Angels blow out A’s on the strength of an 11-run inning

• April 2, 2023

OAKLAND — Once the Angels returned to action Saturday, it didn’t take them long to bury the frustration of an Opening Day loss and the controversy that followed on the subsequent day off.

The Angels exploded for 11 runs in the third inning of a 13-1 pummeling of the Oakland A’s.

It made for a much happier walk from the dugout to the clubhouse than on Thursday night, when the Angels were stinging from a one-run loss just as third baseman Anthony Rendon engaged in an altercation with a fan.

The Angels are still waiting to hear from Major League Baseball to find out if Rendon will face any discipline, but in the meantime they took care of their on-field business with a comfortable victory.

“It was great,” said Taylor Ward, who drove in three on a single and a homer in the third. “Definitely the start we needed, I think. Just bring the fire like that. I think that’s what we need to do every game, just keep the foot on the pedal.”

For the first two innings, the Angels had no answers for Japanese right-hander Shintaro Fujinami, who was making his big-league debut. The Angels went in order, with four strikeouts against his assortment of 99 mph fastballs and diving splitters.

In the third, though, the Angels knocked Fujinami out quickly.

Luis Rengifo walked and Gio Urshela, Logan O’Hoppe and Ward had consecutive hits, producing two runs. Mike Trout walked to load the bases.

Shohei Ohtani – who had faced Fujinami in high school in Japan – smoked a line drive off the left-field fence. Runners had to hold in case it was caught, so it went as a single, scoring one more run.

Rendon hit a sacrifice fly. Hunter Renfroe walked. Jake Lamb singled, ending Fujinami’s day.

Rengifo then walked again. Urshela singled again. O’Hoppe hit a sacrifice fly. Ward then blasted a two-run homer, completing the 11-run outburst.

Manager Phil Nevin said the spark to the inning was Rengifo having a disciplined plate appearance and drawing a walk.

“Knowing there’s the potential for losing the strike zone a little bit, we have to be patient and stick with our approach,” Nevin said. “Luis’ at-bat was exactly what we talked about.”

Angels starter Patrick Sandoval was the beneficiary of the outburst, picking up a victory with five innings of work on 86 pitches. He gave up just one run on a Ramon Laureano homer.

“All right, pretty good,” Sandoval said of his outing. “I made some pitches. I also didn’t make some pitches. But getting through five with an 11-run lead and not screwing it up, I’m happy about it.”

Left-hander Tucker Davidson pitched the final four innings. Davidson is expected to be the Angels’ No. 6 starter, but they don’t need him to fill that role until April 12, so it was convenient to get him some work in a blowout to start sharp.

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When it was over, Davidson qualified for his first big-league save by virtue of working at least three innings to close out a victory. That earned him a beer shower from his teammates.

All in all, it was a happy clubhouse, although Sandoval wouldn’t go so far as to say that it was a relief after what had transpired in the previous two days.

“Just another game,” he said. “Game 2 of a long season. Business as usual.”

​ Orange County Register 

The Queen Mary is officially open for public tours — sparking excitement about what’s to come

• April 2, 2023

Long Beach’s historic World War II-era ship, the Queen Mary, finally reopened for public tours on Saturday, April 1, after a three-year closure — marking the first event in what officials say will be a grand reopening slated to kick off in the coming weeks.

Groups of about 30 people each gathered on the ship’s Promenade Deck starting at about 11 a.m. on Saturday to partake in their choice of three different tours: The Glory Days Historical Tour, the Haunted Encounters Tour and the Steam & Steel Tour — each which take about an hour and are available until 6 p.m. daily.

For some, including Gail Hurst — a tourist from England — Saturday’s reopening offered a chance to experience the ship for the first time. Hurst and her husband decided to visit the Queen Mary on a whim, as their trip with Princess Cruise Line boarded just across the parking lot from the vessel.

“My mom and dad had their 40th wedding anniversary on it — so we got to see where they were for the first time,” Hurst said in an interview after disembarking from her tour of the ship. “It was fabulous. We plan (to visit again) if we ever come to America.”

The ship’s operators, Evolution Hospitality, initially announced that the ship would re-open to the public earlier this week.

Long Beach city officials and Evolution, which took over the ship’s day-to-day management last June, have been working to revitalize the vessel after it fell into massive disrepair under its previous operator, Urban Commons.

The Queen Mary initially closed to the public because of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 — but a 2021 city audit found that Urban Commons had not completed $23 million dollars worth of repairs, which the city had funded. Urban Commons forfeited its 66-year lease on the ship that same year, bringing the Queen Mary back under city control for the first time in nearly 40 years.

Related links

Long Beach allocates extra $1 million for Queen Mary repairs, reopening delayed
Last round of critical Queen Mary repairs underway, Long Beach says
Queen Mary welcomes passengers aboard for the 1st time in nearly 3 years

After the City Council approved the new management contract with Evolution last year, both found that several critical repairs needed to be completed before the Queen Mary could reopen to the public. Those included replacing the ship’s boilers, elevators and restrooms, repairing the plumbing, and upgrading parking.

Those fixes have been underway since last year — but are finally close to being finished, according to Steve Caloca, the Queen Mary’s managing director.

The installation of new boilers, heat exchangers, and a new emergency generator — which are necessary to have hot water on board and ensure the ship’s safety in the case of an emergency — should be complete within the next few days, Caloca said in a Saturday interview.

And other repairs — including aesthetic fixes all around the Queen Mary — are currently underway.

“All of the main hall floor is going to be redone,” Caloca siad. “The Promenade Deck, all of those those floors, have been restored to the original teak  — and we probably have just another 200 feet to go.”

But the ongoing nature of those repairs didn’t seem to bother 7-year-old Tristan Rodriguez — whose fascination with ships prompted his parents book a time slot on the Steam & Steel tour on Saturday afternoon.

“We’ve been checking in on the refurbishment just because he (Tristan) got really interested and wanted to come and see this,” Tristan’s mom, Elianny Rodriguez, said. “We kept checking back and just waiting for it to reopen.”

The younger Rodriguez has been fascinated with all things engineering since he was just two-years-old, according to his mom. He’s gone so far as to create piece-by-piece replicas of famous ships — including the Queen Mary — in Minecraft from scratch, a skill he picked up by watching YouTube tutorials.

“We wanted to check out like the steam engine when (Tristan) saw the tour because we knew how much he was into them,” Rodriguez said, “And (we knew) it would teach us facts about certain ships that we weren’t even aware of so we could talk about it with him.”

Tristan, for his part, carried a miniature model of the Queen Mary throughout his entire tour, which gave him an up close look at the Queen Mary’s engine room and propellors.

He said he loves ships so much because “they float and they have lots of stuff deep” within them — and he likes learning how they work.

“The propellers push the ship and they also steer,” Tristan said, pointing out where the propellors are located on his model of the ship — shortly before letting out a yell of excitement and taking a brief run around the ship’s Observation Deck.

The Rodriguez’s, meanwhile, said they’re all excited to come back soon to visit the ship.

Evolution and the city, meanwhile, are planning to open up other parts of the ship — including the restaurants and bars — soon, though a date has yet to be confirmed. The Queen Mary Hotel, while not quite open yet, is currently accepting room reservations for stays starting in May.

“Thousands of people have already signed up to stay here or to experience a tour within days of reopening registration,” Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson said on Saturday. “There’s a lot of progress, but there’s still a lot of work to do — in the weeks to come, there’ll be more and more things opened.

“But bottom line,” Richardson added, “The Queen Mary’s best days are ahead.”

​ Orange County Register 

Don’t fret about getting old; just refuse to BE old

• April 2, 2023

“Rain, rain, go away.”

No, wait!

“Rain, rain, stay and end the drought.”

No, wait!

What do I want?

It would be nice if we could control the weather to our preferences, but that’s not going to happen. The delightful thing is that we can control our thoughts about the weather. It may not always be easy, but taking charge of our thinking works for having a positive experience, even in the midst of a not-so-good day.

A student driving on the freeway in the rain got caught in traffic. She sent a text to her instructor: “I’ll be late. I’m stuck in traffic.” Unfortunately, the spell checker sent, “I’ll be late. I’m stuck in tragic.”

How many people get stuck in “tragic” as they age? How often do you hear someone say, “It’s terrible to get old?”

There’s even a name for being afraid of old age. It is called gerascophobia. What can you do about your age? Not much.

Like the weather, it’s not in our control, but we can refuse to be old. That doesn’t mean to deny our signs of aging but to wear them proudly. After all, we’ve made it through all of our worst storms so far. We can let go of the yearning to be younger and embrace all the wonderful things we can do and be now.

Sophia Bush wrote, “You are allowed to be both a masterpiece and a work in progress, simultaneously.”

So, what can we do to distract us from our “tragic aging” thoughts? Don’t hesitate to ask for help if we are having a bad day. It can be tough to put oneself in a vulnerable position, especially if we have always been able to do everything for ourselves.

In his book “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse,” Charlie Mackesy wrote, “Asking for help isn’t giving up, said the horse. It’s refusing to give up.”

No matter our physical condition, we can continue to learn more and more about ourselves – especially if the spirit with which we approach each day is about getting to the heart of who we are and loving it.

Our lives can be about doing things wholeheartedly because we get to – this is our one unique chance to experience our particular life.

Louise Hay wrote, “You’ve been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself (and your age) and see what happens.”

Rain, rain, do what you want – you are not in charge of me.

The Rev. Linda McNamar is a Laguna Woods Village resident.

​ Orange County Register 

Tornado survivors recount flying debris, destroyed buildings

• April 2, 2023

By ADRIAN SAINZ and ANDREW SELSKY

WYNNE, Ark. — With tornadoes hitting the Midwest and the South this weekend, some survivors said they emerged from their homes to find buildings ripped apart, vehicles tossed around like toys, shattered glass and felled trees.

J.W. Spencer, 88, had never experienced a tornado before, but when he and his wife saw on TV that a tornado was nearing their small town of Wynne, Arkansas, he opened a front window and rear door in his house to relieve air pressure. The couple scurried into the bathroom, where they got into the bathtub and covered themselves with quilts and blankets for protection.

Fifteen minutes later, the storm unleashed its fury. Debris came whistling through the house.

“We just rode it out,” Spencer said on Saturday. “We heard stuff falling, loud noises. And then it quit. It got quiet.”

After it passed, the couple emerged to see their neighborhood devastated by the tornado. Many large trees were down. Houses were severely damaged. The high school’s roof was shredded and the windows were blown out. But Spencer and his wife were not injured. The giant trees on their property lay sideways on the lawn and the house had some minor damage.

“We come through it real good, as far as the physical part,” Spencer said.

Near a theater in Belvidere, Illinois, where a tornado killed one man and injured 40 concertgoers, Ross Potter picked up glass shards Friday in front of his building. The last time the town was devastated to this extent from a tornado was in 1967.

Ambulances whirred by after the theater was hit.

“They took, I can’t even remember how many people,” Potter said. He was lucky — only a few of his building’s windows were broken, mostly on the second floor. Across the street, most of the brick siding on a storefront was ripped away.

Back in Wynne in northeastern Arkansas, Alan Purser stopped in his pickup truck to chat with Spencer. Purser described how he rode out the tornado with his cats in his home, which is being remodeled. He took a risk, sheltering in the sun room which is covered by glass, but it was one of the few rooms not being remodeled.

“I just lay down with my cats, and lay a blanket over me, and let it rumble,” he said of the tornado that flipped over the camper van parked outside.

RELATED: At least 21 dead after tornadoes rake US Midwest, South

When a tornado hit Little Rock, Arkansas, nine firefighters were in Fire Station No. 9, located in one of the most devastated areas of the city. They sheltered in the chief’s office as the tornado damaged their building.

“If I said it wasn’t scary, I’d be lying,” Capt. Ben Hammond said Saturday.

Once the tornado passed, the firefighters began working to help injured residents and to clear debris blocking their equipment.

“Once you address all the people you can see, then you’ve got to start looking for the people you can’t see,” he said.

The fire station has served as a shelter for neighbors amid fears that another storm was coming.

Associated Press reporters Harm Venhuizen in Belvidere, Illinois, and Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas, contributed to this story. Selsky reported from Salem, Oregon.

​ Orange County Register 

At least 21 dead after tornadoes rake US Midwest, South

• April 2, 2023

By ADRIAN SAINZ and ANDREW DeMILLO

WYNNE, Ark. — Storms that dropped possibly dozens of tornadoes killed at least 21 people in small towns and big cities across the South and Midwest, tearing a path through the Arkansas capital, collapsing the roof of a packed concert venue in Illinois, and stunning people throughout the region Saturday with the damage’s scope.

Confirmed or suspected tornadoes in at least eight states destroyed homes and businesses, splintered trees, and laid waste to neighborhoods across a broad swath of the country. The dead included seven in one Tennessee county, four in the small town of Wynne, Arkansas, three in Sullivan, Indiana, and four in Illinois.

Other deaths from the storms that hit Friday night into Saturday were reported in Alabama and Mississippi, along with one near Little Rock, Arkansas, where city officials said more than 2,600 buildings were in a tornado’s path.

Stunned residents of Wynne, a community of about 8,000 people 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Memphis, Tennessee, woke Saturday to find the high school’s roof shredded and its windows blown out. Huge trees lay on the ground, their stumps reduced to nubs. Broken walls, windows and roofs pocked homes and businesses.

Debris and memories of regular life lay scattered inside the damaged shells of homes and strewn on lawns: clothing, insulation, roofing paper, toys, splintered furniture, a pickup truck with its windows shattered.

Ashley Macmillan said she, her husband and their children huddled with their dogs in a small bathroom as a tornado passed, “praying and saying goodbye to each other, because we thought we were dead.” A falling tree seriously damaged their home, but no one in the family was hurt.

“We could feel the house shaking, we could hear loud noises, dishes rattling. And then it just got calm,” she said.

Recovery was already underway, with workers using chain saws to cut fallen trees and bulldozers moving material from shattered structures. Utility trucks worked to restore power.

RELATED: Tornado survivors recount flying debris, destroyed buildings

At least seven people died in Tennessee’s McNairy County, east of Memphis along the Mississippi border, said David Leckner, the mayor of Adamsville.

“The majority of the damage has been done to homes and residential areas,” Leckner said, adding that although it appeared all people were accounted for, crews were going door to door to be sure.

In Belvidere, Illinois, some of the 260 people attending a heavy metal concert at the Apollo Theatre pulled a 50-year-old man from the rubble after part of the roof collapsed; he was dead when emergency workers arrived. Officials said 40 other people were injured, including two with life-threatening injuries.

“They dragged someone out from the rubble, and I sat with him and I held his hand and I was (telling him), ‘It’s going to be OK.’ I didn’t really know much else what to do,” concertgoer Gabrielle Lewellyn told WTVO-TV.

The venue’s Facebook page said the bands scheduled to perform were Morbid Angel, Crypta, Skeletal Remains and Revocation.

Crews worked Saturday to clean up around the Apollo, with forklifts pulling away loosely hanging bricks. Business owners picked up shards of glass and covered shattered windows.

Across and down the street from the Apollo stood a mural with an oversized black-and-white photograph of schoolchildren battling strong winds and rain after an especially violent tornado ravaged the rural town on April 21, 1967, killing 24.

In Crawford County, Illinois, three people were killed and eight others injured after a tornado hit around New Hebron, Bill Burke, the county board chair, said.

Sheriff Bill Rutan said 60 to 100 families were displaced.

“We’ve had emergency crews digging people out of their basements because the house is collapsed on top of them, but luckily they had that safe space to go to,” Rutan said at a news conference.

Illinois state Rep. Adam Niemerg called the tornado “catastrophic.”

That tornado was not far from where three people were killed in Indiana’s Sullivan County, about 95 miles (150 kilometers) southwest of Indianapolis.

Sullivan Mayor Clint Lamb said at a news conference that an area south of the county seat of about 4,000 “is essentially unrecognizable right now” and that several people were rescued from rubble overnight. There were reports of as many as 12 people injured, he said, and search-and-rescue teams combed damaged areas.

“Quite frankly, I’m really, really shocked there isn’t more as far as human issues,” he said, adding that recovery “is going to be a very long process.”

In the Little Rock area, at least one person was killed and more than 50 were hurt, some critically, authorities said.

The National Weather Service said the tornado was a high-end EF3 twister with wind speeds up to 165 mph (265 kph) and a path as long as 25 miles (40 kilometers).

Masoud Shahed-Ghaznavi was having lunch at home when the tornado roared through his neighborhood, causing him to hide in his laundry room as sheetrock fell on his head and windows shattered. When he emerged, the house was mostly rubble.

“I see everything around me is sky,” Shahed-Ghaznavi recalled. He barely slept Friday night.

“When I closed my eyes, I couldn’t sleep, imagined I was here,” he said Saturday outside his home.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard to help local responders.

A suspected tornado killed a woman in northern Alabama’s Madison County, said county official Mac McCutcheon. And in northern Mississippi’s Pontotoc County, officials confirmed one death and four injuries.

The storms struck just hours after President Joe Biden visited the Mississippi community of Rolling Fork, where tornadoes last week destroyed parts of town.

Tornadoes also caused damage in eastern Iowa, and broke windows on cars and buildings northeast of Peoria, Illinois.

It could take days to determine the exact number of tornadoes, said Bill Bunting, chief of forecast operations at the Storm Prediction Center. There were also hundreds of reports of large hail and damaging winds, he said.

“That’s a quite active day,” he said. “But that’s not unprecedented.”

Hundreds of thousands lost power because of the sprawling storm system that also brought wildfires to the southern Plains and blizzard conditions to the Upper Midwest. A threat of tornadoes and hail remained for the Northeast, including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and New York.

More than 530,000 homes and businesses in the affected area lacked power at midday Saturday, over 200,000 of them in Ohio, according to PowerOutage.us.

Blizzard conditions whipped parts of Minnesota, the Dakotas and Wisconsin, cutting power to tens of thousands in the Twin Cities area. Parts of Interstate 29 were closed.

Nearly 100 new wildfires were reported Friday in Oklahoma, according to the state forest service. Fires were expected to remain a danger through the next week.

DeMillo reported from Little Rock. Associated Press writers around the country contributed to this report, including Harm Venhuizen in Belvidere, Illinois, and Corey Williams in Detroit.

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County scores and player stats for Saturday, April 1

• April 1, 2023

Support our high school sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribe now

Scores and stats from Orange County games on Saturday, April 1

Click here for details about sending your team’s scores and stats to the Register.

SATURDAY’S SCORES

BASEBALL

CRESTVIEW LEAGUE

Villa Park 3, Foothill 0

VP: Brown (W, 6IP, 3H, 0R, 7K). Krodel 1-3, 2RBI, Pone 1-3, RBI. McArthur 1-3, SB, R.

Foot: Parker (6IP, 7H, 2ER, 9K). Mueller 1-2, BB.

SOUTH COAST LEAGUE

Tesoro 7, Trabuco Hills 3

Tes: Faust 2-4, 3RBI. Peper 2-3, 2R, RBI. Kemmerer 1-3, 2B, R.

TH: B. Gray 1-4, HR, 2RBI. Strenger 1-3, RBI.

NONLEAGUE

Irvine 6, Edison 5

Irv: Hew 2-3, 2B, 2R. Featherston 2-2, BB, R. Brito0-2, BB, RBI.

Edi: Winokur 3-4, HR, 2RBI. Hunter 3-4, 2 2B, RBI. Palmerin 1-3, RBI.

GIRLS LACROSSE

NONLEAGUE

Newport Harbor 14, Crescenta Valley 6

Goals: (NH) Matousik 5, Close 3

Other nonleague scores

St. Margaret’s 19, Santa Fe Christian 3

​ Orange County Register 

Pope Francis leaves hospital; ‘Still alive,’ he quips

• April 1, 2023

By Frances D’Emilio

ROME — A chipper-sounding Pope Francis was discharged Saturday from the Rome hospital where he was treated for bronchitis, quipping to journalists before being driven away that he’s “still alive.”

Francis, 86, was hospitalized at Gemelli Polyclinic on Wednesday following his weekly public audience in St. Peter’s Square after reportedly experiencing breathing difficulties. The pontiff received antibiotics administered intravenously during his stay, the Vatican said.

In a sign of his improved health, the Vatican released details of Francis’ Holy Week schedule. It said he would preside at this weekend’s Palm Sunday Mass and at Easter Mass on April 9, both held in St. Peter’s Square and expected to draw tens of thousands of faithful. A Vatican cardinal will be at the altar to celebrate both Masses, a recent practice due to the pontiff having a troublesome knee issue.

But Francis is scheduled to celebrate Holy Thursday Mass, which this year will be held in a juvenile prison in Rome. Still unclear was whether he would attend the late-night, torch-lit Way of the Cross procession at Rome’s Colosseum to mark Good Friday.

Before departing Gemelli Polyclinic late Saturday morning, Francis comforted a Rome couple whose 5-year-old daughter died Friday night at the Catholic hospital. Outside, Serena Subania, mother of Angelica, sobbed as she pressed her head into the chest of the pope, who held her close and whispered words of comfort.

Francis seemed eager to linger with well-wishers. When a boy showed him his arm cast, the pope made a gesture as if to ask “Do you have a pen?” Three papal aides whipped out theirs. Francis took one of the pens and added his signature to the child’s already well-autographed cast.

The pontiff answered in a low voice that was close to a whisper when reporters peppered him with questions, indicating he had felt unwell — “I felt sick,” he said, pointing to his mid-section — a symptom that convinced his medical staff to take him to the hospital Wednesday.

Asked how he felt now, Francis joked, “Still alive, you know.” He gave a thumbs-up sign.

Francis exited the hospital from a side entrance, but his car stopped in front of the main entrance, where a gaggle of journalists waited. He opened the car door himself and got out from the front passenger seat. Francis had a cane ready to lean on.

After chatting, he got back into the white Fiat 500 car that drove him away from Gemelli Polyclinic. But instead of heading straight home, his motorcade sped right past Vatican City and went to St. Mary Major Basilica, a Rome landmark that is one of his favorites.

There, startled tourists rushed to snap photos of him as he sat in a wheelchair, which he has used often to navigate longer distances in recent years due to a chronic knee problem. When he emerged after praying, residents and tourists in the street called out repeatedly, “Long live the pope!” and clapped.

Francis spent 10 days at the same hospital in July 2021 following intestinal surgery for a bowel narrowing, After his release back then, he also stopped to offer prayers of thanksgiving at St. Mary Major Basilica, which is home to an icon depicting the Virgin Mary. He also visits the church upon returning from trips abroad.

Before leaving the hospital Saturday, Francis, while chatting with journalists, praised medical workers, saying they “show great tenderness.”

“We sick are capricious. I much admire the people who work in hospitals,” he said. Francis also said he read journalists’ accounts of his illness, including in a Rome daily newspaper, and pronounced them well done.

Francis stopped to talk to reporters again before he was driven into the Vatican through a gate of the tiny walled city-state, where he lives at a Holy See hotel. Speaking through an open car window, he said: “Happy Easter to all, and pray for me.”

Then, indicating he was eager to resume his routine, he said, “Forward, thanks.”

In response to a shouted question from a reporter, who asked if the pope would visit Hungary at the end of April as scheduled, Francis answered , “Yes.”

On yet another stop, he got out of his car to distribute chocolate Easter eggs to the police officers who drove the motorcycles at the head of his motorcade.

Given his strained voice, it was unclear if the pope would read the homily at the Palm Sunday service or deliver the usually lengthy “Urbi et Orbi” (Latin for to the city and to the world) address, a review of the globe’s conflicts, at the end of Easter Mass.

He told reporters that after Palm Sunday Mass, he would keep his weekly appointment to greet and bless the public in St. Peter’s Square.

As a young man in his native Argentina, Francis had part of a lung removed, leaving him particularly vulnerable to any respiratory illness.

Gregorio Borgia contributed reporting.

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​ Orange County Register 

How Lincoln Riley can help Duce Robinson thrive at USC

• April 1, 2023

As freshman Duce Robinson, the nation’s top tight end who committed to USC on Thursday, starts to get settled in with the football team this summer, another Trojans squad awaits.

In addition to his overpowering tight end play, Robinson is a dangerous slugger in baseball with the athleticism to play the outfield. And there is a strong chance Robinson will not only be selected in the MLB draft, but taken high enough to consider signing an MLB contract.

Even if that dream of Robinson’s is achieved this summer, the current plan is for freshman to still play football at USC, head coach Lincoln Riley said Saturday.

“There’s two kind of knowns right now. One, he’s going to play football at USC,” Riley said. “Two, baseball is going to be a big part of his future, which is obviously really exciting. There’s some comfort level in that we’ve been able to do it with a couple of guys.”

One of those guys was Kyler Murray, who was a Heisman-winning quarterback and baseball star during Riley’s Oklahoma tenure. He was taken ninth overall by the Oakland Athletics in the 2018 MLB draft, won the Heisman, then went first overall to the Arizona Cardinals in the NFL draft.

Murray had his choice of sports and picked football. Riley hopes Robinson will have the same options when his time at USC comes to an end. His experience with Murray was a big selling point to Robinson.

“You can be a head coach of a Division I football program that allows a player to go try to play another sport. That’s not the deal,” Riley said. “It’s, can you help facilitate and put together a plan that helps them potentially excel at both? And there’s a lot to that, more than I ever realized.”

When Murray ended his freshman season, Riley felt like the situation had been mishandled. Murray was the backup quarterback and posted a .122 batting average on the diamond.

It wasn’t until the year was over and Riley spoke with Murray that he realized how much had been put on the freshman’s plate.

“You’re trying to train for two different sports, but you also have to recover, you also have to put in the mental training, oh by the way, they’re going to school, there’s that,” Riley explained. “You’ve got communication between two sets of strength coaches, two sets of academic coordinators, two sets of operations, two head coaches, two different position coaches.”

Riley and the other coaches at Oklahoma refined the lines of communication and made scheduling adjustments. And the benefits were immediately clear. Murray was still behind Baker Mayfield on the Sooners’ QB depth chart, but he hit .296 with 10 home runs and 47 RBIs as a sophomore.

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Riley hopes to use that experience to shape Robinson’s college experience. If Robinson does not sign with an MLB team this summer, he will likely play baseball with USC. Riley has already talked with head coach Andy Stankiewicz about this possibility.

“Duce has big goals in both sports,” Riley said. “I feel like we have a tremendous plan ready to put out there and then it’s going to be up to Duce to do the work from there.”

​ Orange County Register