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CROSSROADS SCHOOL FOR ARTS & SCIENCES
During the following school year, as a senior at Crossroads, Baron led the School’s basketball team to the championships of The Beach Ball Classic Tournament in Myrtle Beach, S.C. He earned the honor of MVP and a spot on the all-tournament team. That same year he was named Gatorade National Player of the Year and a Parade AllAmerican. He was also selected to play in the McDonald’s High School All-American boys basketball game and won the Sprite Slam Dunk contest.
It was during the 1985 playoffs, Steve’s freshman year, that he was called up from the Junior Varsity Baseball team to play outfield. That team went on to win the CIF championships, and Steve remained a varsity player throughout the balance of his Upper School career. In 1987, the team won CIF again and in 1988, they were runnerups. Steve was named an All-State outfielder in 1987 and 1988 and was All-CIF in 1986, ’87 and ’88.
After all of his success in high school, he played NCAA Division 1 basketball for UCLA and was the third pick in the first round of the 1999 NBA draft by the Charlotte Hornets. He went on to play for the New Orleans Hornets, the Golden State Warriors, the LA Clippers, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the New York Knicks. Baron is currently emceeing “How I Rock It,” a new men’s style show for Esquire TV. Social activism is also at the top of his future list. “I want to help bring peace to Los Angeles,” he says. “Basically, I want to help others live the life I’ve been able to live.”
After being exposed to baseball scouts, Steve was invited to play on the National Junior Baseball Championships Team in Sioux Falls, S.D., and earned a place on the U.S. Junior National Team, which would go on to win a gold medal at the World Championships in 1988. In his senior year at Crossroads, he was recruited by Stanford, where he ended up playing ball and earning Pac 10 All-Conference. Academically, Steve flourished at Stanford, which he credits to his ability to work diligently and independently on the type of education he received from Crossroads.
Steve Solomon ’88
Steve had the desire to play baseball when he was still in diapers and watching his two older brothers play little league in Cheviot Hills Park. He started playing five-pitch by the age of 4 and that was all it took to hook him. Steve Solomon came to Crossroads in seventh-grade, after attending Castle Heights Elementary School. It was a difficult move for him because he didn’t know anyone at the School. He bonded with a few people in the beginning and gradually made more connections while using the Crossroads batting cages that used to be located on the southeast end of the Alley. Steve played ball at his local park and made the junior varsity team at Crossroads his freshman year.
SOLOMON
After graduating from Stanford, Steve was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies, where he played for four seasons before retiring and settling down in Orange County. Currently, he is an acting member on the board of directors for Children’s Hospital of Orange County and an investment manager for U.S. Trust.
WOMEN
Jen Anderson (Abramson) ’94
Jen Anderson (Abramson) has played baseball since the time she could walk. Her dad, an avid baseball fan from a long line of Dodgers zealots, would toss her balls when she could hardly toddle to retrieve them. She grew up attending public magnet schools,
ABRAMSON
and initially, her family intended her to continue her education in public schools. This was until they met Chuck Ice, the Crossroads baseball coach at the time, at a tournament. Chuck encouraged Jen’s brother to attend Crossroads, and two years later, Jen followed suit. She tried out for the Crossroads soccer team as a freshman, a sport she had played since she was a little girl, and made the varsity squad. This gave her the opportunity to bond with a team and form a new group of friends. In the spring, she joined the softball team, where she made even more friends and finally started to feel at home as a Roadrunner. By her senior year, Jen was a three-sport varsity athlete in volleyball, softball and soccer. She was named Softball All-CIF Player of the Year as a sophomore and Softball State Player of the Year as a junior. During all four years of her Upper School career, she earned All-CIF honors in softball. Jen was offered an athletic scholarship covering her tuition and books to Miami University of Ohio, where she played softball her entire four years of college. She was named All-Mid-American Conference in 1997 and 1998 in athletics and academics. To this day, she holds a number of records at Miami of Ohio including stolen bases, at-bats and hits. Every summer, Jen would come back to Crossroads to reunite with old friends and play indoor soccer on the 21st Street basketball courts. The Middle School Athletics director at the time, Linda