Just wanted to add this story, and thanks to Upland Guy for posting it on the All Things Upland blog, too.
UPLAND, Calif. – Colonies Partners, investors and developers of a housing community and shopping center in north Upland, has donated $5,000 to help support the Senior Little League Regional Tournament to be held Aug. 3-11 at Upland Memorial Park.
The tournament, which will feature up to 12 state champions, is the final event before the Senior Little League World Series in Bangor, Maine, and is the highest level Little League baseball tournament ever held in Upland.
“This is just another example of the generosity and community involvement of the Colonies Partners and their investors, ” said Ralph Cavallo, president of Upland National Little League, which is co-hosting the tournament with Little League Baseball’s California District 23.
In 2006, Colonies Partners and their investors contributed $50,000 toward Upland National Little League’s field renovation project at Olivedale Park in Upland. The ballpark is now known as Colonies Crossroads Stadium.
“Without the donation from the Colonies, we would not have the beautiful artificial turf field that is there today,” Cavallo said. “They have been more than generous and an outstanding supporter and partner, not only with our Little League, but with organizations throughout the community.”
The tournament will include teams from the Western United States. Players ages 14-16 from Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Northern California, Oregon, Southern California, Utah, Washington and Wyoming will have achieved their once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to compete for a berth at the Senior Little League World Series.
The donation from the Colonies will go completely toward assisting teams with travel, dining and hotel expenses. Last year, three of the state champion teams did not travel to Southern California to participate in the Western Regional Tournament, because expenses are not covered.
“We know things will be difficult this year, too, because of the economy,” Cavallo said. “But with donations from the Colonies and we hope many others, the players from those teams who have earned a place in the Western Regional Tournament will be able to participate in the tournament and experience their dreams of competing for a berth in the World Series.
“It is a great honor to have a tournament of this level in our town of Upland. I hope we can make it memorable for all involved,” Cavallo said.
Contributions can be sent to Little League Baseball, CA District 23, P.O. Box 92, Upland, CA, 91785.
For more information, contact Ralph Cavallo at (951) 990-4595.
Upland National Little League will kick off its 56th year Saturday, March 14, at Bob Hargis Field at Colonies Crossroads Stadium, located in Olivedale Park in Upland.
Former Major League pitcher Dave Coggin, who graduated from Upland High School, will speak to the players and families during the opening ceremonies. In 1995, Coggin was a first-round draft pick (30th overall) out of Upland High and played for three years with the National League’s Philadelphia Phillies (2000-2002).
A full day of activities starts at sunrise with team pictures and a pancake breakfast prepared by members of the Upland Fire Department. Opening ceremonies begin at 10 a.m. with team introductions, special presentations and recognition of the top sellers from the league’s candy fundraiser. Those players will be rewarded for their fundraising prowess with a visit to the league’s famous money booth, where each winning child could walk away with hundreds of dollars.
Outback Steakhouse will serve opening day lunch specials beginning at 11 a.m.
The UNLL season is scheduled to open with four major league division games at Olivedale Park on March 14, with the opener set for 12:30 p.m. The junior league division launches its season at the south field at Memorial Park at 1 p.m. Other Upland National divisions begin their regular seasons on Monday, March 16.
Upland National is the only Little League in the United States that throughout its 55-year history has never charged a signup fee so that every eligible child wishing to play baseball can do so, regardless of his or her family’s economic situation. Every child in the league is provided with a cap and use of quality uniforms, safe equipment and well-maintained fields, largely because of the generous support of families, the community and sponsors.
Be sure to check out All Things Upland for more about what's happening in the City of Gracious Living...
Olivedale Park is located at 550 E. Eighth Street in Upland, east of Euclid and west of Campus.
For more information, please contact Ralph Cavallo at (951) 990-4595.
The Claremont High School baseball program will host a special alumni baseball game for former Wolfpack players against the 2009 CHS varsity team at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 21.
All former CHS baseball letter winners are invited to participate in the game or in pre-game batting practice. Former Claremont High baseball players should contact Jim Munsey at jmunsey@chs.cusd.claremont.edu for more information and to confirm their participation.
The Saturday activities also will include special opening ceremonies and introductions on the field of all players on the 2009 CHS freshman, junior varsity and varsity team, followed by first-pitch ceremonies.
A family barbecue will take place throughout the day, and refreshments will be available. In addition, Wolfpack baseball merchandise will be on sale.
For more information about the Claremont High baseball program, send me an e-mail at sid.robinson@verizon.net.
Why is Claremont still part of the Baseline League? There was a time when this league was a good fit for the Wolfpack, but that was several years ago. In fact, it was only recently that Claremont won a share of the league football championship for three years in a row.
But these things change in a hurry. I remember when Claremont was part of the old San Antonio League, with Upland, Montclair, Damien, Pomona, Ganesha, Garey and Chino. I think Chaffey may have been in there at one time, and later Don Lugo came along. The league eventually split and became the Baseline League. Alta Loma was added and others dropped. Schools like Glendora and Walnut have been part of the league. Reorganization over the years added Rancho Cucamonga, Etiwanda and Los Osos. Now it’s time for Claremont to move to a different league.
The population base for the four Rancho Cucamonga schools in the Baseline League continues to grow, and even Upland has expanded, with the recent addition of the Colonies development. There are other San Bernardino County schools that would be logical matches for the Baseline League schools.
Claremont simply isn’t big enough to play with the bigger schools any more. The high school has a smaller population base than the other schools, and growth in Claremont stopped years ago. The high school accepts many transfer students from other cities just to keep up enrollment numbers, but most are there for reasons other than sports.
It has gone the point where Claremont High can’t compete with its Baseline League rivals on the field and the court. Now, it is a case where the kids are getting hurt. It seems there have been kids carted to the sidelines every game this season. Sure, that’s one of the risks of football, but there seem to be more injuries than usual.
The Wolfpack simply can’t put the numbers of players on the field to compete at the same level – at least in football. This season, Claremont was 2-3 in non-league play. All but one of those games was relatively close. Since then, CHS is 0-3 in Baseline League competition and has been outscored 145-22. The average margin of defeat is 41 points in the three games.
It’s a battle in other sports, too. CHS competes in the Baseline League in track and field, but its athletes compete in a different division than the bigger schools when they go to CIF competition. It makes sense to compete schools that are the same basic size. So why not do it during the league season – and in all sports?
I know that sports aren’t the top priority, but they are still part of the extra-curricular menu. CHS teams should be in a position to compete.
It’s definitely time to reorganize the local leagues again. There are plenty of nearby schools that have similar enrollment numbers and are in cities that aren’t growing. I suspect it might take some work for CIF-Southern Section officials to re-draw the leagues, but that’s their job.
Daily Bulletin photo
Fans expecting an aerial shootout between Los Osos quarterback Richard Brehaut and Upland QB Josh Nunes might have felt this game fell short of the hype. But football fans who saw the game were reminded again that football shouldn’t be evaluated only by the numbers.
The story lines from this game were obvious: Los Osos dominated both sides of the ball in its 41-28 victory, which wasn’t as close as the score. Running back Arby Fields led a strong running attack and scored four touchdowns. The Grizzly defense shut down the high-powered Upland offense and limited it to two touchdowns (Upland’s two other TDs came directly from turnovers).
But there was so much more, beginning with Los Osos quarterback Richard Brehaut. Despite throwing for (only) 170 yards and two touchdowns, and rushing for another 108 yards and a TD, the thing that is most impressive about Richard is his leadership ability and field presence. He has a definite command of the game. It shows in his body language, but is more evident with his actions. I remember noticing those traits when I watched him play as a sophomore and junior, but now his confidence and physical skills have clearly elevated him to a new level.
Watching him Friday, it’s no surprise he is considered the No. 4 high school quarterback in the United States, and that UCLA offered him a scholarship. They have to love what they see. Even though he threw an interception that was run back for a touchdown Friday, he never lost his head. He responded by moving his team, even though Upland took a 21-20 lead at the half. But he led three Grizzly TD drives in the second half. Brehaut can clearly think on his feet, and if his first option isn’t there, he does a good job of improvising.
Fantasy football fans would have been throwing their sandwiches at the TV when one of the Los Osos receivers was ruled down on the one-yard line. Replays showed the receiver rolled over the defender and didn’t hit the ground until he was in the end zone. Los Osos scored on the next play, but Richard didn’t get credit for the TD pass. Well, that’s not what Rich Neuheisel and Norm Chow care about anyway.
Josh Nunes had a tougher time for Upland. He hadn’t seen that strong of a defense all season, and the Grizzlies held him without a TD pass and he was intercepted twice. The Upland offense was shut out in the second half. I think the reason Los Osos defense was so good was because it was unpredictable. Josh is a very good quarterback within the scripted system. He has a different kind of presence behind the offensive line. He is great at getting rid of the ball quickly and usually doesn’t feel the pressure. He’s able to mix things up to sell the play-action and buy time to throw mid-range and deeper passes, too. Because of that, the Upland offense can be unstoppable at times. But that’s when it is able to follow the game plan. The Los Osos defense threw different looks at Upland, and the Highlanders didn’t know how to respond. Upland had trouble adjusting and improvising, not only in the booth and on the sidelines, but on the field as well. If the play didn’t unfold the way it did in practice or in the playbook, then it didn’t work.
Now that the showdown is out of the way, it will be interesting to see how both Los Osos and Upland respond the rest of the season. While not the high-profile game of last week, the Grizzlies might have their toughest game of the season this week when they play Rancho Cucamonga. The undefeated Cougars may not be as good as Upland, but they have their own talented quarterback and more speed than any team in the league. Their skill position guys are all sprinters on the track team, and Rancho Cucamonga typically sweeps most of the Baseline League sprints.
Like last year, when there was a three-way tie for first place, it will be hard for any team in the Baseline League to go undefeated.
The prep football world turns its eyes to the Inland Empire this weekend for the long-awaited matchup between Los Osos and Upland high schools. The spotlight belongs to their respective quarterbacks, Richard Brehaut from Los Osos, who has verbally committed to a scholarship offer at UCLA, and Upland’s Josh Nunes, who has given a verbal commitment to Stanford.
This is a big deal locally and throughout all of Southern California. The game will be televised live at 7 p.m. on Fox Sport West Prime, which might be the only way most people get to see the game, since reports have been circulating for months that there won’t be an empty seat in the Los Osos campus stadium.
With both QBs headed to the Pac-10, there figures to be plenty of future battles between the two, who played on the same Pony League baseball team several years ago in Upland. This is the third meeting between Brehaut and Nunes, who both started as sophomores and juniors. Both are seniors this year, although Josh is almost a year older than Richard. Los Osos won both previous meetings pretty convincingly. Upland comes into this year’s contest with a perfect 6-0 record (1-0 in the Baseline League), while the Grizzlies are 5-1 (1-0).
I haven’t seen Los Osos in the regular season this year, but I saw Upland last week and watched both teams in passing league tournaments during the summer. Upland runs the spread offense with lots of crossing patterns and short routes. It’s an impressive offense, and especially so against a far inferior opponent last week. Just when it looks like Nunes will dump off another short pass, he sells the play-action and goes up top. From what I have seen in the past, Los Osos runs more of a pro style offense, and Richard will run for big gains just as easily as throwing for them. On both sides, the defenses will definitely be tested.
I just hope both teams keep things clean. Rumors were floating around during the summer that the Upland kids were going to go after Richard. Sure, those kinds of threats have been making the rounds as long as the game itself. They are part of the game of football, but only up to a point. Who wins when those “targets” find themselves in the hospital with a senseless injury? Even last week, the buzz in the Upland-side stands was that the Upland players had targeted one of the Claremont kids, who grew up and lives in Upland. In the second half, that player went down and is now reportedly out for the season with an injury that might keep him from attempting to participate in other sports through the rest of his senior year.
Cheap shots have no place in this or any game, just because a thug-bully high school kid wants to win points with his pals. There is just too much at stake. It goes beyond what happens on Friday nights. Injuries are part of the game, but they also could change a kid’s future. They could destroy his life. Every player on the field should be doing all he can to prevent injuries. Unfortunately, most of the goons doing the dirty work aren’t exactly college material anyway, so they don’t get it. Perhaps they should spend some time at Casa Colina or Project Walk to get some perspective.
Friday’s game at Los Osos could be a classic battle between two outstanding teams and a pair of future NCAA Division I quarterbacks. But it could get ugly in a hurry if the cheap shots start to fly, which is the buzz once again. I’m sure if that happens, the opposing team won’t hesitate to fire back quickly. Former Dodger pitching great Don Drysdale used to say, “If you hit one of our hitters, we’ll hit two of yours.” Seems like during the Cold War when the U.S. and Soviet Union threatened each other with force: “You drop the bomb on us, we’ll drop two on you,” or something along those lines. It’s the same philosophy here. Let’s just hope it never goes that way, and that this game gets the attention it deserves for all the right reasons.
There once was this bar on Wilshire in Santa Monica called “The Fox Inn Rathskeller,” where visitors would stand in line for up to an hour, just to get into the crowded, smoke-filled room. Nothing fancy about the place – just picnic tables and benches, and a piano up front. No TVs along the walls. They only served beer.
Everybody came to drink beer and sing along with the guy playing the piano.
It was the closest thing we had to a German pub, with the beer flowing freely and everybody inside singing choruses of raunchy beer-drinking rugby songs. Beer wasn’t poured by the glass, but by the pitcher.
Of course, that was a different time, and society was a different place. There was no such thing as Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. I can’t imagine a place like that could operate today, which is why it’s no wonder officials closed The Fox Inn in 1989, depriving future generations of the unique exploits of Bill “The Fox” Foster.
I think people have a hard time believing there really was such a guy, but The Fox was a legend. He could drink beer faster than anyone ever. Even the characters portrayed in the film “Beerfest” couldn’t hold a cold one to the Fox.
Standing behind an upright piano holding two mugs of beer, and with a cry of “Ziggy socky ziggy socky, hoy! Hoy! Hoy!” he would dump both mugs down his throat in less than two seconds. Not surprisingly, he held the title of “World’s Fastest Beer Drinker” for 25 consecutive years. Really.
Anytime he was met with an “automatic challenge,” he’d drink two beers faster than the challenger could drink even one. He’d turn a beer glass upside-down and fill the crown with beer and offer it to his opponent, then drink his full glass before the other person could drink the one-ounce shot of beer. He rarely lost a challenge, if ever.
The best part, of course, was watching him stand on his head and chug a glass. He’d still win. He’d probably drink close to 40 glasses of beer a night, and then come back the next night and do it again.
Between chugs, The Fox led the room in song. He’d play piano, calling out sing-along-style parodies of popular standards with raunchy lyrics and crass choruses. It was pub entertainment at its best – a room full of drunks belting out what he called "songs your mother wouldn't sing." I taught my sons The Fox version of “Take it out at the Ballgame,” which we routinely still sing every time during the seventh-inning stretch. I don’t think they know the real words to the song anymore. The Fox’s “censored” version is much more fun.
I found a bunch of short clips that were recorded at the Fox Inn. Go to this link to listen to them one at a time.
The Fox Inn was filled with picnic tables, and more wooden benches were lined end-to-end along the walls. It was standing room only on Saturday nights, and people stood on the benches just to get a better view. The line outside was 25 feet long. I first heard about the place in college, and my friend Nick Salata first took us there. Nick seemed to know everywhere to go in Los Angeles, and this was one of his favorites. It was one of mine, too.
Foster performed nightly at The Fox Inn from 1961 until it was closed in 1989. It was a mandatory stop after going to a Lakers or Kings game at the Forum, or on a visit to our friend Trip Oates’ place in Santa Monica.
My favorite memory is running into the Fox at a UCLA-Stanford football game at the Rose Bowl on a November afternoon in 1982 (UCLA won, 38-35 in a shootout between quarterbacks Tom Ramsey and John Elway). Back then they still sold beer at college games, so when Greg Setlich, Robert Villanueva, Grant Warhurst and I saw the Fox roaming the concourse area, we offered up an automatic challenge. He refused because he had to work that night. Naturally, the four of us figured we needed to go see him at work. We had a generous head start, having several large beers at the game. Add a few more at some other watering holes around town, and we eventually found our way to Santa Monica. The Fox recognized us from our meeting at the Rose Bowl earlier in the day, and called us out for an automatic challenge. We were already pretty saturated, but none of us stood a chance anyway By that time we truly looked foolish.
The songs made it especially fun. Anyone could chime in with their own limerick or rhyme, but they better be good, or else they’d be met with a chorus of “F--- You,” sung to the tune of the “Gloria in Excelsis Deo” Christmas song. And if the Fox spotted you heading toward the restroom while he was at the piano, he’d likely stop in mid song and start repeating, “We know where you’re going, we know where you’re going…”
And if you dared spill your beer, he’d call you out with another “F—You” song in your honor.
After the sale of the Fox Inn, Foster continued to perform in and around Los Angeles and at college campuses and special events. He later gained notoriety as a cast member of “The Man Show” on cable TV, where he chugged beers and sang songs with the audience. We saw him perform at Irrelevant Week at the Balboa Bay Club and at a bar in Pasadena, but it never was the same as the Santa Monica pub. It was always fun, but the last time we saw him in Pasadena, one of the guys in our group got us kicked out of the restaurant early that night, so we never got to enjoy him again at his best.
Here is a video tribute to the Fox that aired on "The Man Show." Definitely worth watching, but it doesn't come close to capturing the atmosphere that filled "The Fox Inn Rathskeller" on Wilshire.
On May 10, 2000, Foster died at his home in Santa Monica after a long battle with prostate cancer. Gone, but long remembered.
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