How David Smith and his wife Kelli are making a world of difference

• July 4, 2023

He was born into a world that did not understand him.

Hearing impaired since birth, he spent much of his young life searching through the silence and all its uncertainty, through his frustration, for a sense of place, a chance to be heard, for the most basic of human of needs: connection.

In sports, he found a place where the world could not ignore him.

On a court or field or playground he could not be avoided, dismissed.

Between the white lines David Smith found a home.

“For me, sports was who I am,” he said. “For me, especially growing up, it was a way to get on a level playing field. It doesn’t matter how well you speak or how well you can hear, you can go out there and you can kick a ball, shoot a ball, throw, run, hit whatever, you’re going to be accepted by kids. That’s all they care about at that age – can you hang with us?

“For me, sports was a way to show, hey, I can and I can even do it better than you sometimes. So to me that probably was the easiest way to connect with people and be part of a group and community.”

Smith, the former UC Irvine All-American and longtime middle blocker for Team USA, and his wife Kelli are still trying to level playing fields.

David Smith, now 38, is playing the best volleyball of a career that includes three Olympic Games as the U.S. heads into this week’s Volleyball Nations League at Anaheim Convention Center (July 4-9). Smith in May was named the most valuable player in the European Champions League Super Final after leading his club team, Poland’s Zaska Kedzierzyn-Kozle, to a third consecutive Champions League title.

Kelli Smith, meanwhile, with her grassroots fundraising and relentless problem solving has impacted hundreds of Ukrainian refugees who have flooded into Poland since Russia’s invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.

“My wife was especially moved to help those people because she knew as a mom and as a wife it’s tough to go to a country where you don’t speak the language, you don’t know a thing about the people around you, it’s scary,” Smith said. “So she wanted to give them some comfort, she wanted to give them some dignity.”

And a sense of connection.

A sense of belonging.

A SPARK

In the German tongue, in the Polish town

Scraped flat by the roller

Of wars, wars, wars

–”Daddy.” Sylvia Plath

At least once a month Kelli Smith, a cross country and track and field standout at UCI, runs through the thick forest that surrounds the village of Slawiecice near Kedzierzyn-Kozle.

David Smith played professionally in Germany, Spain and France before moving to Poland in 2016 to play for Czarni Radon in 2016 and eventually joining Zaska Kedzierzyn-Kozle in 2019.

“There was a sadness (in Poland) and I remember thinking, is it like this? Is this how Polish people are?” Kelli Smith said, recalling the family’s move to the country. “And instead of trying to judge them, I began reading more history, World War II and also Communism.”

She would also find the answer in the secrets of the woods.

In April 1942, the Nazis built a forced-labor camp for Jews known in the forest around Slawiecice, then part of Germany. When 120 workers contracted typhus they were transferred to Auschwitz where they were murdered. The remaining prisoners were moved to Blechhammer, a subcamp of Auschwitz concentration camp, built in April 1944 on 10 acres.

At least 5,500 prisoners from 15 countries would pass through Blechhammer, part of a network of Auschwitz sub-camps that contained 48,000 prisoners including 2,000 British POWs.

Prisoners at Blechhammer were housed in wooden barracks that had no toilets or running water. Prisoners determined unable to work by the SS were transferred to Auschwitz where they were murdered. Fifteen-hundred prisoners died at Blechammer and were burned in the camp’s crematorium. Healthy prisoners at Auschwitz were moved to Blechhammer.

With the Soviet arms fast approaching, the Nazis abandoned Blechhammer on January 21, 1945, and sent 4,000 prisoners on a 13 day death march to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp. Prisoners were given half a loaf of bread, a small portion of honey and margarine and half a sausage for the trip. More than 800 died or were murdered on the way to Gross-Rosen where they were put on trains and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Five days after the evacuation of Blechhammer, Nazi soldiers returned to the camp and began shooting some of the 100 or so prisoners who had been left in the camp’s infirmary. Prisoners still capable of walking were ordered to carry the dead to open trenches where they too were shot. The bodies were then covered in straw and gasoline and lit on fire.

On her first run through the forest near Slawiecice, Smith came across remnants of Blechhammer, the camp’s gate and the crematorium, its guard towers.

“Poland is not that far out of some very serious things going on politically,” she said. “So you have to look at everything through that lens and I was actually surprised by the immediate, initial response from Polish people because Polish-Ukrainian relations are fairly complicated historically but Polish people also know what it’s like to be conquered and to have a war in their country and to almost be obliterated as a country and so I think that resonated and people were like, we have to help.”

The Smiths felt a similar calling.

Kelli Smith had previously worked with non-profit groups dealing with child advocacy, literacy and addressing poverty in India.

“The second the invasion happened and the second she had an opportunity to help the people in Ukraine, I just saw the immediate reaction,” David Smith said. “She was just immediately drawn to the pain and the suffering, what she could do to help. She was not, well she never is, content to just sit back and let the world pass her by. She wants to be a voice of change. She wants to be a spark.”

She connected with a local group sending goods to groups working with refugees on the Poland-Ukraine border.

“We were collecting goods to send to the border and so we started buying diapers and had some old cell phones to donate and was posting about that and a couple people from the U.S. said, ‘Oh, can I send you money and you buy stuff on our behalf and send it to the refugees as well?’” Kelli Smith recalled. “And at the time that was kind of the gateway and I mentioned to a couple of people I met here, like, ‘Hey, if something bigger comes up, I think I might be able to raise a little bit of money to do something bigger.’ My thought was maybe I can raise like $10,000 dollars. So I told a few people here that I knew and I think maybe a week into it a friend got back to me and said there’s something we need help with. And it was just kind of interesting that their idea of a bigger thing was so different from my idea of a bigger thing.”

Among the thousands of Ukrainian refugees coming into the area near Kedzierzyn-Kozle were children who had been forced to abandon among other things their education. The Smiths were made aware through friends that also among the refugees was a teacher. The woman, however, could not legally teach in Poland until her teaching credential was translated from Ukrainian to Polish.

“She didn’t have any money,” David Smith said. “She literally just fled across the border with a backpack. That’s all she had. She didn’t have the couple hundred bucks to translate this document so she couldn’t turn around and help a class of Ukrainian children, orphan kids. Have a class so they can have an education. Have a place where they could go be with friends who are in a similar situation as them.”

Kelli Smith recalled, “The big ask was $250 U.S.”

“I could have done that myself but I was like, let me engage my friends and see if someone wants to help and I posted on social media and within 10, 15 minutes we had more than double that amount,” she continued. “So I was like, ‘OK, maybe I really could do something more.’”

Team USA libero Erik Shoji also plays for Zaska Kedzierzyn-Kozle and lives in a downstairs apartment in the home where the Smiths and their two children, Cohen and Amelie, live. Shoji has nearly 200,000 followers on Instagram.

Kelli scheduled a follow-up meeting with the person trying to put together a school for the refugee children and then took to social media, including posting on Shoji’s account during a Zaska match.

“I was thinking let’s raise around $10,000, and within the first 2 ½ days, just saying on social media, ‘Hey, friends, I’m going to raise some money, it’s going to go directly to Ukrainians but I don’t know what that will look like, I don’t know anything right now, I have a meeting on Monday with somebody who’s really hands-on helping people, but if you know me you can trust me, I’m going to give every dollar directly there,’” Smith recalled. “And I just posted my Venmo and my PayPal and said any transaction cost, don’t worry about that, I’ll cover that, it’s all going to go dollar for dollar to Ukrainians. So by the time we had that meeting, we had about $17,000. So it well exceeded our goal, our expectations. So that day we were able to commit to around $10,000 to that contact. He had this big dream of starting some classes for Ukrainian kids in this small village.”

Within a week, Smith’s fundraising had opened a classroom for 18 Ukrainian students. It also covered a clothing allowance and school supplies for each student, and a printer for the classroom.

Before long Smith had also raised enough money to open and furnish a preschool in a cleared-out attic. She raised money for a junior high classroom and purchased a laptop for each student so they could also stay connected with their schools back in Ukraine.

“So from there it just kind of snowballed and I have a good friend here, named Marta, who is like my right hand and people here knew I was trying to help the Ukrainians, so they’d call her and say, ‘Hey, this family just arrived,’ they need clothes or a bike or they need food.” Smith said. “And so it just went like that and we made more and more contacts for people here that we really came to trust and as of right now we’ve raised $88,000. Which is just like crazy, through my Venmo and my PayPal. And it’s just become word of mouth. At the beginning it was just a lot of people that I knew personally, again, through my church community, through my non-profit work, I’ve had the pleasure of knowing tons of people who have had similar passions and feelings toward giving to other people, from there they shared, ‘Hey, I know Kelli personally, I trust her, she’s going to do what she says.’ So that led to kids doing bake sales in Hawaii raising thousands of dollars, people I’ve never met.”

A pair of eighth grade boys in New York sent $1,000 they made as part of a class project selling snacks to their classmates. Mariners Elementary School in Newport Harbor, the school Cohen Smith attends when the family is in the U.S., raised around $5,000.

“It’s gone beyond what I ever thought,” Kelli said. “I never thought it would go on this long. Here we are at the end of June. Not just the war, but my efforts. Last year I usually come home to the U.S. so I thought by April, I would be done and it was like I still have a lot of money so I kept working with my partners, even when I was in the U.S., and it’s like every time I get close to having almost zero, something has popped up and there’s new donations. I still haven’t had to say no to anything.”

For a time, Smith said, “it was basically my full-time job, shopping 8 hours of time. Five hundred pounds of potatoes, 200 pounds of onions. Buy them from a local farmer. So I’m helping the farmer but I’m helping the Ukrainians. Which is interesting. People saw they gave money and then they saw exactly what I was doing. It’s really a concrete thing to see a huge crate of vegetables that I bought and to see that, ‘Oh, my goodness, $250 bought like hundreds of pounds of dry goods.’”

Smith’s efforts have continued even as she has battled the lingering effects of COVID. She has suffered from asthma since high school, a condition made all the more worse by her two bouts of COVID.

“Post COVID, my lungs just aren’t the same and I have to medicate daily just to keep it, weird symptoms at bay, vomit, dizzying,” she said. “Every three to four months having chest pains like having a 10 pound (weight) sitting on my chest at all times. Get dizzy, lightheaded, legs like jello.”

Smith was hospitalized for three days in December.

She refused, however, to be slowed.

Quarantined because of COVID, Smith created a running path around her backyard.

“Thirty laps around the garden is a mile,” she said. “Got up to nine miles. 270 laps. Too much. Erik would take time lapses from his kitchen window, half concrete, half snow, you could see the exact path I ran.”

Her impact can also be seen all over her community.

Recently Smith’s efforts helped fund a renovation and conversion of a building into a community center. Funds have paid for swim passes for families at a local facility, bikes and scooters for children, things to help create a sense of normalcy and connection in a new and often strange place.

“There are some growing pains for some of them,” Kelli said. “Some of them are doing really well and some of them are having growing pains with just different situations so I’m just available to help in those growing pains and financial situations because of this or that. But also I want to help families just have a normal life and be able to do different things. Like, be able to go to the swimming pool and not have to sacrifice their real necessities, to allow their kids to have a normal moment, a normal childhood. So that’s been a big emphasis the whole time: sometimes there are things that are necessities but there are also things, like we all have, preferences and just because you’re a refugee doesn’t mean you don’t get to have a preference.

“Like the old woman who asked, ‘May I buy just one lipstick at the pharmacy on our shopping trip?’ And I said, ‘Of course.’ It’s buying scooters and bikes for kids. They don’t need scooters and bikes, but it lets them be regular kids because they’ve experienced things they shouldn’t have to. So it’s really been about building community relationships. It’s just being ready for whatever comes. Sometimes there are weeks where I don’t hear from anyone and sometimes there are a few things that hit right in a row.

“I just keep waiting for the next thing to see what it is.”

THE SMOJIS

David Smith has never used his hearing impairment as an excuse.

His mother, Nancy, wouldn’t have let him even if he had wanted to.

While getting her teaching credential at Cal State Northridge, Nancy Smith also learned American Sign Language. She went on to teach deaf students in the LAUSD.

“Just happenstance,” David Smith said, shaking his head.

“It just so happened that when I was born she was more equipped than she thought she would be,” Smith continued. “Obviously they didn’t know right away but it was just a miracle how that happened. I think she probably had a little more confidence in how to deal with the situation and advocate for me.

“I think a lot of people with a disability, whether it’s hearing, vision or developmental, it, you’re overwhelmed if you haven’t had any experience with that. But my Mom knew a lot of people who are deaf, even more than I am, but are very capable. So it wasn’t like, ‘Oh, woe is me. Woe is my child.’ It was like I can do this and they can do this too. She’s been my advocate for me, she’s been a rock for me, especially early on in my life.

“Didn’t allow me to go to that default excuse of why I can’t do things. No, you can do it.”

After graduating from Saugus High School, he led UCI to the NCAA title in 2007. Two years later he joined the U.S. national team.

Since the 2010-11 season, club teams featuring Smith as the middle have won 18 league titles or national cups. In four seasons with Zaska Kedzierzyn-Kozle, Smith has won a Polish league title, three Polish Cups, two Polish Super Cups and the last three Champions League crowns.

“David Smith has been one of the most important players for Zaksa throughout their incredible run of success in the CEV Champions League Volley in the last three seasons,” read the Champions League news release announcing Smith as the league’s MVP. “The American middle blocker’s performance in the SuperFinals this past weekend cannot be fully described by just looking at the statistics. His 13 points (4 kill blocks/2 aces) came at the perfect time for his team, almost choosing the hardest moments of the match to shine.”

Shoji, 33, has also played a major role in Zaska’s success.

Shoji, college volleyball’s first ever four-year All-American while at Stanford, comes from volleyball royalty. His father Dave Shoji is the winningest coach in women’s Division I college history, guiding Hawaii to four national championships before retiring in 2017. Erik’s older brother Kawika was an All-American setter at Stanford and longtime member of the U.S. national team, joining Erik and Smith in claiming a bronze medal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

In the Smiths, Shoji has found a second family in Poland.

Shoji has an apartment with its own entrance on the first floor of the Smith’s house but usually can be found upstairs with the family.

“I wonder in the beginning,” Kelli said, recalling when her husband first invited Shoji to move into the house. “We weren’t that close. Knew his brother better than Erik. Will he be annoyed by us, you know two kids?”

But Shoji and the Smiths have become so close that they created a new family name on social media: the Smojis.

“We just decided, combine our names together,” Shoji said. “I’m part of the family.”

To Cohen and Amelie, Shoji is “Uncle E.”

Cohen, 11, recently had to do a report for school detailing where in the world he would like to go and with whom.

He wrote, “Go to Tokyo with Uncle E because he’ll know all the great places to eat.”

“I joke he’s like my third child because I feed him most of the time,” Kelli said. “He’ll text me, especially after games, ‘What do we have to eat?’ Erik and I really connect really well. Really good friendship. We get each other. So sometimes I feel like I’m his person here when he needs to vent something. He knows he can do that with me. It’s funny because last year when I went home in April. His dad texted me, ‘Who is going to take care of Erik now?’”

“I was like he’s fine. He can take care of himself.”

David Smith has come to view Shoji as more than just a teammate.

“It’s a friendship that has been taken to another level just because we can spend so much time together,” Smith said. “We rely on each other a lot, and my wife, and my kids love him as well. I love him as a teammate and a friend and we’ve developed a really good relationship over the last couple of years. We’ve spent so much time together that people just joke that we’re just one family and we are. Not by blood, but by circumstance, what we’ve gone through.”

That journey includes the disappointment of failing to medal at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, a memory that continues to haunt Smith and Shoji as they head into this week’s Nations League play.

“To get to the top, to get that gold medal at the next Olympics that’s obviously our main goal, our main target for the next year,” Smith said “We always talk about the margin being thin, razor thin, the difference between good and great is like one ball. How do we have the discipline and muscle memory and chemistry that those points count when you need to? So I don’t think there needs to be a whole overhaul of offensive systems, defensive systems, blah, blah, blah. I think it’s really about playing a little bit more efficiently together and at the end, you need a little bit of luck for sure. The ball touches the line, ball’s out a centimeter and it changes the whole game sometimes. But I truly do believe you make your own luck and put yourself in that situation to take advantage of that luck every once in a while. I think we have a great group. I think we have a ton of talent, ton of experience and I’m super excited to see the direction of this program over the next year. I think we have a great group of guys, I love playing with them. I think we’re all focused on making something special in Paris.”

A big reason for Team USA’s confidence going into Nations League play, and the Olympic qualifying tournament in Japan later this fall, is the play of the 6-foot-7 Smith.

“He’s playing some of the best volleyball of his career at age 36, 37, 38,” Shoji said. “So it’s been really inspiring to watch as someone who has seen him now for 11, 12 years on the court, I can honestly say this is the best volleyball he’s played, I think, in his career and he’s doing it at that age in this position that he’s in. I think it’s basically unheard of, so he’s kind of just an inspiration for us to see as younger players that you can still go, still do it and he’s become more of a leader. He’s kind of this silent leader that leads by example. Because maybe you might not notice him but at the end and you’re looking at the stats, he’s hitting for a great percentage, touching a lot of balls and getting a lot of blocks.

“He’s really come into a role that maybe he didn’t quite embrace when he was younger. He is a little bit undersized in the volleyball world at 6-7, 6-8, you know he’s undersized. But he’s accepted that in the last couple of years, and he goes, ‘I might be undersized but I’m going to carve you up, I’m going to beat you and get great touches.’ I think in the past he’s compared himself to a 6-10, 6-11, and 7-footers and now he’s not doing that and just kind of coming into his own and performing the best he has in a while.”

Often, Smith, who has a degree in civil engineering, has also simply outsmarted opponents.

“Well I think he’s smarter than most people in this world just from an academic side, someone who can analyze a game and numbers and statistics and where people are on the court and figure out a way to get the job done,” Shoji said. “So I think in general he’s just a smart person. But he’s very analytical, he’s an engineer, he can look at something and deconstruct it and figure out a way to get it done.”

Smith’s success, both with Team USA and Zaska in recent years, followed a series of honest conversations with Kelli.

“He’s truly passionate about the game and he’s always trying to make himself better,” Kelli said. “Probably around 34, 35, there was a lot of talk about, oh, he’s getting older, he’s getting older and he started to express that as well, ‘Oh, maybe it’s because he’s getting older and I refused to allow that to be an excuse. That’s my personality. I was like no, you’re going to keep going. If you’re going to go, go. Don’t even say that anymore because now he’s just like just whatever, joking about it. Then, I think it was sinking in a little too much and I was thinking, like, if you even keep talking about that it’s going to get in your head and at this level you need to be operating with the most confidence that you can.

“And so he’s been really blessed to not have a lot of injuries. I think his body was made to do what he’s doing. He’s got a wife at home and I don’t accept complacency because I’ve said we have to all, all of us, have to be all in for this to work.

“I have to be. That’s my personality and it’s not his personality. On the court, you see a very aggressive David Smith who is really passionate and fiery and he’ll yell. In real life, he’s much more mild-mannered and passive. So sometimes in his career, he’s needed a little bit of a shove to say, ‘Hey, is this all you’ve got? Are you giving it all because again this is a team effort at home as well.”

David Smith was asked how much longer he saw himself playing.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I thought, I genuinely thought I would be done after Tokyo. That was the end game. But my body has been great. My family has been great. They love living overseas in Poland. We have a great club that takes care of us there. Obviously we’re super successful, we’re back to back to back European champions right now. So there’s been no reason to stop. The main goal is to make it to Paris, make an Olympic team. But we’ll see what happens after that. My son is old enough that it would be nice to give him some stability for my child that I remember having. He’s around that age and I would love to give him that experience. But it would be nice to settle down and see him thrive and see what he’s interested in. I’m still motivated and inspired.

“Right now I just have next summer in my mind.”

SHOWING THAT YOU CARE

Cohen Smith is his parent’s son.

Recently he informed David and Kelli that he had a new classmate, a boy whose family fled Ukraine.

“And my wife and I were trying to get him to think about it a little bit,” David recalled, “Who is it? Where is he from? Why is he here? How do you think he’s feeling right now? My son was like, ‘Oh, wait, he’s probably a little nervous, probably a little scared, probably out of place, just like I was when I first came to (Kedzierzyn-Kozle).”

David Smith is also still trying to connect, still trying to level life’s playing field.

Families with deaf children will drive hours to meet Smith at Zaska matches. Before a match four years ago he was approached by a friend. A mother had a deaf child and would Smith mind meeting her?

Smith agreed.

“She just had some questions and you could see the second you met her it was just a mom like so many out there, ‘I just don’t know what to do. I have a child, I love my child, I want what’s best for my child and I don’t know how to do it.’

“And I said, ‘You’re doing a great job first of all, you’re doing enough, you’re doing more than enough, just this conversation shows that you care.’ Meeting the child, so he can see someone growing up, because I really didn’t have that growing up, it wasn’t like I had a deaf athlete (to look up to), ‘Oh, I can do that.’ I was super happy about that.”

Today the boy is a champion swimmer.

“The cool thing about sign language is it’s not an international language but I can understand Polish sign language, a shared sign understanding.”

Kelli Smith is driven by her own sense of understanding, shaped both by her natural instinct and the place she now calls home, always moving forward, looking not waiting for opportunities to change her section of the world.

She is back running through the forest around Blechhammer regularly, past the camp’s gate, past its moss covered crumbling walls, past the crematorium, past the watchtowers, history’s ghosts tracking a dreamer as she moves through a nightmare, soft steps over a hard and bloody past.

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Angels’ Mike Trout diagnosed with left wrist fracture

• July 4, 2023

SAN DIEGO — Mike Trout fractured the hamate bone in his left wrist on Monday night, the Angels announced on Tuesday. The injury typically costs a player four to eight weeks.

The Angels’ star suffered the injury on a swing in the eighth inning of a loss to the Padres.

As the three-time MVP spoke to reporters while he awaited the test results on Monday, he was distraught at the prospect of another injury.

“Just praying the results come back clean,” he said. “It doesn’t feel great.”

It turned out to be an injury that is fairly common among baseball players. Normally it occurs during a swing, when the knob of the bat presses against the bone at the base of the hand by the wrist. The bone is typically removed during surgery, and a player can return to action once the surgical wounds have healed and strength is restored.

Boston Red Sox infielder Yu Chang suffered a fractured hamate on April 24. He began a rehab assignment about a month later, but felt some discomfort and needed another month. He is currently on another rehab assignment.

Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco was out two months with a fractured hamate last year.

Last year, Andrew Benintendi broke his hamate on Sept. 2 and had surgery on Sept. 6, and he did not make it back with the Yankees, who were eliminated from the postseason on Oct. 23.

In 2019, Cleveland’s José Ramirez missed just four weeks with a broken hamate.

The Angels recalled Jo Adell from Triple-A to replace Trout on the active roster. Adell was hitting .271 with 23 homers — most in the minors — and a .956 OPS.

For Trout, this marks the third straight year that he’s missing a chunk of the season with a significant injury. He suffered a strained calf in May 2021, costing him the rest of the season. Last July he hurt his back, missing five weeks.

The Angels had been proactive in trying to prevent soft-tissue injuries with Trout by giving him regular days off. He had been out of the lineup eight times in the Angels’ first 87 games, with a plan to reduce those days off as the schedule provided more off days in the second half. Trout last played more than 140 games in 2016.

This injury, a broken bone, was seemingly not preventable with rest, though.

The recent of run of injuries will cost Trout another opportunity to play in the All-Star Game. Although he was elected as the starter for the 10th time, this will be the fourth time that he’s unable to play. He missed the game in 2017, 2021 and 2022 because of injuries. With the 2020 All-Star Game canceled because of the pandemic, Trout has not played in the All-Star Game since 2019.

The bigger concern is the impact on the Angels’ season.

The Angels are 45-42, six games back in the American League West and three games back in the wild card race. Although they were on a hot streak early in June that vaulted them into the thick of the race, they’ve lost nine of their last 13 games.

Trout had been in a slump, by his standard, for much of the season, but he said he was starting to feel better over the previous couple weeks. He hit .340 with four homers and an OPS of 1.121 in his last 14 games.

For the season, Trout is hitting .263 with 18 homers and an .863 OPS.

Trout joins second baseman Brandon Drury, shortstop Zach Neto and catcher Logan O’Hoppe among the Angels’ everyday players on the injured list. The Angels are hoping to get Drury and Neto back just after the All-Star break. O’Hoppe could be back in late August, at the earliest. Third baseman Anthony Rendon has been on the injured list twice, but he’s healthy now. They have already lost Gio Urshela for the season.

“We’ve talked all along about our depth and it’s been tested,” Nevin said on Monday night, before Trout’s diagnosis was known. “We’ve been adding to that. We’ve lost some big pieces to this. We’ve talked about having the next guy up. Same thing in this case.”

In other news, the Angels optioned right-hander Victor Mederos to Triple-A and recalled right-hander Gerardo Reyes.

More to come on this story.

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Reaffirming our nation’s independence

• July 4, 2023

The Fourth of July, Independence Day, is a good time not only for hot dogs and fireworks, but to reflect for a moment on what makes this country unique, the qualities that enabled it to become in some ways the most successful country in history, and to contemplate the extent to which those qualities still animate Americans.

It has been said that the United States is the only country founded on an idea, or a set of ideas, rather than on ethnic or racial similarities, kinship, conquest or the simple fact of a relatively homogeneous group of people living in the same geographic region for centuries. Those ideas are summed up in the Declaration of Independence, the document whose signing and promulgation we celebrate. In some ways it can lay claim to being the most revolutionary public document in human history.

Aspects of the idea that people are not just vassals of the powers that be, interchangeable cogs in the great machinery of society presided over by leaders who had by and large established themselves through conquest and pillage, had been growing for centuries before 1776. But the circumstances surrounding the decision of the colonists to separate from Great Britain offered the opportunity to summarize emerging principles in a uniquely eloquent manner.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident,” the Declaration proclaims, “that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” By “created equal,” of course, the founders were not so naïve as to believe that we were all equally tall, intelligent, beautiful or worthy, but that we have equal value in the sight of God or Natural Law and should receive equal treatment rather than preferences or punishment based on our status from government. Every human being has a certain inherent dignity, and decent people respect that.

It has become fashionable to talk of certain privileges or amenities bestowed by government as “rights,” but the Declaration is clear that people are “endowed by their Creator,” with certain rights, and that these rights exist prior to and take precedence over any claims by government. This was and still is truly revolutionary. The rights discussed — life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — are genuine rights in that they can be exercised without impinging on the equal rights of other human beings.

So what is government’s job in a system that recognizes unalienable rights? Simply “to secure these rights.” This implies a government of limited powers, for a government of unlimited powers will surely become a threat to rather than a securer of personal rights.

Our government has grown in scope, power and ambition far beyond the imaginings of those who put their lives on the line (and, in some cases, lost them) by signing the Declaration of Independence. Yet the spirit of independence, the healthy distrust of overweening government power, remains a stubborn American characteristic. Long may it thrive.

This editorial was originally published July 4, 2009.

​ Orange County Register 

Why you should stay away from sick sea lions, for their good — and yours

• July 4, 2023

The best (and safest) way to help sick sea lions, it turns out, is to not really help at all — except for calling the experts.

A toxic algae bloom up and down the California coast has been sickening sea lions and other ocean mammals over the last month or so, causing them to come ashore in alarming numbers, which has overwhelmed care facilities.

More than 1,000 sea lions and more than 100 dolphins have been reported sick or dead along the California coast. And more than 100 sea lions likely suffering from domoic acid toxicity have stranded themselves on Los Angeles area beaches since the bloom, the L.A. County Department of Public Health said in a Friday press release.

“To see a sea lion on the beach in the middle of a crowded summer day, that’s not normal,” Dave Bader, chief operations and education officer for the Marine Mammal Care Center, in San Pedro, said in a Friday interview.

While you may want to go up to the sea lions and do what you can to help them, it’s best that you don’t. There are mulitple reasons why — including that you can be poisoned by the toxin too.

Here’s everything you need to know about the sick marine mammals and why staying away from them is the best thing you can do to help — especially since the Fourth of July is a typically busy beach day.

Why you should stay away

A neurotoxin in the algae, domoic acid, gets concentrated through ingestion as it goes up the food chain. So when small fish eat the sea greenery, the toxin builds in their tissues, then the sea lions eat the fish.

Because they’re semi-aquatic, it’s not uncommon for sea lions to come onto shore if they’re sick — or just want some air.

“If people didn’t exist in the world, there would probably be sea lions on the beach,” Bader said. “But because we do, they don’t really haul out on local beaches anymore.”

When they do, it’s usually to rest, he added.

“They don’t spend their entire lives in the water,” Bader said. “It’s natural for them to come out onto shore if they’re in need.”

But the domoic acid can cause the animals to behave in ways they normally wouldn’t, Bader said, including hauling out onto the beach even with lots of people around.

Sea lions typically stay away from people, Bader said, and it’s rare for them to be aggressive. But because of the neurotoxin, Bader said, the animals may act differently — potentially endangering humans who get too close.

“Because these animals are sick and unpredictable,” Bader said, “coming in close contact with them, you could get bitten.”

Giving the sea lions space so they’re not worried is one thing people can do to help them heal, Bader said.

And for what it’s worth, it’s also illegal to harm or harass the animals under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Bader said.

Marine experts and public health officials have urged people to stay at least 50 feet from stranded sea lions, Bader said.

And if you see an animal on a beach, the best way to help is to email a picture of it, along with a photo of the nearest lifeguard tower, to [email protected]. People can also call 1-800-39-WHALE to report stranded sea mammals.

“We’re trying to find the most restful and calm spaces for them to be so they can sleep, be not stressed,” Bader said. “When you have the flu, the last thing you want to do is go to work; you need the most restful situation to recuperate. For sea lions, it’s not too dissimilar.”

Are humans at risk of getting sick?

In short, getting to close to these sick animals can make you ill as well.

But that’s not the only way people can get domoic acid poisoning. They can also get it by eating recreationally caught shellfish, Bader said.

Commercial shellfish, however, is generally considered safe, as it gets tested and wouldn’t make it to market if were contaminated.

But the California Department of Public Health has issued an advisory warning folks not to eat sport-harvested mussels, clam or scallops that come from from Santa Barbara County, per LA County’s Friday release.

Symptoms of toxicity, also called amnesic shellfish poisoning, can occur within 30 minutes to 24 hours after eating toxic seafood, according to CDPH. In mild cases, people may experience vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, headache and dizziness, with the symptoms disappearing within several days.Severe symptoms include trouble breathing, confusion, disorientation, cardiovascular instability, seizures, excessive bronchial secretions, permanent loss of short-term memory, coma or death.

There’s really no telling when things will calm down with the algae bloom, Bader said. Marine experts say this algae bloom could last six to eight weeks, based on instances in the past, Bader said, but we’re already four weeks in — so it’ll be at least another month before things clear up.

“It depends on what the waves and water want to do,” Bader said. “Algae responds to oceanic conditions, so as long as the ocean is favorable for that algae to grow, it’ll keep happening.”

With warmer temperatures ahead for July 4 and beyond, it looks like the algae won’t die down too soon.

​ Orange County Register 

How do I go about patenting my invention? Ask the lawyer

• July 4, 2023

Q: Two questions: I have come up with a device and have the detailed drawings for it. Now I want to try to patent it. How do I go about doing that?

J.S., Rancho Palos Verdes

Ron Sokol

A: Patent law allows you to patent an invention, machine, process, plant or design. Once (or if) you have determined that your device can be protected by a patent, you will then decide what type of patent you need.

There are different kinds of patents. I believe the two most common are a utility patent, which protects new inventions, machines, processes, compositions of matters, article of manufacture, and any improvement on these items; and a design patent, which protects the aesthetic or the appearance of an invention. There can be an invention that qualifies for both of these kinds of patents, in which event you may file for both.

Note that the utility patent protects how your invention works or functions, whereas the design patent protects the appearance of your device.

The threshold issue: If you are going to seek to patent a device with the United States Patent & Trademark Office (whose website is online), you have to present a novel invention. This “novelty” requirement means your invention is different from anything that has ever been patented before and different from anything that has even been publicly disclosed.

Research indicates that if you have something that is patentable, you must file the application within 12 months of publicly disclosing your invention, or from the date you offered it for sale. Note that a part of your due diligence should be to research whether any one has ever patented the device you are pursuing, or has already disclosed it to the public.

Patent law is a specialty. It is not uncommon for a patent lawyer to be an engineer or have a good working knowledge of the engineering field. I would be remiss if I did not encourage you to consult with (if not retain) a patent law specialist.

I also have not mentioned a provisional patent, which you may want to consider, or a plant patent.  So, again, give thought to sitting down with a specialist.

Q: Second question: What is meant by non-obviousness? I understand my invention has to be “non-obvious.”

J.S., Rancho Palos Verdes

A: Non-obvious is both a subjective and factual inquiry, undertaken by the patent examiner to assess if your invention is new, or instead just a combination of previously patented or publicly disclosed inventions. The subjective part is that the examiner is conducting the determination as to whether an ordinary person skilled in the field, pertinent to your invention, would have believed the invention is obvious at the time you filed.

Bottom line, you want to be able to show that there is a real difference between your invention, and previously patented and publicly disclosed items.

Vocabulary

Utility patent: This is what most people think of when they think about a patent. It’s a long, technical document that teaches the public how to use a new machine, process or system. The kinds of inventions protected by utility patents are defined by Congress. New technologies, such as genetic engineering and internet-delivered software, are challenging the boundaries of what kinds of inventions can receive utility patent protection.

Provisional patent: United States law allows inventors to file a less formal document that proves the inventor was in possession of the invention and had adequately figured out how to make the invention work. Once that is on file, the invention is patent pending. If, however, the inventor fails to file a formal utility patent within a year from filing the provisional patent, he or she will lose this filing date. Any public disclosures made relying on that provisional patent application will now count as public disclosures to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Design patent: This patent offers protection for an ornamental design on a useful item. The shape of a bottle or the design of a shoe, for example, can be protected by a design patent. The document itself is almost entirely made of pictures or drawings of the design on the useful item. Design patents are notoriously difficult to search simply because there are very few words used in a design patent. In recent years, software companies have used design patents to protect elements of user interfaces and even the shape of touchscreen devices.

Plant patent: Just what it sounds like, a plant patent protects new kinds of plants produced by cuttings or other nonsexual means. Plant patents generally do not cover genetically modified organisms and focus more on conventional horticulture.

Ron Sokol has been a practicing attorney for over 40 years, and has also served many times as a judge pro tem, mediator, and arbitrator. It is important to keep in mind that this column presents a summary of the law, and is not to be treated or considered legal advice, let alone a substitute for actual consultation with a qualified professional.

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​ Orange County Register 

Niles: ‘Rogers: The Musical’ shows the importance of live theater at Disneyland

• July 4, 2023

Live musical theater is back at Disney California Adventure, and I could not be happier.

“Rogers: The Musical” opened in the park’s Hyperion Theater last week. The Hollywood Land facility had been dark since the pandemic, after Disneyland closed the “Frozen — Live at the Hyperion” production that had played there since 2016. “Rogers: The Musical” will run through Aug. 31.

More from Robert Niles

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Here’s what’s missing from DisneylandForward

After that, Disneyland has not announced what will happen in the theater. But I hope that it does not remain dark for long. Live theater provides an important draw for any theme park, and Disney should continue to set an example for the industry by supporting it in all of its theme parks.

As for “Rogers,” the new musical surprised me. “Rogers: The Musical” is a punchline in the Disney+ series “Hawkeye,” where it first appeared. When Disneyland announced that it would bring an expanded, 30-minute version of the musical to the Hyperion, I worried that the park could not sustain a joke for that long. Disneyland’s reveal that the production would include a second satirical number, “Star Spangled Man” from “Captain America: The First Avenger,” along with “Save the City” from “Hawkeye,” did not help ease my concern that this would be a one-note show that left audiences cringing as much as laughing.

Don’t worry. “Rogers: The Musical” triumphs. The production offers three exceptional original songs that help frame the show as a classic, heart-tugging Broadway romance. Led by director Jordan Peterson, the creative team has delivered a show that delivers the emotional mix that fans have come to expect from the best Marvel productions. Sure, fans will laugh at “Save the City,” and even more so when Nick Fury sings in a new number which leads up to that. But fans will cry and cheer, too.

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Good word of mouth, along with the enduring popularity of the Captain America character, should help keep the nearly 2,000-seat theater filled multiple times daily for show’s limited run. When shows are running, the Hyperion Theater is a people-eater that helps improve wait times at other attractions throughout Disney California Adventure and Disneyland.

But expanded resort capacity isn’t the only reason why Disneyland should keep the Hyperion running. Theme parks can, and should, use their popularity to help more fans discover and fall in love with theater. Live theater helps develop and sustain generations of actors, singers, writers, composers and designers — many of the creative artists that theme parks need to bring adventures to life for their fans.

Street entertainment and character shows help create the magic in Disney’s parks, but there’s nothing like seeing a show in a big house like the Hyperion to help more fans discover why Broadway remains such a popular and enduring art form. Success drives imitation in entertainment, and I would love to see Disney do whatever it can to inspire the entire theme park industry to commission and support more large-scale, live professional theater for fans across the country and around the world.

​ Orange County Register 

Happy Independence Day: Political Cartoons

• July 4, 2023

Check out our regular cartoon gallery featuring some of the best cartoonists from around the world, and across the political spectrum, covering current issues and figures.

​ Orange County Register 

Los Alamitos horse racing consensus picks, Tuesday, July 4, 2023

• July 4, 2023

The consensus box of Los Alamitos horse racing picks comes from handicappers Bob Mieszerski, Art Wilson, Terry Turrell and Eddie Wilson. Here are the picks for thoroughbred races on Tuesday, July 4, 2023.

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​ Orange County Register