Go figure.
Our mission is simple. We help kids who need it.
During the year we recognize youth deserving of college scholarships based on their sports ability, academics and citizenship. We also provide scholarships to youth who once had a promising future in sports and due to an injury had their dream ended, and hence, their chance of earning a ride. We also find groups of kids who just plain need help.
We've purchased uniforms for teams; all kinds of balls, bats and catcher's gear; we've bought boxing rings and gloves; and we've underwritten Little Leagues that otherwise wouldn't have made it.
Another fun part has been taking busloads of kids to perhaps their first professional sports event or hosting them on the college campus of UC Irvine to open their eyes to what the future may hold.
To raise money to make these programs go, annually, we undertake an event that honors someone associated with the professional sports world. We call it the sportsman of the year dinner.
Past honorees have included Jerry West, Bill Walsh, Dick Enberg, Gene Autry, John McKay and Tommy Lasorda, to name a few. More recently the names have included a virtual who's who from USC, such as Carson Palmer, Pete Carroll and Matt Leinart.
This year, for the 35th time I might add, we again honor one of the great names, Tim Salmon. That's right, the Kingfisher himself.
Salmon has played for three teams in his entire career, all with the Angels. Come again, you might be saying.
The California Angels, the team he was drafted by in the third round of the 1989 draft and later earned rookie of the year honors for in 1993; the Anaheim Angels; and now, of course, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
