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What Makes America Great What makes this country great is that you can find unity within every culture here in the United States of America. Betsy Ross knitted our Red, White & Blue flag so that today it's known for the freedom and land of opportunity this country represents. The beauty of all the nationalities is seen as a “melting pot” as we walk alongside one another heading for the common goal of “Doing what needs to be done to make America Great.” We Love ourselves so we can love others, especially our children As we guide them into the future. — Jason Charles Jones Sr.
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Peter Leon-Guerrero: A heart of service By Caleb Hampton Enterprise staff writer
In 2017, after growing up in a military family, which meant that he frequently moved, Peter Leon-Guerrero put down roots in Norther California, settling in Vacaville with his family as he took up the position of director of planned giving at UC Davis. This month, Leon-Guerrero, 39, began a second, simultaneous communityservice-focused role as president of Davis Rotary’s Noon Club. “I’ve always been in some sort of service to the communities I’ve lived in,” he said. During college, LeonGuerrero helped organize events for the American Cancer Society. After graduating, he worked with a nonprofit serving the homeless in Hawaii. “When you’re working with a grassroots organization, you really get to see the impact of what you’re contributing,” he said. “That’s what I fell in love with.” Over the past decade and a half, he hasn’t changed course. As director of planned giving at UCD, Leon-Guerrero has helped raise funds for the campus’ Manetti Shrem Museum, the Mondavi Center, the School of Law, the School of Nursing and UC Davis Health’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. “For me, being a conduit for the donors that I work with is what’s rewarding,” he said. “I’m not the person who’s donating the money but it’s exciting to be part of that journey.” At UCD, Leon-Guerrero often helps people create legacy gifts using deferred assets like wills, trusts, and retirement accounts. “To a person who’s trying to make a greater impact, this serves as an opportunity for them to do that,” he said. “This is a way for them to not only provide for their family members and the people they love but also for the charities they love.” When he moved to Vacaville five years ago, Leon-Guerrero, a father of three, began searching for ways to connect with the town where he worked. “I was looking for a way to get plugged in,” he said.
“When you’re working with a grassroots organization, you really get to see the impact of what you’re contributing. That’s what I fell in love with.”
That’s when he got involved with the Davis Rotary Club, where he has served as presidentelect for the past year. (Davis Rotary is actually three clubs, Sunrise, Noon and Sunset, each of which refers to the time of day its members meet.) “Things really took off,” Leon-Guerrero said. “I got really passionate about what the Davis Rotary Club was focused on.” Rotary International, a worldwide humanitarian service organization with clubs all
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For Peter LeonGuerrero, Davis Rotary provided a welcoming environment and a way to connect with the local community.
over the world, is both a philanthropic and community service organization. Davis Rotary partners with many local initiatives, including the Yolo Crisis Nursery, the Salvation Army, Meals on Wheels and other service-oriented programs. It has a particular focus on child abuse prevention, an issue Leon-Guerrero said was especially meaningful to him. “The Rotary Club really aligned with the things I wanted to do,” he said. Recently, the club raised money for a relief fund for Ukrainian refugees. While its community service mission has remained a constant, Rotary has gone through significant transitions. Formerly a male-only organization, in the 1970s, Rotary International revoked the charter of one of its California clubs because it admitted three women. The dispute ultimately resulted in a U.S. Supreme Court decision, which held that the organization had to admit female members. “We have members in our Rotary Club who were some of the first women Rotarians,” LeonGuerrero said. Today, Rotary is still striving to become more inclusive — a mission Leon-Guerrero plans to incorporate into his goals as president of the Davis Rotary Noon Club. “One of the important initiatives for our club is to invite more members of the community to join us and to really have an organization that reflects the community that we serve,” he said. The noon club currently has about 60 members. One challenge in attracting younger members from more diverse backgrounds is the annual dues all members pay. “Especially for younger members of the community, those could be an obstacle,” Leon-Guerrero said. To make the club more accessible, the noon club has slashed the fee from $250 to $125 for all members under age 40. (The dues contribute to Rotary’s community service initiatives.) For Leon-Guerrero, Davis Rotary provided a welcoming environment and a way to connect with the local community. “They embraced me with open arms,” he said. As president, Leon-Guerrero hopes to continue serving the community and providing a way for likeminded people to join those efforts. “I think that being a Rotarian magnifies the impact you can make as an individual,” he said. “You are immediately connected to other people. If you have a heart of service and a vision of making a difference, this is a great organization to do that with. Our door is always open to all members of the community.” — Reach Caleb Hampton at champton@ davisenterprise.net. Follow him on Twitter at @ calebmhampton.
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Acme Theatre, the top of the heap By Pamela Trokanski Special to The Enterprise
For almost four decades, Acme Theatre has provided meaningful experiences in diversity for young people throughout our community. This organization uses theater to teach both important skills in acting, writing, construction work, and theater technology in addition to using theatre to address important topics of the day. Their programs are free and open to all ninth- to 12th-graders throughout Davis. Importantly, the plays that they choose to produce deal with many current event topics such as women’s rights and sexism, gun control, race, and recognizing the LGBTQ community. They are also sensitive to the community around them and, since 2017,
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Acme Theatre produced Peter and the Starcatcher, above, in 2019 and Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, right, this year.
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have acknowledged at performances the indigenous peoples on whose land their events take place. But wait, there’s more! They spoke out during the BLM movement to support Black individuals and give 9th - 12th graders a safe place to identify and talk about their experiences with race, gender and relationships, with no judgement. Born out of Dave Burmester’s classroom at DHS back in the 1980’s, Acme Theater Company has become one important brick (out of many!) in the building of the Davis community. They not only create a safe place in which our young people can explore who they are and how they fit into the broader community but they also help educate our community about both local and global concerns, through their productions.
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Far left, Wren Arellano Calderon performs in The Servant of Two Masters in 2021. Middle, Acme Theatre produced The Burials in 2020. Above, Jamie Aldas and Grey Turner perform in the 2019 Acme Theatre production of Peter and the Starcatcher.”
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Ilya Bezuglov, service at ‘dream job’ Rachel Kraeger/ McNaughton Media
By Lauren Keene
Enterprise staff writer For Ilya Bezuglov, immigrating to the United States exposed him to a number of new experiences — including carpeting, of all things. “I’d never seen it before,” Bezuglov, a Davis Police Department lieutenant, said of the worn floor covering at the West Sacramento apartment he shared with his family. The year was 1994, several years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Bezuglov, then 23, came to America on a refugee visa with his sevenmonths-pregnant wife and his mother-in-law after growing up in Uzbekistan. He recalls his first trip to a grocery store, the local Safeway, as “a religious experience.” “I never knew there was more than one pack of cheese,” Bezuglov said. But it was another opportunity, while attending Sacramento City College, that would end up shaping the trajectory of his life. A public safety recruitment program directed Bezuglov to the Los Rios Police Academy, from which he graduated in 1998. His father, who along with most of his family worked in the medical field, “didn’t speak to me for a year.”
Davis Police Department Lieutenant Ilya Bezuglov, originally from Uzbekistan, plans to retire from the agency to pursue another new opportunity — coordinating the Los Rios Police Academy that recruited him nearly three decades ago.
Accustomed to corruption in law enforcement, Bezuglov’s father shunned his son until he paid a visit to the U.S. “and saw that things were quite a bit different,” Bezuglov said. His academy graduation led to a job with the West Sacramento Police Department, and he later moved to the Davis Police Department in 2001. “I fell in love with the community,” Bezuglov
said. “It’s a really great department.” Twenty-one years later, Bezuglov plans to retire from the agency to pursue another new opportunity — coordinating the Los Rios Police Academy that recruited him nearly three decades ago. “I’ve done everything I wanted to do,” said Bezuglov, who has worked patrol and
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investigations, served on the SWAT team and run the department’s training unit as he moved up the ranks. He’s also taught part-time at the Napa Community College police academy since 2016, which exposed him to the joys of teaching others who are eager to learn. “You’re their 007,” he said of the aspiring officers. “The opportunity to change someone’s life is very fulfilling.” “Training officers has been Ilya’s passion for a long time, and his skill and dedication will really be missed,” Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel said. “After he does the training I always hear how much the participants enjoyed learning from him and how much they learned.” “He leaves big shoes to fill, but the good news is he is going to stay active in training police officers even in his retirement from Davis PD,” Pytel added. “He has tremendous experience and a great understanding of people and policing. Imparting that knowledge to new officers is so critical in these times.”
Family concerns
Bezuglov’s family still resides in Russia, having moved there after he left Uzbekistan. His father and sister, both dentists, opened their own clinic in St. Petersburg. There, near the Finland border, they’ve remained largely removed from the conflict stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, “but at the same time the economy is collapsing,” he said. With no legal method for assisting his family financially, “god forbid something happens and they need my help.” Bezuglov last visited his relatives this past November, and he’s unsure of when — or if — he’ll be able to return. “I don’t even know the reason they invaded Ukraine, and it doesn’t really matter,” he said. “If you enter another country and start killing people, I don’t care what the reason is. It’s a human tragedy.” Reflecting on his law-enforcement career, Bezuglov said he enjoyed his detective role the most, and the problemsolving skills it required to bring cases to justice. Those that stand out include the murders of Oliver Northup Jr. and Claudia Maupin by then-15-year-old Daniel Marsh; the drowning of Tatiana Garcia, 5, by her mother Aqueline Talamantes; and Darnell Dorsey’s fatal beating of his girlfriend’s 20-month-old son Cameron Morrison. Tatiana’s case “was probably the hardest,” said Bezuglov, father to two
Rachel Kraeger/McNaughton Media
Ilya Bezuglov hopes to incorporate a wellness program into the Los Rios Police Academy, where he’ll be in charge of recruitment, curriculum and trainings, having the benefit of more than two decades of personal experiences to guide him. daughters. “It was one of those cases where I couldn’t comprehend why.” All three of those cases occurred within a year’s time in 2013-14, when Bezuglov was a new sergeant overseeing five young detectives. In retrospect, he wishes he would have required the investigators to undergo a mental-health assessment in response to the tragedies, something he believes law-enforcement agencies should provide to help officers — and their families — process the job’s daily stressors. “I’d want to see it at least on an annual basis,” Bezuglov said. “I don’t know if you can mandate that, but I would.” He hopes to incorporate a wellness program into the Los Rios Police Academy, where he’ll be in charge of recruitment, curriculum and trainings, having the benefit of more than two decades of personal experiences to guide him. “That’s a dream job,” he said. — Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@ davisenterprise.net. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene.
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Cathie Carson Bullis helps Davis pick it up By Anne Ternus-Bellamy Enterprise staff writer
Some people just complain about the things in Davis that bother them; others take action. Cathie Carson Bullis would fall in the latter category. The longtime Davis resident and retiree walks regularly in her neighborhood and after changing up her route one day, began noticing all of the litter and trash along the way. “I just thought, ‘This isn’t good,’” she said. So she went home to get a trash grabber and a garbage bag and “just went around the block and up and down the street… and I felt really good about it.” She began doing it almost every day and people would notice, stopping to thank her. She also began venturing beyond her neighborhood, picking up trash in the parking lot of the South Davis Nugget, at TJ Maxx and Target as well. She was on Cowell Boulevard one day, picking up everything from used needles and drug paraphernalia to razor blades on what is a regular bike-to-school route for children. A member of the group Sacramento Picks It Up saw her and pulled over to tell her about the efforts in the capitol city and provide information on how to organize and put together a group here. That was back in March, when Bullis started spreading the word among friends and created a
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There are more than 120 members of Davis Picks It Up who collect trash along around Davis almost every weekend, including Second Street, above.
Facebook page and email list. She put up flyers at Target and Common Grounds and even made up business cards to hand to the folks who stop her on the street. “And now we have over 120 members and we’ve just been all over Davis. We’re out almost every weekend and a couple times during the week,” Bullis said. Some pick up garbage on their own; others work in small groups with their neighbors; and more join in clean-ups organized by Bullis herself -families, UC Davis fraternity members, and folks from all walks of life. “And it’s just turned into this big fun event and we’re seeing some progress already,” she said. “I wanted to do something for the city and for the community and I just thoroughly enjoy it.” Bullis is now working with the city, including the police department, and others are seeking out the group’s help, including the Chamber of Commerce, which asked if Davis Picks It Up would help with clean-up following Celebrate Davis in Community Park last month. In exchange, the chamber offered to spread the word about the group. The city, meanwhile, picks up the bags of
“It’s just turned into this big fun event and we’re seeing some progress already.” Cathie Carson Bullis Davis Picks It Up founder
THE DAVIS ENTERPRISE garbage the group collects. The Davis Joint Unified School District has also connected with Davis Picks It Up, which cleaned up the Davis High School campus following graduation. There are strict rules for participating, Bullis said. “We’re very much safety oriented. Everybody’s got to wear gloves, sturdy shoes. I have sharps containers, battery containers. We have a first aid kit at every event. We report illegal dumping and encourage the buddy system and children are supervised by a parent or a guardian.” “We watch out for the unsheltered, too,” she added. “We leave their space alone but I’m working with (the police department) to see if they would allow us to clean up small, abandoned encampments. And they’re going to work with us.” “It’s really taken off and people are very excited
Voices of America from Davis about it. So there’s more and more people picking up all around and I’ll tell you, there’s a big difference between four months ago and today,” she noted. Recently the group focused on the Park-andRide off Mace Boulevard and ended up collecting 19 bags of garbage on a single day, including a whole lot of used needles. Downtown and shopping centers throughout the city have also benefitted from Davis Picks It Up, not to mention roadways, parks and more. “We’re just trying to keep Davis clean and safe,” Bullis said. Reach Bullis at DavisPicksItUp@gmail or find the group on Facebook, where all planned events are announced. — Reach Anne TernusBellamy at aternus@ davisenterprise.net. Follow her on Twitter at @ ATernusBellamy.
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There are strict rules for participating. “We’re very much safety oriented. Everybody’s got to wear gloves, sturdy shoes. I have sharps containers, battery containers. We have a first aid kit at every event. We report illegal dumping and encourage the buddy system and children are supervised by a parent or a guardian,”Bullis said. Courtesy photo
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APAPA celebrates 20 years with litany of endeavors Courtesy photo
Special to The Enterprise The Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs association celebrated 20 years in 2021. It’s important to take a moment to celebrate our continued growth on the national level as well as locally through our Davis Chapter, which serves Yolo County and UC Davis. Through engaged and robust grassroots efforts, APAPA is committed to advancing our API communities through increased leadership and civic engagement. This past year, APAPA chapters, including Davis, were at the forefront of planning and leading the Unity Against Hate movement, which included 18 rally locations nationally. APAPA chapters collaborated with diverse organizations, thousands of elected officials, and community leaders to create awareness and fight escalating hate crimes, address systemic racism, and provide opportunities for our collective voices to be heard. Additionally, we’re proud to highlight some key events and activities that the Davis Chapter championed during the past few years in order to advance its mission. For example, we organized: • Leadership development programs for both the public and the APAPA UC Davis group through
Members of the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs (APAPA) association board include (from left): Sharon Guo, Board Chair; Brett Lee, former Mayor of City of Davis; Alan Wei, Board Member; Ruth Asmundson, Board Member; and Wei Zhang, Board Member.
webinars and mentorship • Donation drives to support firefighters, police officers, and the food bank with face masks, food
items, and monetary donations • Voter Registration in Davis Farmer’s Market • A webinar, called “How to Protect Your Rights
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C14 THE DAVIS ENTERPRISE in the Workplace,” presented by Professor Xi Xiaoxing and Attorney Mr. Joseph Walker • Highlights of the historical and contemporary contributions of AAPI in building the United States Recently in Davis to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month for 2022, the APAPA Davis Chapter held a special event to honor Davis API leaders and UC Davis Asian student groups at the International House. The event — Leadership Award & Asian Heritage Celebration — was put on by the APAPA Davis Chapter and APAPA at UC Davis. The celebration featured past Davis elected officials, business leaders, educators, students, and community members and raised funds that will be used to further APAPA’s internship programs that provide opportunities for students to work with local and state elected officials and gain invaluable leadership skills. Special remarks were made by former AAPI Mayors of the City of Davis, Ruth Asmundson and Brett Lee, as well as APAPA Davis Board Members Sharon Guo, Wei Zhang, Christina Vo, Andrew Kim, Alan Wei and Aaron Wedra. Other Davis Chapter board members include Lisa Salinas, Carla Datanagan, Gurkern Sufi, Mary Yin Liu and Donglan Tian. UC Davis student group awardees, recognized for their outstanding contributions, included the UC Davis Bayanihan Clinic, the UC Davis Hmong
For the remainder of 2022 and beyond APAPA, both nationally and locally, will continue to push forward with our mission to inspire, engage and empower ...
Student Union, and the UC Davis Vietnamese Student Association. Davis Leadership Awards were given to Kevin Wan, Davis Downtown Business Association Vice President and owner of Sophia’s Thai Kitchen; Emily Lo, Davis Fire Department Battalion Chief; and the entire team at Newstar Chinese School. Attendees also enjoyed two dance performances by iDance Sisters and Red Maple Cultural Connection. For the remainder of 2022 and beyond APAPA, both nationally and locally, will continue to push forward with our mission to inspire, engage and empower through: • Developing and supporting the next generation of API leaders through our internship program • Partnering with legislators and public officials at the local, state and federal levels of government
SUNDAY, JULY 3, 2022 to advance our mission • Building strong coalitions with other diverse local and national organizations to expand our programs • Opposing prejudice, racism, xenophobia, hate crimes, and discriminatory actions against API Americans and other individuals • Increasing voter participation, registration and engagement • Supporting policies and legislation which advance civil and human rights, and opportunities for API Americans to build and promote a fair and equitable society for all Learn more about our non-profit at www.apapa.org. Get involved directly with the Davis Chapter serving Yolo County and UC Davis by contacting us at apapadavischapter@ gmail.com.
How to publicize your event in The Enterprise Enterprise staff Bringing the news of our community to others is what The Davis Enterprise is all about. We are dedicated to promoting activities that will enrich our community. But as we strive to help publicize activities offered by local organizations, we have a responsibility to all of our readers to provide news that is balanced, timely and newsworthy. Thus, the basic criteria for deciding what will be printed in a newspaper are two: newsworthiness and reader interest. Keeping that in mind, here are some tips on how to submit news releases:
Preparing a release
You don’t need to be an accomplished writer; it’s up to
the reporter or editor to revise your copy for newspaper style. Your task is to be well-organized and present complete information so that it can be easily read and understood. The news release that will most quickly and favorably catch an editor’s eye will: • Be sent via email — either pasted into the body of the email or attached as a Microsoft Word document — to newsroom@ davisenterprise.net for a news release, sports@davisenterprise. net for a sports release or arts@ davisenterprise.net for an arts/ entertainment release. • Press releases also may be submitted via web form at www. davisenterprise.com/pressrelease/, or be mailed or dropped off in person to our office at 315 G St. in downtown Davis. • Be written in standard
upper-case/lower-case format. It’s often difficult to tell whether something would be capitalized or not when written in all capital letters. • Have a lead paragraph that clearly states the facts of the story: WHO are the important people involved with the event; WHAT is to be going on; WHEN it is happening, with specific reference to dates and times, including advance reservation dates if appropriate; WHERE the event will happen, with a specific and complete address; and WHY the story is being written. Often you’ll want to say HOW the event is happening, i.e., the guest speaker is in town to receive an award for his or her achievements. • State a reservation deadline at the top of the story, not the bottom where it may be
overlooked by a hurried editor. • Have words that are all spelled correctly — especially the names. Please put (sic) for “spelling is correct” next to unusual spellings for names. This is why we will not take news releases over the phone; the danger of misunderstanding the spelling of names or other information is too great. • Not have acronyms. Spell out the name of your organization or association, at least in the first reference. And in case the editor may have questions about the information in the release, include your name and daytime phone number on your release. Please also include contact information — phone number or email address — for readers who may have questions or need to make reservations. • Be complete with correct times and places.
• Be submitted two weeks ahead of the date of the event or the deadline for registration.
Photos welcome
We also welcome photo submissions. They must be sharp and of good contrast, at least 300 dpi and sent in .jpg format. Please include caption information explaining the photo and identifying everyone pictured.
Contact information
Our main office phone number is 530-756-0800. The office is at 325 G St. in downtown Davis. The mailing address is: P.O. Box 1470, Davis, CA 95617. General news email is: newsroom@ davisenterprise.net. General sports email is: sports@ davisenterprise.net. General arts/entertainment email is: arts@davisenterprise.net.
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Revisiting Fourth of July memories of July juices flowing was reading Bruce Gallaudet’s account of the 10-year-old slugger from Woodland who hit three
* Editor’s note: The following is an updated repeat of one of Bob Dunning’s favorite Fourth of July columns.
F
or a variety of reasons, the Fourth of July ranks right up with Thanksgiving when I’m asked about my favorite holidays. While most holidays come and go, my memories of the Fourth go back to my days as a kid growing up in this very small town that had but one elementary school and absolutely no stop lights. There was a kiddie parade in those days, but it was always led by the flag-bearing color guard from the local ag campus. I presume they were in ROTC, but I can’t say for sure. One year, however, they got called away at the last minute, and my brother, who was carrying a very large flag as part of a family “Spirit of ’76” entry, was summoned into service to lead the parade. It was the first peacetime draft in American history. In the evening, we’d all gather at Aggie Field (now Toomey) for all sorts of “community” awards, plus the fireworks. The high school was practically across the street, but it didn’t have a suitable place for people to get together. As they went through the several awards, the tension would mount about who would win. I think I was all of 8 when I realized that batting .237 in the Davis Little League was not going to earn me “Davis Athlete of the Year” recognition in this decidedly hometown ceremony. My Fourth of July experiences haven’t all been in Davis, though they seem to have been remarkably similar no matter where I was. One exception was the Fourth I spent on a tennis excursion in Scotland, where the locals kept referring to me and my playing partner, a Davis legend named Brett Stone, as “Yanks.” They also
served haggis for dinner and there were absolutely no fireworks to be found. But at least the natives were friendly despite having ugly Americans in their midst. One other year I found myself on foreign soil in Victoria, B.C., with my red-headed bride of six days, expecting to celebrate the Fourth in proper style. We had been there three days earlier for an incredible Canada Day celebration where we sang “O Canada” with the crowd at the Inner Harbour and met Joe Canada himself. We decided to stay over for the Fourth, only to learn that it’s not a particularly big holiday in the Great North. My birthplace of Portland is another great place to spend the Fourth, what with the greatest fireworks display on the West Coast erupting for nearly an hour from the exact geographic center of the Columbia River separating Oregon and Washington. I’ve had memorable Fourths in Salt Lake City and Idaho Falls and Elko and Bend, not to mention getting hopelessly lost on a dirt road at the top of Goat Mountain in Colusa County with the RedHeaded Girl of My Dreams. If you’re going to get lost as darkness falls on the Fourth of July, she’s not a bad choice of company. But what really got my Fourth
consecutive home runs in a tight win over the Davis National 9- and 10-year-old All-Stars. Reminded me of that legendary Davis Little League phenom Jimmy Keylor, who also smacked three home runs in a single game long ago as the Davis AllStars took three giant steps toward Williamsport before finally falling. (It was single elimination in those days.) In an exhibition game
between a pair of Davis teams on the Fourth of July of that same year, I was on the mound in relief, nursing a 5-3 lead — mostly off the powerful bat of Larry Caster — when Keylor came to bat with the bases loaded and two out in the bottom of the final inning.
Metro/ Stock image
Keylor was short and compact and incredibly powerful. He used a redwood tree instead of a baseball bat. He was the most feared Little Leaguer in the Sacramento Valley. I actually considered walking him intentionally to avoid the inevitable. Sure, it would have forced in a run, but I’d still have a 5-4 lead and at least a theoretical chance of pulling out the win. As the crowd sat in hushed silence I threw my very best fastball — at least 25 mph —
straight down the middle. Keylor smiled as it arrived and blasted it halfway to Dixon, but I did manage to shake his hand as he rounded third and headed for home. Lucky for me, he later became my teammate. As much as I wished at the time that I’d been able to set him down on strikes or at least induce a long fly ball to center, when I look back now, I wouldn’t change a thing. What he did that day was memorable. For both of us. — Reach Bob Dunning at bdunning@davisenterprise.net.
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