) and wife Rachel Robinson (right). Photo courtesy of thesportspost.com

 

“WERE THERE BETTER PLAYERS? SURE. BUT WERE THERE BETTER MEN? NO.”  – Bob Costas

 

This coming Sunday will be the 71st anniversary of the greatest moment in sports history;

The day in 1947 – April 15th – when Jackie Robinson took his position at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field, breaking a sixty-year color barrier in Major League Baseball and made that sport, according to Ken Burns’ Baseball documentary miniseries,

“…in truth, what it always claimed to be: the National Pastime.”

Every year at this time, along with everyone on the 30 MLB teams wearing Jackie’s number 42 on Sunday, much will be made about how the greatest Dodger and UCLA Bruin of all time endured much racist hate, going against his nature in a huge way by turning the other cheek to the blatant bigotry in order to integrate baseball.

News reports, stories, and articles will abound, as will the showings of the movie 42, starring current Black Panther Chadwick Boseman as Jackie (which I thoroughly recommend) and 1950’s The Jackie Robinson Story, starring the man himself.

As well as Burns’ own two-part documentary on Robinson, which was released on PBS a few years ago.

In essence, much will be covered about Jackie’s life and baseball exploits that have always been covered and well-known, which is necessary.

 

Jackie Robinson with Martin Luther King, who famously told Jackie that he made it easier for King to do his marches, boycotts, etc. Photo courtesy of insidesocal.com

 

However…

Not as much attention will be given to another part of Robinson’s life that I and many others feel was just as important as what he did in a Dodgers uniform; what he did during the fifteen years between his retirement from baseball in 1957 and his much-too-soon death in 1972.

Although he did some of the things that former ball players often do, like be a color commentator for major league games on TV, namely ABC’s Game of the Week in 1965, what was far more important was the things he did that had nothing to do with sports.

In a nutshell, Jackie was, for lack of a better term, an agitator and an advocate for civil rights, not only becoming a major figure in the Civil Rights Movement as he went on marches and appeared in places like Birmingham, working with Martin Luther King and other big names in that struggle,

He was also a major organizer in the African-American community, recognizing the needs for blacks to be producers and providers of jobs rather than strictly being employees at the mercy of people in power who were almost always not black.

Which was why his first post-baseball job was the Vice President of Chock Full O’ Nuts in New York City, a coffee and nut company that expanded to the lunch counter business, Robinson using his position and influence to provide jobs for the Black community in Harlem in particular.

 

 

Jackie Robinson’s family – wife Rachel, daughter Sharon and son David – throwing out the first ball before Game 1 of the 2017 World Series at Dodger Stadium, courtesy of YouTube.

 

In 1964 he started the Freedom National Bank, which unlike the mainstream white-owned banks at that time provided home and business loans to the black community so they could have a better chance to get a leg up on the “American Dream”, sending the message that ownership was a key to prosperity and respect.

Not that he was perfect in his post-baseball exploits, in my opinion; when, after meeting with John F. Kennedy during the 1960 Presidential Campaign and concluding that Kennedy wasn’t as tuned into the civil rights issue as he should be,

And when Republican candidate Richard Nixon sought Jackie out and embraced him, basically telling him what he wanted to hear, Jackie campaigned for Nixon and other Republicans like Nelson Rockefeller.

Which I must emphasize he regretted later on, when he realized that Nixon and the other Republicans were not nearly as focused on civil rights as the Democrats and subsequently campaigned for Hubert Humphrey against Nixon during the 1968 campaign.

 

Jackie going on a civil rights march. Photo courtesy of nbcnews.com

 

 

He was a big part of the NAACP, chairing their Freedom Fund Drive and serving on that organization’s board until 1967.

As for the affairs of his former sport, he advocated free agency for players and ending the major league’s reserve clause, testifying for the St. Louis Cardinals’ Curt Flood in his famous case against MLB in 1970.

And he especially and passionately advocated increasing the number of African-American managers, general managers, and other front office people in baseball, turning down an offer to appear at an Old-Timers game at Yankee Stadium in 1969 and mentioning, in his speech at the 1972 World Series (nine days before his death), how he was…

“…pleased and proud that I could be here this afternoon, but must admit that I’ll be more pleased and more proud, when I look down that third base line and see a black face managing in baseball.”

I hope these mentions illustrate just what an important man Jackie Robinson – the best athlete that ever came out of Southern California; the entire state of California really – was.

And how he was SO much more than just a great baseball player who broke the color line.

Of course I’m going to be wearing my #42 Dodger jersey while playing in my pick-up softball game this weekend, as I’ve always done in personally commemorating this man.

 

 

SAYING GOODBYE TO BASEBALL: Jackie Robinson packing up his Dodger uniform and his gear after announcing his retirement in 1957. Photo courtesy of stuffnobodycaresabout.com

 

 

 

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A NEW GENERATION DAWNS: My Time With Santa Monica College’s Softball Team

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community college, Corsairs, junior college softball, National Pro Fastpitch, Santa Monica College, SMC, SMC Corsairs, SMC Softball, softball, women's softball

Santa Monica Corsair Erika Soto (#22) proceeds to run to second base after striking as Jen Baca (#14) runs to third during a softball game against the Cuesta College Cougars on Tuesday, April 4 at the John Adams Middle School Field in Santa Monica, California. It was a close 10-inning game, which ended in a 6-5 loss for the Corsairs. (Ethan Lauren/Corsair Photo) Photo courtesy of thecorsaironline.com

 

 

SPENDING TWO DAYS WITH A COMMUNITY COLLEGE SOFTBALL PROGRAM THAT I WAS ONCE A PART OF

It had been twenty-four years.

Back in 1994, having gotten my bachelors degree a few years before and looking to make my way as far as working with young people in sports as a career, I volunteered as an assistant softball coach at Santa Monica College, where I had attended in the mid-to-late 1980s, gotten my associate of arts degree, and was able to transfer to UCLA.

Indeed, Santa Monica College, which was a half-block from my house, has and will always hold a good place in my heart as I will forever acknowledge that I would not be a member of Bruin Nation today if it were not for that top-notch community college.

As for my season working on the coaching staff of SMC’s softball team, which was reinstated that year after having been cut a few years before, while I got some valuable experience;

Let’s just say that it didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped, as far as won-loss record (the team won exactly zero games!) or more or less anything else.

However…

Having not seen even one pitch of a junior college softball game since ’94, I had wondered about that Corsair softball program.

Being that my main mission of this blog is to write about sports, teams and events that sites like Bleacher Report and Fansided and news sources like the Los Angeles Times won’t bother covering,

And being that I had already written about high school softball the previous year, covering a clash between Santa Monica and Culver City high schools,

I thought it would be really cool to spend some time with a softball program that was not only from an alma mater of mine, but a program that I was actually (albeit briefly) involved with at one time.

So after emailing Phillip Gomez, SMC’s new softball coach, and telling him what I wanted to do, he was quite agreeable to the idea.

The next thing I knew, I was at the Corsairs’ softball field this past Monday – which in two very “Small World” fashions is not only located on the campus of John Adams Middle School, where I attended when it was referred to as a junior high school, it was also the very same field where I played Pony League Baseball for the Athletics in 1980 and 1981 – shaking hands with Gomez, who I was a tiny bit surprised upon first impression as he looked like he could be a player if not for his gender; he seemed that young.

 

A Corsair making good contact at bat. Photo courtesy of smccorairs.com

 

Which I must emphasize I had absolutely no problem with, as the first time I was any kind of coach in any form I was not yet 15 years old; a girl in my algebra class at John Adams asked me to help out with her youth softball team, which I did, and it kind of snowballed from there in subsequent years.

Plus the fact that Gomez had extensive experience with coaching softball, as did one of his assistants, Samantha Sheeley, who was a pitcher in the National Pro Fastpitch league, more than made their youth a non-issue to me.

In the spirit of doing something different, I wanted to check out an SMC softball practice as well as attend a game, see how things are done today as opposed to back during my time in sports as a player and a coach dating back from the late 1970s to the mid 2000s.

What I saw Gomez, Sheeley, and Chris Druckman (another assistant coach) doing with their charges was interesting and impressive as it quickly became clear that I am very “Old School”, an “Old Wolf” as their culture and practice methods are definitely part of a new generation, a new era in sports in general.

There was an emphasis on conditioning that just wasn’t done in my day, as it was late in the season as the team had only a handful of games left. Back during my time as a player and coach of baseball and softball – mostly at the youth level – pretty much all of the conditioning was done during the preseason practices.

That was not the case with this softball bunch; the different drills that were done reminded me of what I did as a physical education teacher, with the players doing things like squats, jumping rope, and a cone drill that included a side-to-side thing that, in a case of the conditioning being relevant for softball, was great for moving for ground balls.

The three biggest things I noticed with the team and the coaches during that practice was…

• An emphasis on instruction, despite the season being almost over. The coaching staff was big on fundamentals as Gomez told me that the team had only two players when he was hired. It sort of reminded me of the Arizona Instructional League in baseball. I liked that approach; it told me that it wasn’t just about winning games, as was this observation:
• The coaches were very positive in their interactions with the players; no yellers or abusers there. They talked about things like getting into the zone and asking the players for feedback on how things were going, how they found the drills, things like that. Gomez, Sheeley and Druckman were definitely not dictatorial, “My Way Or Else” types or led by intimidation in any way, which I liked.
• As an illustration of how much of an “Old Wolf” I am, the coaches were very energetic, up and about, with Druckman stretching with the players and Sheeley doing the cone drill with her charges, while if I were a coach today I wouldn’t be able to do much more than hit grounders and fly balls and feed balls into the pitching machine because of a sometimes aching back and sore Achilles tendon that doesn’t make it the easiest thing to walk after playing pickup softball on Saturdays or after I’m on my feet for a length of time.

Of course the practice did involve stuff that I remember doing as a coach, like a drill where Gomez faked pitches, having the players swing at an imaginary ball so he could instruct them on their swing, hitting off tees and feeding balls to batters as they hit off the net, and when Sheeley was pitching batting practice; having brought my old glove I helped out by shagging ground balls at shortstop, where I surprisingly didn’t commit an error as I’m strictly a first baseman.

During BP I noticed that Sheeley had the batters hit at three different distances from her, which I also found interesting and impressive.

And it was fun showing the team my photo album of pictures documenting my playing and coaching life in Santa Monica, especially my Pony League team photos as they were taken on that very same field, after practice.

 

A group of SMC softballers supporting each other during a game. Photo courtesy of smccorsairs.com

 

All Right, On To The Game The Next Day…

I got to the field about a half-hour before the first pitch, the team getting ready with their various drills.

The pre-game atmosphere was different from when I was involved in ’94, as there was a scoreboard, music playing, an announcer, and the playing of the National Anthem (a recording) – things that weren’t around during my assisting time.

I was very impressed at how during introductions the Corsairs clapped for the other team, Moorpark College’s Raiders, as well as their own, a crystal clear sign of good sportsmanship that I give much kudos to the coaches for.

There was a bigger number of fans watching the game than I thought there would be; I had a good time chatting with the family members of some of the players during the game.

The biggest impression I had of this SMC team as the game unfolded was how they fought, which I absolutely loved!

Even though they made a few errors that led to multiple runs,

And even though they ultimately lost to Moorpark 11-8,

It was safe to say that I was entertained by those young lady Corsairs, which for someone who has been around, has been involved in baseball and softball at some level and in some form for roughly forty years,

And who hadn’t had any contact with SMC softball nor seen a softball game at the junior college level for nearly two and a half decades,

Is saying something, I feel.

Which is what I told the team afterward as the effort was so there, which any sports coach loves to see.

Not that there weren’t any good things that those Corsairs did, as two players blasted balls over the fence on a bounce for ground rule doubles, and there was one particular play where the first baseman, after catching a wide throw from the shortstop, nailed a Moorpark runner at the plate.

I also like how the coaches kept up the good feedback afterwards, talking about how hard they played and how they didn’t give up.

 

The Bottom Line To All Of This – My Conclusions At The End Of My Two Days With This Corsair Softball Team:

This is a program that’s definitely heading in the right direction.

The methods that Gomez and his staff are enacting are good ones that will produce good results; the way things are going with them, the wins will certainly come.

I told the team such when I said that with all but three of their players returning next season, I guaranteed that they will win more games in 2019 than in 2018.

As much as anything else, I saw the passion among the players as they did their thing on the diamond, which is essential if you want your program – in any sport – to be successful.

I had quite the good time doing this project, as being at a place where I spent so much time during my formative years and through my twenties, the memories inevitably came flooding back.

And the one prevailing thought at the end of the day was that the SMC Softball Program is more than on the right track, thanks to the coaches who pretty much resurrected things.

Suffice it to say, as an Santa Monica College alum (class of 1988), I’m very much looking forward to seeing how they fare down the road.

 

Santa Monica College freshman pitcher Taylor Liebesman winds up to pitch the ball at the Cuesta College Cougar batter at the John Adams Middle School field in Santa Monica California, on Tuesday, April 3 2018. The Santa Monica Corsairs lost 6-5 against the Cuesta College Cougars in the ten-inning softball game. (Matthew Martin/Corsair Photo) Photo courtesy of thecorsaironline.com

 

 

 

Why I Think There Are So Few African-Americans In Baseball

Tags

African Americans, baseball, basketball, blacks, football, Jackie Robinson, Little League Baseball, Little League World Series, Major League Baseball, Major League Baseball Urban Youth Academy, MLB, Negro Leagues, race, RBI, travel ball, youth baseball

A great pic of five legendary guys who paved the way for African-Americans in Major League Baseball, including the Dodgers’ Jackie Robinson (far left), Don Newcombe (center), and Roy Campanella (far right), plus the Cleveland Indians’ Larry Doby (second from left), who integrated the American League three months after Robinson’s debut. Photo courtesy of nydailynews.com

 

ONE AFRICAN-AMERICAN’S OPINION OF WHY THERE’S SUCH A DEARTH OF BLACKS IN BASEBALL, FROM THE MAJOR LEAGUES ON DOWN

It seems like I’m something of an anomaly in the sports universe…

An African-American male who considers baseball – not football or basketball – to be his favorite sport; not only to play but also to watch (though college football and women’s college gymnastics are both a solid and, I must admit, kind of close second).

Granted, I’m in my fifties and from a generation where baseball was seen as more popular by blacks in particular and people in general than today.

But considering the issue of the lack of African-Americans playing a sport that has been seen as the national pastime of this country for 150 years – the percentage of blacks playing Major League Baseball was 7.73% last year compared to 19% in 1986,

I definitely feel like a pink poodle in the African-American sports world.

TONS of stuff has been said regarding the reason why baseball has gotten a lot less black in the past thirty years and what has been done – and can be done – about it, ranging from lack of necessary funds among the bulk of African-American families for their kids for gloves, bats and cleats and to register in the various Little Leagues and travel ball programs, to what some say is consequently the lack of space and (subsequently) lack of interest in the inner city communities.

Those factors, and others, have been written and talked about to death, but after reading about and noticing this trend I feel its high time for me to officially offer my two-and-a-half cents as to why black kids are poo-poohing baseball for football and (especially) basketball…

• Lack of Interest

I agree with those who say that African-American kids have largely lost interest in baseball these past few decades, much preferring to be like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant than Justin Upton and Matt Kemp – or even Barry Bonds.

In addition to the cost factor, it seems to me that baseball is seen as a “white” thing in the inner city communities in particular, something that’s considered “goofy” and not  “cool”; I think such would be the case even if there were an abundance of affordable leagues and programs like RBI (Reviving Baseball in the Inner Cities) and the MLB Urban Youth Academy in Compton, CA, programs that are geared toward increasing interest and participation among young African-Americans.

 

 

A RAY OF HOPE: Hunter Greene from Sherman Oaks’ Notre Dame High School, the #2 overall pick in Major League Baseball’s draft last season. Photo courtesy of si.com

 

• $$$$$

For the young athlete who sees sports as a way out, a way to make his fortune and take care of his family, football and basketball are much more attractive.

Even though a successful career in “The Show” lasts twice as long as a career in the NBA or NFL, the fact that a football and/or a basketball player can make big money right away and doesn’t have to ride the buses in the minor leagues making next to nothing, with a small chance of even making the majors to boot, is a big incentive.

In the minds of many if not most young African-Americans from the “hood”, why should they wait three or four years making peanuts, playing in rinky-dink ballparks, when they can make multi-millions playing in huge arenas like Staples Center and places like Jerry Jones’ AT&T Palace – I mean, stadium – in Dallas or in that new state-of-the-art paradise being built for Los Angeles’ Rams and Chargers in Inglewood right now?

Until MLB changes how things go in their minor league systems (not likely), this mindset will continue to be the case.

• It’s a “Generation Gap” Thing

Related to baseball being seen as “uncool” to young black kids, I think it’s also a case of baseball being seen by today’s millennials as something that their parents and particularly their grandparents were into, a game that’s old, slow, and boring.

A big proof of this sentiment was the fact that the Negro Leagues were a significant part of African-American culture in the years before Jackie Robinson broke the major leagues’ color line in 1947.

Stars like Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston and James “Cool Papa” Bell were just as big among blacks as Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio were among whites, and contests like the annual East-West All-Star Game in Chicago’s Comiskey Park (the White Sox’s home) often drew sellout crowds of 50,000.

The kids who saw those games – and later guys like Robinson, Willie Mays, Ernie Banks and Henry Aaron in the 1950s and 60s, not to mention players like Joe Morgan and Reggie Jackson in the 1970s, Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Dave Winfield and Tony Gwynn in the 1980s, and Frank Thomas and Ken Griffey, Jr. in the 1990s – were undoubtedly influenced in a big way by those players, much like they were influenced by Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan on the hard court in the 80s and 90s.

It’s no coincidence that baseball’s popularity factor among young African-Americans started to decrease, while basketball’s popularity started to increase in a huge way, in the 80s as black baseball fans grew old and died off, leaving a vacuum that football – with guys like Tony Dorsett, Walter Payton and Jerry Rice, and basketball filled rather neatly.

Personally, as another illustration of this my affection for baseball largely came from my grandparents, who blasted Vin Scully calling Dodger games on the radio and TV often during the summer.

I don’t know if I would have gotten to like the game as much if not for that.

 

I sure hope I see at least some of these youngsters in the majors one day. Photo courtesy of usatodayhss.com

 

• My View of What’s Being Done About This Issue

I love the fact that baseball has been trying to do something about the dearth of blacks in that game with RBI and the MLB Urban Youth Academies.

And that Chicago area team that made the Little League World Series a few years back, despite them being caught using out of district players, was real cool and a step in the right direction.

And I have been seeing slow-but-sure growth of African-Americans at the youth, high school and college levels as well as the minor leagues.

However, I firmly believe it comes down to this, illustrated by this old saying…

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink it.

In other words, you can’t force a kid – black or any race – to like or play baseball.

For the same reason a Canadian kid who’s fanatical about hockey can’t be persuaded to eschew that for the diamond, an African-American kid who’s crazy about hoops and the NBA – a kid who thinks Stephen Curry is the next best thing to God in his eyes – cannot be persuaded to give that up to play baseball, or even play it in addition to basketball.

Which is why, while quite unfortunate and saddening, I don’t expect the percentage of blacks in Major League Baseball to ever approach what it was in the 60s, 70s, and 80s again.

The best I can expect that percentage is around 10%; that would be my goal and should be the goal of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and the other powers that be.

I do remain hopeful, however, that the efforts to change this trend produces positive results.

After all, baseball remains the best sport in the world – at least to me.

 

A photo of the East All-Stars in the 1939 Negro League East-West Game, including the legendary Josh Gibson (top row, third from right). Photo courtesy of snipview.com

 

Scenes From The 2018 Los Angeles Marathon

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Beverly Hills, Dodger Stadium, Downtown L.A., Hollywood, L.A. Marathon, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Marathon, marathon, Santa Monica, track and field, West Hollywood, West Los Angeles

Thousands of runners take part in the Los Angeles Marathon 2018 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles Sunday, March 18, 2018. The Stadium to the Sea course starts at Dodger Stadium and passes through West Hollywood and Beverly Hills before finishing in the City of Santa Monica at the intersection of Ocean and California Avenues, just steps from the Pacific Ocean. (Photo by Thomas R. Cordova/Daily Breeze)

 

PHOTOS AND VIDEOS FROM THE 33rd LOS ANGELES MARATHON HELD THIS PAST SUNDAY

 

WINNERS:

MEN – Weldon Kirui, Kenya, 2:11:47

WOMEN – Sule Utura Gedo, Ethiopia, 2:33:49

TOP AMERICANS:

MEN – Rachid Ezzouniou, El Paso, TX, 2:21:41 (7th)

WOMEN – Christina Vergara-Aleshire, Henderson, NV, 2:34:24 (4th)

 

It was another fun time at the 33rd running of the Los Angeles Marathon, going from Dodger Stadium to Santa Monica.

Nothing too out of the ordinary happened as 25,000 runners started from the Dodger Stadium parking lot around 7:00 a.m. and wound through the streets of downtown L.A., Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and West Los Angeles on the way to Ocean Ave., overlooking the bluffs and Santa Monica Beach.

And nothing like a 26.2 mile race to bring people of all walks of life together – races, genders, religions, socioeconomic statuses, political persuasions, gay, straight, etc., which this marathon always does and did on Sunday.

Which will always be a most positive thing in these polarizing times.

East Africans dominated the race once again, there were a few Marilyn Monroes, Elvises, and other costumed runners on the route,

And a young lady by the name of Christal Ryles – who happens to be my cousin – ran the marathon for the second straight year and got a time of 5:07:29, which beat her personal best by thirty minutes.

MUCH kudos to her for her accomplishments, and if she’s reading this, I’ll try to see her at the finish line next year!

Here are some photos and video clips of the event…

 

 

KCBS News reporting on the start of the L.A. Marathon, courtesy of YouTube.

 

 

3-18-18. Santa Monica CA. Kenya’s Weldon Kirui makes his way first over the finish line at 2:11:47, during the 33rd Los Angeles Marathon in Santa Monica at the finish line.
Photo by Gene Blevins/LA DailyNews/SCNG

 

 

3-18-18. Santa Monica CA. Ethiopia’s Sule Gedo first women to cross the finish line at 2:33:52. during the 33rd Los Angeles Marathon in Santa Monica at the finish line.
Photo by Gene Blevins/LA DailyNews/SCNG

 

 

 

Some of the 25,000 participants in yesterday’s L.A. Marathon in downtown L.A. running in front of some cool Japanese drummers. Photo courtesy of scpr.org

 

 

 

 

A really nice recap of this year’s L.A. Marathon from KCBS Channel 2 News,, featuring an interview with a breast cancer survivor and some of the hundreds of high school students who ran on Sunday. Courtesy of YouTube.

 

 

 

Check out that Marilyn Monroe running on the left! Photo courtesy of scpr.org

 

 

The elite woman runners get their start of the Los Angeles Marathon in Los Angeles Sunday, March 18, 2018. The Stadium to the Sea course starts at Dodger Stadium and passes through West Hollywood and Beverly Hills before finishing in the City of Santa Monica at the intersection of Ocean and California Avenues, just steps from the Pacific Ocean. (Photo by Thomas R. Cordova/Daily Breeze)

 

 

3-18-18. Santa Monica CA. USA’s Christina Vergara came in 4th at 2:34:27, during the 33rd Los Angeles Marathon in Santa Monica at the finish line.
Photo by Gene Blevins/LA DailyNews/SCNG

 

 

 

SOCAL BASKETBALL IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT, 2018: Overview & Predictions

Tags

basketball, Big West Conference, Cal State Fullerton Titans, Cal State Northridge Matadors, college basketball, March Madness, NCAA Tournament, Pac-12 Conference, UCLA Bruins, University of California Los Angeles, women's college basketball

The official photo of a UCLA basketball team that has gone through so much this season. Photo courtesy of mostlyuclahoops.blogspot.com

 

A LOOK AT THE MEN’S AND WOMEN’S TEAMS FROM SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WHO ARE IN THIS YEAR’S MARCH MADNESS

 

UCLA BRUINS (Men)

Record: 21-11, 11-7 and tied for 3rd in the Pac-12 Conference

• Swept both games from USC in this year’s season series, 82-79 on February 3rd and 83-72 on March 3rd
• Beat Kentucky in New Orleans, 83-75, on December 23rd
• Beat Arizona in Tucson, 82-74, on February 8th
• Lost To Arizona in the Pac-12 Tournament Semifinals, 78-67, in overtime on March 10th

NCAA Tournament Seed: 11th in East Regional

First Game: Tonight vs St. Bonaventure in Dayton, OH, 6:10 p.m. TV: Tru-TV

Key Players:

Aaron Holiday, PG – 20.3 ppg, 5.1 apg

Thomas Welch, C – 13.0 ppg, 10.7 rpg

Kris Wilkes, G – 13.8 ppg, 5.0 rpg

Thoughts & Prediction:

Anytime you can get your team into the NCAA Tournament after going through much turmoil; namely those three players getting busted for shoplifting in China before the first game in November,

You must get credited for the job you did.

Which is why I give Steve Alford much respect for keeping his Bruins together and focused enough to win 21 games, because after LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill deprived him of the depth that was sorely needed due to their extreme stupidity, things could have been a lot worse in Westwood.

As such, even though they are in a “First Four” play-in game, it’s far better than not getting into the tournament at all.

For all those that dispute that, just ask USC.

As such, I see Alford’s band of Bruins as having a pretty good chance at beating St. Bonaventure tonight and meeting sixth-seeded Florida in Dallas on Thursday, especially if Welch and Holiday, who has put the team on his back of late, have good games.

But that’s as far as I think they’ll get.

PREDICTION: Two and through.

 

The three leaders of this year’s UCLA women’s basketball team, from left to right: Monique Billings, Kelli Hayes and Jordin Canada. Photo courtesy of uclabruins.com

 

UCLA BRUINS (Women)

Record: 24-7, 14-4 and tied for 3rd in the Pac-12 Conference

• BIGGEST WIN: vs 2nd-ranked Baylor, 82-68, on November 18th at Pauley Pavilion – it is Baylor’s only loss this season!
• Gave top-ranked, #1 overall seed, and all-around super girls Connecticut a battle before losing to them, 78-60, on November 21st
• Swept USC in this year’s season series, 59-46 on February 2nd and 84-70 on February 5th
• Lost three games to Oregon, including in the Pac-12 Tournament Semifinals, 65-62, on March 3rd

National Rank: 9th

NCAA Tournament Seed: 3rd in the Kansas City Regional

First Game: Saturday, March 17th vs American in Pauley Pavilion, 12:30 p.m. TV: ESPN2

Key Players:

Jordin Canada, PG – 16.8 ppg, 6.1 apg

Monique Billings, F – 15.2 ppg, 9.7 rpg

Kennedy Burke, G – 10.3 ppg, 4.4 rpg

Thoughts & Prediction:

The one thing keeping me from proclaiming this team as a great one with a more-than-excellent shot at making the Final Four?

One word: OREGON.

Those Ducks exposed UCLA’s shortcomings, as any team that beats another team three times in one season would.

What really hurt was the fact that those Bruins blew a good-sized lead in the last few minutes of the Pac-12 Tournament semis against that Oregon team and lost in a bitterly disappointing fashion.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that I don’t think this is a very good team that coach Cori Close put together, because it is; I saw that firsthand against Baylor.

And it doesn’t mean that I don’t think they have a good shot at going far in this Big Dance, because they do.

If the UCLA team that beat Baylor and swept ‘SC shows up, they’ll have a good shot at getting past (probably) Texas in the Sweet Sixteen and (probably) Mississippi State in the Elite Eight.

If the UCLA team that lost to Oregon three times shows up, however, I don’t known if they’ll get past the second round.

Which is why I’m making this…

PREDICTION: Sweet 16, with a chance at the Elite 8.

 

 

Long Beach State takes on Cal State Fullerton in the quarterfinals of the Big West Tournament at Honda Center in Anaheim on Thursday, Mar. 8, 2018. (Photo by Kevin Sullivan/Orange County Register/SCNG)  Photo courtesy of ocregister.com

 

CAL STATE FULLERTON TITANS (Men)

Record: 20-11, 10-6 and 4th place in the Big West Conference (regular season)

• BIG WEST TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS – beat regular season champion UC Davis in the semis and UC Irvine, 71-55, in the finals on March 10th

NCAA Tournament Seed: 15th in the East Regional

First Game: Friday, March 16th vs 2nd-seeded Purdue in Detroit, MI, 9:30 a.m. TV: Tru TV

Key Players:

Kyle Allman, Jr., G – 19.4 ppg, 3.4 rpg

Khalil Ahmad, G – 15.3 ppg, 3.8 rpg

Jackson Rowe, F – 12.2 ppg, 6.8 rpg

Thoughts & Prediction:

I give extreme props to any team who, after finishing around the middle of the pack in their conference during the regular campaign, beats the teams above them in their conference tournament to earn their spot in the Big Dance.

Big pats on the back go out to coach Dedrique Taylor and his Titans for achieving that at Honda Center in Anaheim this past weekend.

Not bad for a basketball team from a school that is far more known for a baseball program that has won the College World Series four times.

Unfortunately for those Titans, like pretty much every other 15 and 16 seed, I don’t see them giving the bigger Boilermakers from Purdue that much of a fight on Friday.

PREDICTION: One and Done.

 

 

The Cal State Northridge team including Tessa Boagni, center, cheer their team as they take the lead late in the second period over UC Santa Barbara in a Big West Tournament quarterfinal game in Fullerton on Wednesday, March 7, 2018. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Contributing Photographer)  Photo courtesy of dailynews.com

 

CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE MATADORS (Women)

Record: 19-15, 8-8 and 5th place in the Big West Conference (regular season)

• BIG WEST TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS – Beat regular season champion UC Davis, 63-55, in the finals on March 10th.
• Overcame an 0-5 start

NCAA Tournament Seed: 16th in the Spokane Regional

First Game: Friday, March 16th vs 1st-seeded and 5th-ranked Notre Dame in Spokane, WA. TV: ESPN2

Key Players:

Channon Fluker, C – 18.8 ppg, 12.1 rpg

Tessa Boagni, F – 13.6 ppg, 7.6 rpg

Serafina Maulupe, G – 11.7 ppg, 5.0 rpg

Thoughts & Prediction:

I give more respect and props to this team from the San Fernando Valley – from a place where I went to graduate school, incidentally – than I give to Cal State Fullerton’s men’s squad, for a simple reason:

They figuratively rose from the dead, overcoming a 0-5 start to not only win 19 games, but to beat two teams above them, including regular season champ UC Davis, for their ticket to the NCAA tourney.

Those Matadors are a perfect example of the term, “A Team With Nothing To Lose”

Which is exactly what they will be against Notre Dame.

However, in an excellent illustration of reality setting in, CSUN has about as much of a chance of beating the elite Fighting Irish as a snowball’s chance of not melting in that place opposite of Heaven.

That shouldn’t take away from the great job that coach Jason Flowers and his young red and black-clad ladies did this year.

PREDICTION: One and Done

 

UCLA guard Aaron Holiday (#3), the ultimate key player if the Bruins are going to go anywhere in this year’s Big Dance. Photo courtesy of dailybruin.com

 

 

IN COMMEMORATION OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Negro League Baseball in SoCal

Tags

African Americans, Angels, baseball, Black History Month, blacks, California Winter League, Dodgers, Homestead Grays, Jackie Robinson, Kansas City Monarchs, Los Angeles, Los Angeles White Sox, Major League Baseball, Negro Leagues, Southern California sports, Spring Training, West Coast Negro Baseball League, White Sox Park

White Sox Park in Los Angeles, home to the West Coast Negro Baseball League’s L.A. White Sox in 1946 and where other Negro League teams played during the 1920s through the 1940s. Photo courtesy of waterandpower.org

 

A LOOK AT THE LEGENDARY AFRICAN-AMERICAN TEAMS AND PLAYERS THAT PLIED THEIR TRADE IN LOS ANGELES DURING THE PRE-JACKIE ROBINSON/INTEGRATION ERA

In figuring out how to pay my annual homage to Black History Month on this blog, as the Dodgers and Angels’ pitchers and catchers – along with the other 28 major league baseball teams – reported to spring training and began preparing for the season this week,

And as baseball is my favorite sport and has been since I was a kid, a span of more than forty years,

I wanted to find out and write about any history that the Negro Leagues might have had in Los Angeles and Southern California during the years before Jackie Robinson made history in Brooklyn on April 15, 1947.

When I googled “Negro Leagues In California”, I hit the mother lode!

Here I was, a guy who considers myself to be a baseball connoisseur and something of an expert of the game and its history, and until today I knew nothing about how there was once a league called the West Coast Negro Baseball League, consisting of African-American ball players that had its only season in 1946 due to what I’m sure was the handwriting on the wall, Robinson playing for the Dodgers’ top farm club, the Montreal Royals, that year on his way to breaking the big league’s color line.

It’s a little embarrassing, actually, that I knew nothing about how the California Winter League opened its doors to black teams in 1910, letting clubs like black baseball pioneer Andrew “Rube” Foster’s Leland Giants play their white teams for over 35 years.

 

This is what the Los Angeles White Sox’ cap looked like. Photo courtesy of idealcapco.com

 

And it was also a tad embarrassing that I knew nothing about SoCal’s entry in the West Coast Negro Baseball League being called the Los Angeles White Sox, one of the league’s six franchises who played in South Los Angeles’ White Sox Park during the league’s only year in existence in ’46, though they existed for over twenty years before that.

 

The logo of L.A’s West Coast Negro Baseball League entry…

 

As I did my research, I found that some of black baseball’s biggest names dominated the California Winter League, guys like…

• The Homestead Grays’ star first baseman Buck Leonard, considered to be “The Black Lou Gehrig”
• James “Cool Papa” Bell, widely considered to be the fastest baseball player of all time, so much so that a common legend stated that Bell was so fast, he could turn off a bedroom light and be under the covers before the room got dark; he was also known to score from first on a sacrifice bunt numerous times during his career.
• Mule Suttles, the California Winter League’s all-time home run leader with 64, and…
• Satchel Paige, a name everyone knows, whose 56 wins and 766 strikeouts were the most in California Winter League history.

The biggest star for the L.A. White Sox, I discovered, was Dobie Moore, a shortstop who starred for the Kansas City Monarchs during the 1920s, and played winter ball in L.A. in 1920 and 1921.

Moore’s .385 batting average for those two seasons was the highest in California Winter League history.

 

Dobie Moore. Photo courtesy of zekebonura.blogspot.com

 

The stadium that the L.A. White Sox played in, White Sox Park, was located on the corner of 38th Street and Compton Ave. in South Los Angeles, having a capacity of 7,000.

Which was not bad for ballparks on the West Coast at that time.

White Sox Park opened in 1924 as a response to the all-white Pacific Coast League barring its doors to stadiums like (in L.A.’s case) Wrigley Field, located a few blocks south on 42nd Street, and Gilmore Field, where CBS Television City now stands.

Along with Negro League teams, it was also provided a place where Mexican American and Japanese American teams and players could play; it was a source of pride to those communities of color during the 1920s through the early 1940s.

By the end of World War II, White Sox Park was on its last legs, and was demolished in 1946. A housing project for veterans and the Ross Snyder Recreation Center stands at that site today.

 

Batting practice at White Sox Park. Photo courtesy of josemalamillo.wordpress.com

 

 

It was just as well; Jackie Robinson integrating the majors a year later would have killed the West Coast Negro Baseball League, just like it killed the Negro National and Negro American Leagues back east, as fans would ignore those black leagues in favor of seeing what Jackie – and later Larry Doby and Satchel Paige with the Cleveland Indians and guys like Jackie’s Dodger teammates Don Newcombe and Roy Campanella, plus Willie Mays and Ernie Banks – is doing in “The Show”.

Still, being an African-American with a degree in history, it was very stimulating to learn about black baseball in Southern California during the days of the infamous color barrier.

Needless to say, I’m quite glad to have learned about this; it provides yet another source of pride and accomplishment in black culture and the African-American community.

So much so that I think I’ll suit up either in my replica Homestead Grays jersey or my replica Grays cap – or both – when I play in my weekly pick-up softball game this weekend.

I hope you all enjoyed this baseball history lesson as much as I did…

 

Members of the Oakland Larks, one of the opponents of the Los Angeles White Sox during the West Coast Negro baseball League’s lone season. Photo courtesy of sjpl.org

 

 

ANOTHER SOCAL CROSSTOWN RIVALRY: Loyola Marymount vs Pepperdine

Tags

basketball, college basketball, Gersten Pavilion, Lions, LMU Basketball, Loyola Marymount Lions, Loyola Marymount University, PCH Cup, Pepperdine Basketball, Pepperdine University, Pepperdine Waves, Waves, WCC, West Coast Conference

A good shot of some action at a LMU – Pepperdine rivalry game; not the game I went to, but a contest played in recent years. Photo courtesy of fl360news.com

 

CHECKING OUT A CROSSTOWN RIVALRY IN LOS ANGELES THAT DOESN’T INVOLVE UCLA OR USC

 

For a while, as part of the goal I have for this blog to write about sports, schools, teams and events in SoCal that normally wouldn’t be covered by ESPN, Yahoo, MSN, Bleacher Report, Fansided, or even the local TV networks,

I have wanted to check out SoCal crosstown rivalries outside of USC and my alma mater UCLA, due to the fact that they do exist.

One such rivalry that I have been aware about was the one between two (relatively) small private institutions in Los Angeles’ Westside, Pepperdine University from Malibu and Loyola Marymount University from Westchester, just north of the Los Angeles International Airport.

Those two schools have been playing each other in sports for several decades, but because they are (relatively) smaller compared to UCLA and ‘SC and they don’t have football programs, they are not nationally known.

Since LMU is pretty close to my house – closer than UCLA is – I thought it would be a good idea to check out the marquee sport that those Lions and Pepperdine’s Waves battle in twice a year – basketball.

 

Gersten Pavilion, home to Loyola Marymount University’s Basketball and Volleyball teams, both men’s and women’s. Photo by pinterest.com

 

So this past Saturday I set out to the LMU campus to not only see the 168th meeting between the Lions and Waves in men’s basketball, but also to get a feel of the atmosphere on LMU’s campus on the big occasion.

Now I must state – and not sugarcoat – that as far as the records of the two teams, well…

Let’s just say that it’s not exactly North Carolina vs Duke or even the Bruins vs the Trojans, as with LMU and Pepperdine being a combined 11-38 and taking up the bottom two spots of the West Coast Conference going in, with the Waves being a ghastly 4-21 while the Lions were 7-17,

No berths to the Big Dance, aka the NCAA Tournament, was at stake in this 168th meeting between these two programs, nothing on the line save for bragging rights and points toward the PCH Cup, a competition much like UCLA’s and USC’s Gauntlet in that points are awarded between LMU and Pepperdine in all the sports they play against each other, with the winner earning glory at the end of the school year.

Which made me look forward to this game that much more as it would be a match of two teams playing for pride.

Which are often the most entertaining.

 

A shot of Iggy, LMU’s mascot, and members of the Lions’ cheerleading squad from last year. Photo courtesy of twitter.com

 

 

All right, let me describe my experiences at LMU and the PCH Cup hoops contest…

I got to the Loyola Marymount campus to find that they were having a special pre-game occasion, as it was Parents Weekend, with a large numbers of moms and dads milling around with their Lion students partaking of the various food trucks parked on either side of the main quad and bouncy houses for the kids, sitting down at the various tables.

I got to talking to members of “The Cage”, LMU’s student spirit group that fills the student section at basketball games and other contests where their Lions are involved, at one of the booths, and I was impressed with their passion for their maroon and navy blue-clad athletes.

As well as the replica basketball jersey and t-shirts being offered to students who joined their organization.

As I was with “Iggy”, LMU’s lion mascot, and the LMU cheerleading squad when I chatted with several of their members, as well with a few of the parents of various students.

They were all quite nice and helpful in my trying to learn about the rivalry they have with Pepperdine and LMU’s sports atmosphere, showing me the “L” sign they make with their thumb and first two fingers and their “L-M-U” cheer, though (being a former UCLA marching and varsity band member and a current member of the UCLA Alumni Band) I was disappointed that the school has no pep band at their games, but a DJ that spins tunes.

Before long it was high time for me to head on over to the home of the Lions, Gersten Pavilion, where I had been to once before a few years ago.

 

 

Highlights from LMU’s 68th win over Pepperdine in their history, a 85-79 triumph in the latest edition of this basketball rivalry. Courtesy of YouTube.

 

 

Here are my impressions of Gersten and the game between LMU and Pepperdine…

I began the game by sitting in the upper section, which being that Gersten Pavilion is considerably smaller than UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion – with a capacity of 4,156 it is a third of my alma mater’s arena – were good seats as I got a nice view of the court and was certain that I wouldn’t get a nosebleed.

As the Lions and Waves were warming up on the court, I remembered an essential component to my experiencing – getting a program.

When I got to the marketing table selling the crucial info I needed for the game, I got to talking to one of the young ladies manning such booth, who also happened to be a member of LMU’s women’s soccer team and, like the other Lion students was a nice young lady who was graduating in May and had a good career plan mapped out.

Once I returned to my seat and the national anthem was sung quite impressively by a guy who was simultaneously painting a picture of the Marines landing on Iwo Jima, as the game commenced members of the men’s and women’s rowing teams sat around me.

Like all the other LMU students they were nice, but as a middle-aged guy wearing a blue UCLA jacket, I stuck out like a sore thumb, so I moved to another part of the stands.

One significant thing I noticed during the game as the fact that the number of Pepperdine fans rooting for their Waves at Gersten were very few; just a handful of (apparently) team parents sitting behind Pepperdine’s bench, a small number of fans sitting on the other side, and that was it!

It was surprising to me at first, but when I remembered that their navy blue and orange-clad team had only four wins on the season to that point, I ceased to feel that way.

 

Another shot of Iggy, showing his patriotism in front of the LMU campus. Photo courtesy of odyssey.com

 

As For The Game Itself…

It turned out to be a good, competitive affair, and LMU put on a good show as the cheerleaders and dance team performed routines and there were several fan contests on the court during the time outs, including a free throw contest and a guy who would have won $25,000 if he had made a half-court shot.

The halftime festivities were very cool, as Bernie Sandalow, LMU’s answer to Vin Scully, was honored for his decades of announcing Lion sports, and the basketball team from 1978-88, which featured Lion hoop legends Bo Kimble and the late Hank Gathers, who tragically died on that same Gersten Pavilion court during a game in 1990 and who I remember well as Hank and Bo were both my age, were honored.

The current LMU and Pepperdine squads were going at it, the Lions intent on getting revenge for losing to the Waves a few weeks before on a last second shot in overtime.

Both teams played hard, LMU eventually gaining the upper hand as behind six three-point baskets from their senior guard Steven Haney, Jr. and a double-double – 16 points and ten rebounds – from their 7′ 3″ center Mattias Markusson, the Lions got their revenge with a 85-79 win; me being one of the 3,150 fans who saw that affair.

THE BOTTOM LINE:  I had a good time.

I found myself telling various LMU folks that I was planning on trying to see UCLA take on the Lions in baseball this coming spring, and the next time LMU ventured to Westwood to take on my Bruins in hoops, I would at least try to be there.

This LMU-Pepperdine rivalry is a good one.

It’s not quite as intense as UCLA-USC as there are no brawls between the two schools’ students and fan bases and no one paints the other school’s statues in their school color like Trojan students did to the Bruin bear in 2016, or does any other pranks like that, but a good rivalry nonetheless.

Overall, it was quite the learning experience and I was glad I went.

Thanks to LMU for showing me a good time.

 

Pepperdine’s Matthew Atewe going for one of his several dunks during this past Saturday’s game vs LMU.

 

THREE YEARS: Celebrating SoCal Sports Annals’ Third Anniversary

Tags

Bleacher Report, Chargers, Dodgers, Fansided, Friday Night Lights, High School Sports, little league, Los Angeles, NFL, Rams, SoCal Sports Annals, Southern California, Southern California sports, sports, UCLA, USC, World Series

The Coliseum & USC are undergoing a massive renovation of the historic venue. This is what it’s going to look like when they’re done, in plenty of time for the 2028 Olympics. Photo courtesy of la.curbed.com

 

THREE YEARS OF SOCAL SPORTS ANNALS

It was three years ago yesterday.

After seven years of writing and blogging about sports – UCLA and otherwise – for Bleacher Report and the Fansided Network, where I helped create UCLA’s site http://www.GoJoeBruin.com,

As well as write for SoCalSportsHub.com, The110Report.com and LASportsHub.com, (which were really the same site that changed their name) and even serving as editor for SoCal Sports Hub,

It was high time that I declared my independence and start my own sports blog, where I can write about the happenings in the Los Angeles area without any authority over me, where I can write however I wanted.

In other words, a blog where I can be completely free – essentially having my own business.

That was how SoCalSportsAnnals.com was born.

I noticed that it was three years ago today that I wrote the first real article for this site, called “Will The National Football League Ever Return To Los Angeles?”

Which considering what we all know happened in the fall of 2016 is quite amusing to read now.

In fact, in preparing to write this piece I was thinking about what the biggest things to happen in the sports scene in Southern California since I wrote about how I didn’t think the NFL would ever return to L.A.

The return of the most popular sports league to Los Angeles definitely tops my list, as in a span of twelve months the number of pro football teams in L.A. grew from zero (where it had been for 21 years) to two.

The other significant thing to happen in this region’s sports scene in the three years of SoCal Sports Annals was of course the Dodgers’ return to the World Series after 29 years.

Even though we were all disappointed at the outcome as there wasn’t a victory parade in downtown Los Angeles afterward – I still think the Dodgers more or less gave that Fall Classic away as they should have beaten the Houston Astros in five games and won their 7th championship – the fact that those Dodgers had such a monumental season cannot be overlooked.

 

 

One significant event to happen during the three years of SoCalSportsAnnals.com’s existence: The Dodgers winning the National League Championship and going to the World Series for the first time since 1988. Photo courtesy of WTOP.com

 

 

More than anything else, however, my personal highlight in having this blog is being able to cover various sports events and issues that are not usually covered in the mainstream newspapers and sites.

UCLA’s Gymnastics team is certainly one example, as I’ll bet anything that no one outside of UCLA’s student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, gives more coverage to those wonderful bunch of Bruins (who I still consider my favorite team in all of sports) than me.

The Crosstown Rivalry story I did two months ago, featuring a trio of brothers – two of them playing in the UCLA Marching Band while the third one joined the crosstown rival band at USC despite his mom, a Rose Parade Queen, being a prominent Bruin alum, as is the whole family – was the most successful story I did on this site as it was very well received.

Here’s the link to that article: https://socalsportsannals.wordpress.com/2017/11/14/crosstown-rivalry-2017-a-house-divided-among-marching-band-lines/

As well as another example of the goal of covering things that aren’t usually covered.

I perhaps most enjoyed checking out the high school sports scene, going to several events at my town’s high school to check out not only the Friday Night Lights that football provides, but also basketball, baseball, softball, and volleyball to watch my cousin play.

Indeed, I plan to go to a girls’ soccer game later this week and do an article about that experience. I also plan to check out a lacrosse game as that virtually never gets written about; I think experiencing that sport will be fascinating.

I also plan to venture to high school events outside my immediate city and various college sporting events not involving UCLA and USC this year; writing about sports at that level will help to keep this site from being merely about the pros and major colleges.

As well as perhaps spend some time at my town’s little league and write about that, where I coached in the early 2000s; it has been sixteen years since I was there.

It will also keep this blog interesting, I feel.

It should go without saying that I see these three years of having SoCal Sports Annals as an accomplishment, something to be proud of.

And it should also go without saying that I’m very much looking forward to seeing what these next twelve months and beyond will bring.

 

Los Angeles Rams running back Malcolm Brown #34 is pushed out-of-bounds by Los Angeles Chargers free safety Dwight Lowery #20 in the first half. The Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers played a pre-season game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, CA 8/26/2017 Photo by John McCoy/Los Angeles Daily News (SCNG) An illustration of the #1 thing to happen in SoCal sports in the three years of this blog: The return of the NFL to L.A. Photo courtesy of ocregister.com

 

 

 

OUR HOMAGE TO DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. ON HIS HOLIDAY

Tags

baseball, Brooklyn Dodgers, Civil Rights Movement, Dodgers, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jackie Robinson, Martin Luther King Day, Montgomery Bus Boycott, SoCal Sports

Photo courtesy of history.com

 

Yes, I know this is not really related to SoCal Sports, but I honestly don’t care.

It would be remiss of me to not give homage to this man on the occasion of what would have been his 89th birthday today, for what he did not only to this country, but for the world in general.

A particularly interesting thing about Dr. King was how he credited the great Jackie Robinson (that’s the tie to SoCal Sports here) with how Robinson’s career greatly influenced his.

Remember, Jackie played his first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers and officially broke baseball’s racist color line EIGHT YEARS before the Montgomery Bus Boycott, considered by many to be event that started the Civil Rights Movement, began.

 

 

A most appropriate picture for this occasion and this site: Dr. Martin Luther King being pitched to by his daughter Yolanda in 1964. Photo courtesy of gettyimages.com

 

 

Indeed, here is what King said about Robinson’s influence on him…

 

“(Robinson was) a pilgrim that walked in the lonesome byways toward the high road of Freedom. He was a sit-inner before sit-ins, a freedom rider before freedom rides.”

 

And just a few weeks before his assassination in 1968, King told Robinson’s Dodger teammate Don Newcombe…

 

“You’ll never know how easy you and Jackie and (Larry) Doby and Campy (Roy Campanella) made it for me to do my job by what you did on the baseball field.”

 

I hope that convinces you why Dr. King should be given homage on this site today.

 

Martin Luther King with Jackie Robinson, who according to King influenced him greatly. Photo courtesy of dodgersnation.com

IN MEMORIAM: Keith Jackson 1928-2018

Tags

announcer, BCS National Championship, college football, football, Keith Jackson, Major League Baseball, Martin Luther King Day, Monday Night Football, NCAA, NFL, Pac-12 Conference, Rose Bowl, sportscaster, World Series

In front of the Rose Bowl, a place he was quite familiar with as he called 15 “Grandaddy of Them All” (a phrase he coined) games. Photo courtesy of times-georgian.com

 

On the occasion of Martin Luther King Day, we pay homage to the greatest college football announcer of all time – and my personal favorite – as he passed away this past Saturday at the age of 89.

Here are just a few of his career highlights…

• Called three World Series (1977, 1979, and 1981) and three Major League Baseball All Star Games (1978, 1980, and 1982)
• Called the first Monday Night Football game – New York Jets vs Cleveland Browns – on September 21, 1970
• Called college football games, mostly on ABC, for over fifty years
• Called the 100th meetings of the Oklahoma vs Texas and Michigan vs Ohio State rivalry football games
• Called 15 Rose Bowls, including the one on January 4, 2016 – his last broadcast – when Texas beat USC 42-38
• Called legendary Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant’s last game on November 28th, 1982
• Called eight games that decided college football’s national championship, including Florida State vs Florida in the 1997 Sugar Bowl, Tennessee vs Florida State in the first BCS title game in 1999, and Miami (FL) vs Ohio State in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl

This man was, without any doubt, to college football what Vin Scully was to baseball – a voice and personality that people gravitated to and even though you never met him, you saw him as a good friend.

It goes without saying that Jackson will be dearly missed; I will certainly miss him as he was a significant reason why I am a big college football fan (along with baseball with Scully, of course).

Here are a few of Jackson’s most memorable calls, courtesy of YouTube…

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY_DcN001NI

Calling Colorado’s Hail Mary pass that shocked Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1994

 

 

Some of the 1995 Rose Bowl, Oregon vs Nebraska

 

 

Keith Jackson’s last game – the 2006 Rose Bowl for the BCS National Championship, Texas’ Vince Young scoring the winning touchdown to beat USC

 

 

REST IN PEACE KEITH JACKSON 1928-2018

 

PASADENA, CA – OCTOBER 11: A view of the exterior of the Rose Bowl before the game between the Oregon Ducks and the UCLA Bruins at the Rose Bowl on October 11, 2014 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images) The house that Keith Jackson undoubtedly helped to build. Photo courtesy of saturdayblitz.com