Lately I’ve been thinking about Mr. Miyagi’s famous quotes from The Karate Kid. Pearls of wisdom like, “It’s okay to lose to an opponent, it’s never okay to lose to fear” or “If the root is strong, the tree will survive” seem more poignant nowadays. Of all the beautiful advice written by Robert Mark Kaman […]
When you know you’re going to have a kid, you start daydreaming. Most of those daydreams involve how your kid will fit into your life and your story, because before they come into the world, there’s no way to fully understand how hilarious and unrealistic a thought that is. While my wife, Shar, was pregnant […]
Every married man hopes for at least one shared interest with their father-in-law, and I got lucky with a basketball fan. I’ve been trying to turn my father-in-law Ray into a Los Angeles Lakers fan since the family moved from New York to Long Beach. He’s been a Knicks fan, so the recent player movement […]
Do you know Sheryl Yoast? She is the late daughter of legendary Virginia high school football coach Bill Yoast, and actor Hayden Panettiere famously played her role in the movie “Remember The Titans.” Panettiere performed with gusto to show that a young girl can know more about football than a grown man. She stalked the […]
Fifty eight years ago, Billie Jean King asked the citizens of Long Beach to send her to the world. She raised $2,000 from the Long Beach Century Club, the Long Beach Tennis Patrons, and the residents of the city to send her to Wimbledon, where she skyrocketed to international fame at the age of 17 […]
As someone who was born and raised in Long Beach, I’ve heard more times than I can count that our quaint town of nearly 500,000 residents is “the biggest small town in America.” It’s a sentiment that’s existed since the city’s population began to take off more than 100 years ago with an influx of […]
I think all student-athletes walk across their high school graduation stage with a level of uncertainty. From the ones going play at the next level, to the ones who will never play their sport again, they’re all turning the page an an unwritten chapter. I know Brayan Mora felt that uncertainty, and then some, when […]
Long Beach State’s hire of Eric Valenzuela as the new coach of the Dirtbags brought a lot of reactions across our phones. The university was as confident as could be that they’d gotten their guy. Recruits were clearly thrilled — kids have been committing to the program while those who’d been committed to Valenzuela’s old […]
The ancient tale of Siddhartha is about a man who sacrifices materialistic pursuits in order to find a more sustainable spiritually, and he ends up succeeding by finding peace in nothingness. Long Beach State needs to apply that lesson to its search for a new mascot. After years of phasing out the 49ers mascot, and […]
There have been plenty of Moore League baseball seasons where half the schedule was skippable–this year is not one of those years. Thanks to excellent, dedicated coaching from Cabrillo’s Pedro Torres and Jordan’s Bryan Whitfield, the Jaguars and Panthers have been pushing the best teams in the Moore League this season. Last week in a […]