El Toro boys basketball back on its feet with victory over Capistrano Valley

• January 23, 2025

CAPISTRANO VALLEY – Nobody has experienced the ups and downs of the boys basketball season the way Lydorian Smith has. Literally.

Last week at a pep rally before a Sea View League game against Beckman, the El Toro captain was thrown into the air by his teammates, who failed to catch him on the way down. Turns out, those moves should be left to the cheerleaders.

Smith hurt his arm when he landed, and that night against Beckman, he didn’t score a point as El Toro gave away the game in the fourth quarter.

Wednesday night Smith experienced another high, carrying his team to a 52-42 victory over Capistrano Valley in the Sea View League.

The landing was understandably soft.

El Toro improved to 14-10 overall, 2-2 in league. Capo Valley dropped to 17-6 and 2-2.

“They accidentally dropped me,” Smith said after redeeming himself against the Chargers. “I felt like I let my teammates down (in the loss). As a captain, I felt like I should have showed more responsibility, showed these guys right from wrong.

“This is the wrong time to be messing around. We’re in league, it’s time to win. We’ve got to make the playoffs. We haven’t been in the playoffs in years, and we want to make the playoffs so bad. Of any team in the league, we want it. We want to win this thing. We showed tonight we’ll do whatever it takes to win this league.”

The Chargers did what they had to do. What they lacked in quality shooting, they made up for in quantity – they shot 18 of 47 from the field, including 7 of 24 from the 3-point arc. They took 14 more shots than Capo Valley, which was 20 of 33, including 5 of 14 from the arc.

Capistrano Valley coach Brian Mulligan was frustrated on several fronts, by his team’s inability to score, and its inability to get a stop when it needed. He was visibly frustrated by the officiating; his team was whistled for 23 fouls to El Toro’s 4.

The Chargers were 11 of 25 from the free-throw line, Mulligan’s Cougars were 3 of 4.

“We had to foul a little at the end, but realistically, we held them in the 40s, but we’re not winning games in the 40s,” he said.

El Toro took a 10-2 lead in the first two minutes as Christien Jimenez and Isaiah Newkirt hit 3-pointers, and took a 12-7 lead into the second quarter. Newkirt opened the quarter with a 3-pointer for a 15-7 advantage, but Capo Valley whittled away at the margin and pulled to 17-15.

“I told them, this is exactly what happened against Beckman,” Smith recalled. “It’s not going to be the same story.”

And it wasn’t. The Chargers responded to Smith’s exhortation.

In the final 2:10 of the half, Kaleb Bass’ steal led to Smith’s 3-pointer at 2:03. After a turnover, Smith added a free throw. And then another turnover gave Smith the opportunity to extend the lead to 26-15 with 45 seconds left. He had nine points in the quarter, 11 in the half, and finished with 15.

The closest Capo would get after that quick barrage was 46-39 with 2:27 left in the game. From there, El Toro made 7 of 12 free throws to close it out.

Before that final flurry, the Chargers made only 4 of 13 free throws.

“I don’t think it’s an upset,” El Toro coach Nick Sainato said. “We know we can beat and play with anybody in the league. Everyone’s really good, but we’re good too. And we proved it tonight. It’s just about building on it and not having a letdown, and doing the same thing Friday against Aliso Niguel.”

The Chargers may possess the league’s best player in point guard Jimenez. And though he shared team scoring honors with 15 points, it hardly felt like it was his night.

But he did hit two of the Chargers’ most emotional shots: A 3-pointer at the buzzer to end the first half for a 29-17 lead, and a 3-pointer to open the second half for a 32-17 advantage. That was his last field goal of the game, less than two minutes into the third quarter.

“We spent a lot of time worrying about him and lost some other guys,” Mulligan said. “Bottom line is we’ve got to make some shots and defend better. He is so talented and so poised, and even though he’s not killing you with a lot of his razzle-dazzle stuff, he controlled the game.”

Four players scored for El Toro, all of them in double figures. Jimenez and Smith had 15, Bass had 13, and Newkirt 11.

Capistrano Valley also had only four scorers, but Jake Davis was the only one in double-digits. Davis scored 23, including all eight of Capo’s points in the second quarter. Gabe Williams and Connor Fisher scored eight apiece.

“Our guys are unselfish,” said Sainato, who also credited his scout team for the game preparation. “They don’t care who scores, just that the team scores.”

In a week of ups and downs, that selflessness mattered. Smith and the Chargers showed they could land on their feet when it mattered most.

​ Orange County Register 

San Juan Hills boys basketball defeats San Clemente in South Coast League showdown

• January 23, 2025

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — San Juan Hills’ boys basketball team took pole position in the race for the South Coast League championship Wednesday by beating San Clemente 77-66 at San Juan Hills High.

The win makes San Juan Hills (17-7, 5-0) the lone undefeated team in the South Coast League standings.

San Clemente (18-5, 3-1) had an 11-game league winning streak that dated back to last season.

“They got us twice last year and it stung but we remembered that,” San Juan Hills senior Mason Hodges said. “I’ve been preparing to play this team for a whole year, so I was hungry. Obviously we play them again and have to take care of business, but we needed this.”

Hodges played like a man who had the game circled on his calendar for a year. He had 38 points and 10 rebounds with six 3-pointers made.

He finished just two points shy of his career-high of 40 points that he scored against Rancho Buena Vista on Dec.  9.

“He’s amazing,” San Juan Hills coach Jason Efstathiou said of Hodges. “He’s maybe the best player I’ve ever coached in terms of where he is right now and he’s only getting better. He does everything for us. It’s like having another coach out there.”

Hodges had some help from point guard Adam Aziz, who had 18 points of his own with five 3-pointers.

The duo made their first three 3-pointers of the game and gave the Stallions an early 11-1 lead.

San Juan Hills shot 57 percent from 3-point range in the first half and 52 percent for the game.

“We shot the ball really well and I feel like we are on a nice stretch right now,” Efstathiou said. “The boys have been putting the work in beyond practice like open gyms. We are getting shots up.”

San Clemente trailed by as many as 18 points in the second half, but never went away due to its own 3-point shooting. The Tritons made 8 of 13 3-pointers in the second half.

Porter Hansen led San Clemente with 29 points and made six 3-pointers. Christian Fernandez had 25 points.

“That was so scary,” Efstathiou said. “Hansen and Fernandez, those guys just don’t miss. And then we missed a couple of free throws and I’m thinking “oh no.” Thank goodness we built that lead up.”

Cameron Goltara had nine points for San Juan Hills and Trey Webb added eight and made a pair of 3-pointers.

San Juan Hills had zero turnovers in the first half and just five for the game.

Kai Van Olst had a pair of blocks for San Clemente and Braeden Baggs led the team with six rebounds.

The two teams have dominated the rest of the South Coast League. San Juan Hills has won its other league games by an average margin of 32 points. San Clemente has won its league games by an average margin of 19 points.

The second meeting between the two teams is the regular-season finale at San Clemente on Feb. 4. It will likely decide if the teams will share a league championship or if San Juan Hills wins it outright.

“We have not accomplished our goal yet,” Efstathiou said. “If anyone thinks that now they can relax, then it’s not going to go well for us. We have to be ready every single game.”

​ Orange County Register 

Mater Dei boys basketball edges Santa Margarita to grab share of Trinity League lead

• January 23, 2025

SANTA ANA — The Barnett and Bailey Circus was a great show Wednesday at Mater Dei High School.

Mater Dei junior Luke Barnett scored 30 points and Santa Margarita junior Kaiden Bailey scored 28 as their teams met in an important Trinity League game.

Barnett put his team ahead with a 3-pointer in the final minute of the contest, and the Monarchs went on to edge Santa Margarita 62-59.

Santa Margarita is No. 1 in this week’s Orange County Top 25 that has Mater Dei at No. 3, behind No. 2 JSerra.

Mater Dei (17-5 overall), which upset St. John Bosco last week, is 4-1 in the Trinity League, tied with St. John Bosco for first place in the six-team league.

Santa Margarita (17-4 overall) is 3-1 in league. JSerra is 4-2 in league.

Bailey and Barnett, who are both candidates for the Orange County player of the year honor, traded baskets in the second half. Bailey would make a 3, Barnett would make a 3. Barnett would score on a drive, Bailey would score on a drive.

Barnett said he tried to avoid a Me-vs.-Him duel.

“I tried to not let it get in the flow of the game at all,” Barnett said. “But obviously, when he’s going down there and scoring at will and hitting shots, I want to hit shots to keep my team in it.”

After scoring only two points in the first quarter, Bailey made all five of his shots in the second quarter – 4 for 4 on two-point shots and a successful 3-point try – for 11 points in the quarter and the Eagles had a 23-20 lead at halftime.

Bailey kept it going in the third quarter, scoring 10 points including two 3-pointers.

Barnett hit the gas pedal. He scored 16 points in the third quarter, going 7 of 9 from the field and 3 for 4 at the free-throw line.

Mater Dei put Malloy Smith on Bailey in the fourth quarter. Bailey was able to get off only three shots in the quarter, making two including a 3.

The Eagles led the Monarchs 46-44 going into the fourth quarter. The teams traded the lead frequently in the quarter.

Dallas Washington converted a 3-point play with 3:16 remaining to put the Eagles on top 57-55.

Barnett made a 3-pointer from the corner to return the lead to the Monarchs, 60-57, and a Demarcus Henry free throw put the Mater Dei advantage to 61-57.

Smith made a free throw with 10 seconds left to make it 62-57.

An uncontested layup by Santa Margarita’s Drew Anderson at the buzzer accounted for the final score, 62-59.

Bailey was 12 of 20 from the floor, 4 of 9 on 3-point tries. Barnett was 10 of 26 overall, 3 of 13 on 3s.

Barnett earlier this season scored a school single-game record of 55 points in a tournament game.

“I had a slow first half and in the second half I did whatever it took to win,” Barnett said of Wednesday’s game. “I finally got some open looks in the second half and went to the basket and got some foul calls.”

The first quarter was scoreless until Henry scored for Mater Dei three minutes into the quarter that ended with Mater Dei ahead 13-6. (The score of the Mater Dei-Santa Margarita football game at the end of the first quarter was 16-7, Mater Dei, in October.)

Santa Margarita shot better than Mater Dei on Wednesday. The Eagles were 25 of 52 on all shots (48 percent) and 8 of 22 on 3-pointers.

Santa Margarita attempted only one free throw, which came on Washington’s three-point play.

Mater Dei was 9 of 12 at the line. The Monarchs were 23 of 58 on all shots, including 7 of 25 on 3-point shots.

Mater Dei’s next game is a league home game Friday at 9 p.m. against Servite. It’s the final game of the first day of the two-day Nike Extravaganza at Mater Dei.

Santa Margarita has a challenging stretch of games coming up, including back-to-back games against St. John Bosco. The Eagles are home against St. John Bosco on Friday and at St. John Bosco on Monday.

​ Orange County Register 

USMNT shuts out Costa Rica in Zack Steffen’s first national team match in nearly 3 years

• January 23, 2025

ORLANDO, Fla. — Zack Steffen was back on the field for the United States to face Costa Rica, nearly three years after his previous appearance in goal, also against the Ticos.

The stakes were far lower but the results were much better.

Steffen made a pair of excellent saves, and the U.S. won, 3-0, on Wednesday night as Brian White, Caden Clark and Patrick Agyemang scored in the Americans’ second straight exhibition match without Europe-based players.

“It’s always nice to make some of those top-handed saves,” Steffen said.

White scored in the 21st minute and Clark in the 77th, the first international goal for both. White’s goal was set up by Diego Luna, whose nose had been broken by an early elbow. After several minutes getting cotton stuffed in his nose, Luna returned to the field and assisted on the goal. Luna was replaced at the start of the second half.

“He showed great character because he wanted to stay, he wanted to play,” Coach Mauricio Pochettino said. “This is a player that for sure we are going to have in consideration for the future.”

Agyemang added a goal in the 90th, scoring for the second straight game, and the U.S. extended its winning streak to four games for the first time since winning nine straight in 2021.

Steffen had not played for the U.S. since a 2-0 loss in the final World Cup qualifier at Costa Rica on March 30, 2022. He was left off the World Cup roster by Coach Gregg Berhalter, who started Matt Turner at the tournament in Qatar, then was restored to the team last October after Pochettino took over.

Steffen jumped to his left and used his right hand to tip away Alejandro Bran’s shot from outside the penalty area in the 37th minute. He showed quick reflexes to parry’s Allan Cruz’s shot from about 10 yards out in the 56th.

“He performed really, really well,” Pochettino said. “Today was he great.”

Now 29, Steffen joined the Colorado Rapids of MLS last year after playing in just two Premier League matches over 4½ seasons with Manchester City.

U.S. coaches have worked with Steffen to position himself deeper.

“It just gave me time to shuffle my feet and get a good push,” he said. “I think if I’m higher the ball goes over my hand and then it goes in. Yeah, I like what they’re teaching me.”

Turner has gotten on the field just twice this season for Crystal Palace, in the FA Cup and League Cup. Pochettino praised him for his national team play against Jamaica in November’s CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinals but said there is competition for the starting spot.

“It’s a thing that we are going to evaluate every single camp in order to make the best decision,” Pochettino said. “We are very honest and transparent. … They know that through the performance they can be fighting for the position.”

Playing his third international match, White scored after he sprinted into the penalty area to take a through pass from Luna, took a touch and beat goalkeeper Esteban Alvarado to the far post. White, who turns 29 on Feb. 3, became the oldest American to score his first international goal since 29-year-old Matt Besler in 2016.

Clark, a 21-year-old playing his second international match, got his goal when he one-timed a left foot shot at the top of the penalty area from a cross by Emeka Eneli, who stole the ball from Bran on a flank.

Agyemang, a 24-year-old who debuted in Saturday’s 3-1 victory over Venezuela, scored against Anthony Walker on an angled shot from DeJuan Jones’ pass.

Europe-based players return for the Nations League semifinal against Panama on March 20. That match is during one of just six training camps remaining with the top pool before players arrive ahead of the 2026 World Cup.

Playing its first match since hiring Miguel Herrera as coach, Costa Rica debuted four starters: defenders Santiago van der Putten and Ryan Bolaños, midfielder Creichel Pérez and forward Josimar Méndez. In addition, Walker and defender Kevin Espinoza debuted at the start of the second half.

​ Orange County Register 

No. 4 USC women blitz Purdue for 14th consecutive win

• January 23, 2025

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Well, that escalated quickly.

Freshman Avery Howell scored a season-high 18 points, JuJu Watkins added 16 points and seven rebounds and the fourth-ranked USC women’s basketball team nearly pitched a second-quarter shutout as it routed Purdue, 79-37, on Wednesday. Kennedy Smith added 12 points, while Rayah Marshall grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.

The Trojans (18-1 overall, 8-0 Big Ten) allowed just two points in the second quarter en route to their 14th consecutive win. Half of their conference victories have come by 20 points or more.

Kendall Puryear led Purdue (7-12, 0-8) with 10 points as the Boilermakers lost their seventh straight.

Destini Lombard scored all eight of her points in the first four minutes as the Boilermakers jumped to a surprising 16-10 first-quarter lead.

But the Trojans responded with a 31-0 run that didn’t end until Jordyn Poole beat the shot-clock buzzer with a mid-range jumper at the 1:57 mark in the second quarter. Purdue was scoreless for 8:02, committing eight turnovers during that span. USC led 46-18 at halftime, and Purdue never recovered.

USC starting forward Kiki Iriafen did not return after hurting her ankle in the second quarter. Trojans coach Lindsay Gottlieb said they are hopeful it won’t be anything “too significant.”

The Trojans would wrap the game with 11 threes landed with a near-perfect 14-of-15 effort from the free-throw line. USC shots 43.5 percent from the floor overall in the win, and the Boilermakers finished at 30.6 percent.

The Trojans shot 11 for 30 from 3-point range and were 14 for 15 at the free-throw line. USC shot 43.5% overall and held Purdue to 30.6%, including a 2-for-15 showing from behind the arc.

The Boilermakers, who dropped to 0-9 against ranked teams, got off to a better start than they did two weeks ago against top-ranked UCLA, but their young team is not built to stay close against the nation’s best squads.

NOTABLE

Amazingly, USC’s 31-0 run was only its second-longest scoring run this season behind a 37-0 surge in a 124-39 rout of Cal State Northridge on Nov. 12. … USC’s 18-1 start to the season is its best since the 1981-82 season, and its 8-0 start in conference play is its best since the 1993-94 season. … Howell also set career highs in 3-pointers made (four), and steals (three). … This is the fourth game this season that USC has held its opponent to less than 40 points. It is also the sixth game this season the Trojans have won by 40 points or more.

UP NEXT

The Trojans get a well-deserved break before hosting No. 23 Minnesota on Jan. 30.

​ Orange County Register 

Red flag warning extended to Friday morning as Hughes fire grows near Castaic

• January 23, 2025

A red flag warning for critical fire weather in parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, issued by the National Weather Service, has been extended through 10 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 24. Forecasters warn that these weather conditions, which include wind gusts and low humidity, create conditions where fire can spread extremely fast.

The warning is for places including the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valleys, the Malibu coast, Calabasas and Agoura Hills and some areas in Ventura County, including the Southeastern and Central Ventura County Valleys, the inland coast and beaches.

The red flag warning had previously been in place through Thursday, Jan. 23, before the NWS extended the warning, stating that this critical fire weather will persist for another day.

“The primary driver for that (extension) is the very low relative humidity. Now, the winds are going to be weakening, but they’re still going to be gusting until Friday,” Philip Gonsalves, a meteorologist with the NWS said.

“We expect the strongest winds will be later on Thursday and that is going to be coupled with the lowest relative humidity. So that is when the threat will be the strongest, on Thursday afternoon.”

“Peak wind gusts of 35 to 50 mph will be common over much of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties,” an NWS statement said.

On Wednesday, Jan. 22, the Hughes fire broke out in Castaic amidst the red flag warning, spreading to over 9,000 acres by Wednesday evening as dry and windy weather affected the area.

Elsewhere in Southern California, a high wind warning is in place. Parts of Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties are under the high wind warning, which is less severe than a red flag warning.

​ Orange County Register 

LAFD helicopter pilots describe water drops, challenges of battling Palisades fire in high winds

• January 23, 2025

Dan Child and a copilot were coordinating aerial efforts to attack the Palisades fire the night of Jan. 7 when the winds became so strong they were struggling just to maintain altitude.

The two pilots realized they were losing 1,500 feet per minute in the nighttime sky and were continuing to get pushed down. The winds were too strong, it was time to call off air support until they subsided. An uncommon windstorm grounding a fleet of helicopters as they tried to extinguish flames to protect homes.

The decision, Child said, was “super difficult…probably one of the harder things I had (to do).”

“We as firemen want to solve the problem and put the fire out,” said Child, chief pilot with the Los Angeles Fire Department’s Air Operations Division. “But the (Federal Aviation Administration) looks at it like, that is a super hazardous attitude and one that gets people in a lot of trouble and accidents. From an aviation standpoint, that’s where you have to start separating it.”

By that point, helicopter pilots had been dropping water on the flames for about nine hours, but were fighting a tough battle against the winds, which spread the fire at an alarming rate, officials said.

The fire eventually grew to 23,448 acres, and by Wednesday had claimed 11 lives while destroying or damaging more than 7,000 structures, according to the latest Cal Fire numbers.

Wind speeds factor in when deciding whether to ground aircraft. For the LAFD, the limitations are usually 40 knots (about 46 mph) with a 20-knot (about 23 mph) gust spread, said Brandon Prince, an LAFD lead pilot. The gust spread is the difference between sustained winds and peak wind gusts.

Near the time the decision was made to ground the helicopters, a wind reading at a nearby water station recorded 66 mph winds with 89 mph gusts. Child still had the screenshot on his phone while speaking at the Air Operations Division’s Van Nuys Airport base Tuesday.

The following morning, the winds decreased enough to allow air support units back into the skies. LAFD’s helicopter pilots were ready to go.

Using five medium-sized twin-engine helicopters, pilots, including Prince, battled heavy winds, while hovering 50 to 100 feet over steep terrain to drop thousands of gallons of water at pinpoint locations to extinguish columns of fire.

They worked in four-hour shifts, with eight hours in between to recuperate. LAFD hires its pilots from within after hundreds of hours of training. All of them start as ground firefighters, creating and strengthening a culture of teamwork between air and ground units.

Prince, a 10-year veteran of the Air Operations Division, said Child’s decision to ground aircraft until morning was the right one.

“There’s a time when you’re not getting effective,” Prince said. “When you can be flat pitch, on the ground at idle, getting fuel and the wind is so strong that it’s starting to lift up the helicopter, you’re no longer flying that helicopter. You’re no longer in control.”

Hopping in the pilot’s seat of the Leonardo AW139, Prince and his fellow pilots would fly to a nearby water station to fill a tank that can hold upwards of 5,000 gallons. Listening to as many as six radios at once, positioned among some hundreds of buttons in between the two front seats of the helicopter, Prince is told which part of the fire to attack.

Not to mention the helicopter is operating at maximum gross weight, making it more difficult to maneuver. As the helicopter burns fuel, it can hold more water, but the difference between an empty water tank and one filled to maximum weight, Prince said, is like going from the power of a Porsche to a Honda Civic.

While en route to the drop spot, he’s calculating. What are the winds doing? What weather patterns is the fire creating? What kind of drop am I doing? Where does the helicopter need to be? Was the previous pilot’s drop successful and what did they do? How am I going to fly out after the drop?

The type of fuels can also dictate the type of drop, Child said. Pilots will fly faster and spread out water over a grass fire, while slowing down for a more concentrated drop on heavier brush.

And there’s the turbulence or the constantly changing conditions between each drop.

While flying, Prince uses a dry erase marker on his window to mark where each of the other pilots are in sequence, or whether one of the five helicopters is grounded for a period of time.

As for the radios, Child said pilots, including himself, listen to keywords, most notably their names, to handle the influx of communications coming in. The six radios connect pilots to supervisors, other pilots and ground units, who can dictate which areas of the fire need the most attention.

Once he gets the helicopter in position, Prince hits a button on the control stick, opening up two or three doors to the water tank, depending on the type of drop.

“You’re doing a lot, especially in those 30 seconds of when you’re going in to actually make the drop,” Prince said. “Then after that, you’re trying to assess the drop. Was I too fast? Was I too slow? Did I release it a second early, second late? Did I offset enough for the wind?”

Immediately after the drop, a supervisor above offers feedback to each pilot, letting them know whether the drop was successful, or informing them of what changes they need to make next time. Sometimes that means being two or three rotors over to account for the wind.

A miss is frustrating, Child and Prince said, and the consequence could be the further spread of fire before the next pilot arrives, not to mention the fuel and time it takes to refill and return.

“It’s a wasted drop, so now you’ve just wasted time,” Prince said. “One of the worst feelings is with the ground crews. These guys are down there on the ground, scratching lines and trying to flank this fire and put it out. We’re just knocking it down for them, enough that they can manage it.”

But coordination is also key. While Prince and other pilots are working in a circle from the filling station to the assigned drop location, another set of pilots sits in a helicopter about 500 feet above monitoring and providing immediate feedback on each water drop. Helicopters are kept separate from fixed-wing aircraft, which work on a separate portion of the fire, the pilots said.

That feedback is crucial, he said, because it allows him to adjust for the next one if needed.

Many of the direct hits during aerial attack of the Palisades, Eaton, Kenneth and Hurst fires, were caught on news helicopter cameras and shared on social media, with many praising the precision of the pilots.

Child said it is nice to see the positive feedback.

“I know it’s not an easy maneuver to make sure your water hits a target,” Child said. “So it’s always impressive to see the professionalism, which these guys are constantly working on because it’s not something you can just go out and do.

“It’s always nice to see water make its target,” he continued, “because I know the challenges everyone is playing with.”

​ Orange County Register 

Swanson: Shohei Ohtani’s Angels’ tenure a cautionary tale for Roki Sasaki

• January 23, 2025

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers aren’t ruining baseball. No one is ruining baseball. But if you want to be mad at a ball club for eroding parity in the game, if you’re peeved about the super-duper team that’s not your team, then go yell at the … Angels.

Maybe you’ve already forgotten – sometimes it feels like people have – but once upon a time, Shohei Ohtani turned down the Dodgers. And that worked out how?

Like Roki Sasaki, the Dodgers’ newest acquisition, Ohtani too was a 23-year-old Japanese rookie phenom. And back then, in 2017, his choices came down to the Seattle Mariners, Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres, Texas Rangers, San Francisco Giants, Dodgers and Angels – and he went with the Halos, who would let him pitch and hit and with whom he shared “a true bond,” Ohtani’s agent, Nez Balelo, told reporters then.

Six seasons he spent in Anaheim, six seasons without stepping on the field in a single playoff game.

Through no fault of Ohtani’s, of course. He was sensational. He was the American League Rookie of the Year and was twice a unanimous AL MVP. He regularly made history – in the regular season.

But when the games really mattered, the game’s biggest star and most dynamic talent was offstage, unable to ever do anything but watch.

Until last year. In his first season with the Dodgers after signing a $700 million deal with them in free agency, Ohtani got his first crack at the postseason and – surprise, surprise – he won his first World Series.

We don’t know exactly what counsel Ohtani gave Sasaki, who on Wednesday was the star of the Dodgers’ latest splashy, classy introduction. These suit-and-tie affairs that are becoming routine at Dodger Stadium, where in December 2023, they introduced Yoshinobu Yamamoto, another Japanese ace, and last month, two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, another of the noteworthy additions to their championship roster, along with veteran relievers Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates, outfielder Michael Conforto and infielder Hyeseong Kim.

If I were Ohtani trying to add Sasaki too, I’d have said this: Don’t do what I did, dude. 

And, yeah, also: You should totally come here, ‘cause we’re really, really good and you’d make us really, really, really good.

That last part, if you’re one of the Dodgers’ heated haters, that’s your problem, isn’t it?

You think the whole if you-can’t-beat-’em-join-’em thing is weak. You think Sasaki is the Kevin Durant of baseball. You wanted him to take on Ohtani and not team up with him.

That would be an easier argument to make if the Angels had been relevant or competent during Ohtani’s tenure, if they’d been consistently decent or downright good. If we’d gotten the chance to see Sho-Time in the playoffs, like, ever.

As it was, his tenure in Anaheim – where, yes, he was given the opportunity to be his best self at the plate and on the mound, making him the Ohtani we know today – stands as something of a warning to other players coming from abroad.

Those prospects aren’t subjected to a draft and have what Sasaki on Wednesday called a “once-in-a-life-time opportunity” to choose their own destination. They absolutely should pick the best situation. You would.

You wouldn’t risk six valuable seasons, time you can’t get back. You wouldn’t want to be pressured to take the road less traveled just for the sake of it. And you wouldn’t appreciate being expected to put an organization on your back, not when there are so many variables out of your control.

This isn’t spurning your mates to go join the more popular crew, this is starting from scratch.

The Toronto Blue Jays reportedly were in Sasaki’s final three, but a guy whose goal is to go down as the G.O.A.T. of Japanese pitchers knows those sorts of legacies are built in the playoffs. And the Jays haven’t had a playoff win since 2016.

The San Diego Padres also were among Sasaki’s reported finalists. They’re much closer to winning it all than the Angels ever were, having made three playoff appearances in the past five years. But with an ownership dispute threatening to destabilize the front office, who’s to say they won’t soon look a lot like the Angels?

There are no guarantees in life or in sports, and certainly none in baseball. But the Dodgers are as close as you’ll get: They’ve gone to the playoffs for 12 consecutive seasons, the third-longest postseason streak in MLB history. That happens only when an organization is firing on all cylinders.

In the month Sasaki spent evaluating his potential employers, giving them all homework assignments as part of his decision-making process, the Dodgers were stepping up to the plate en masse.

“Because it didn’t involve money, this was actually more complicated than the last two acquisitions,” said Stan Kasten, the Dodgers’ president and part-owner, in reference to baseball’s rule that because Sasaki is younger than 25, he’s considered the same as an international amateur and could be signed for only an amount in a team’s international bonus pool – so, a minor-league contract with a relatively paltry $6.5 million bonus.

“This involved much more of a cross-departmental program than the others did,” Kasten said. “We needed the input of the planning and development program, of the social media department, of the finance department, and of other departments I’m leaving out. We needed all of their input to make this work. … We needed the whole organization to pitch in.

“But we have star people in every department across the organization, so that’s what it takes.”

And now they have another star pitcher for their baseball department, an “electrifying and promising talent,” Andrew Friedman, president of baseball operations, called Sasaki. A right-hander with “swing-and-miss stuff” Manager Dave Roberts said.

A smart guy, Sasaki, who made the right, brave decision. Because no, choosing the Dodgers is not running from the pressure.

The Dodgers are the pressure.

There won’t be a more scrutinized team. A more debated and hated ball club. And there might not be a more beloved group, either. And Sasaki will be just where he belongs, in the spotlight, and not somewhere off in the wings, wishing he’d heeded the super-team’s call to assemble.

​ Orange County Register