Aaron Judge’s letter jacket at Linden High near Stockton was filled with football, basketball and baseball accomplishments. Jack Flaherty is shown at right after pitching Harvard-Westlake of Studio City to the 2013 CIF Southern Section D1 championship at Dodger Stadium. Photos: RecordNet.com & Mark Tennis / Cal-Hi Sports.
After a record-tying low total of five in last year’s World Series, the Golden State has very strong representation of former high school players in this year’s series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees. Not only does nine easily lead the way among all states (and other nations), star power, both Game 1 starting pitchers and both managers are all from California.
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It’s tough to pick a favorite player of ours for the 2024 World Series based on our years of covering the state’s high school baseball seasons going back to the early 1980s. On the one hand, New York Yankees’ superstar Aaron Judge is from a town (Linden) about 10 miles from our Stockton home base and we just talked to his high school baseball and high school football coaches just last Sunday night at the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Hall of Fame inductions. On the other hand, there’s L.A. Dodgers’ pitcher Jack Flaherty, who we once watched pitch Harvard-Westlake of Studio City to a CIF Southern Section D1 championship on the same Dodger Stadium turf that he’ll be pitching on for Game 1 on Friday night.
Judge, who set the American League home run record at 62 in the 2022 season and led the majors in homers this season with 58, was a multi-sport athlete at Linden who graduated in 2010. He was all-state small schools as a junior and was first team Grid-Hoop all-state for the other two sports he played for the Lions. At his size, football obviously was an option for him coming out of high school but his coaches, Bob Amerman (baseball) and Mark Miller (football), recommended baseball for the longevity of a baseball career. Miller remembers telling Aaron: “It’s how you’ll feel when you get up in the morning when you’re an older man.” This will be Judge’s first World Series and as any Yankee fan can tell you it’s World Series rings and not home run records that will eventually determine Aaron’s placement in all-time franchise player rankings.
The Dodgers have had a bushel of pitching injuries this season, which prompted them to trade for Flaherty late in the summer from the Detroit Tigers. He was roughed up in his last start in the National League Championship Series by the New York Mets, but in an earlier game in that series he pitched seven shutout innings with just two hits allowed and struck out six. Flaherty has been in the majors since the 2017 season with the St. Louis Cardinals. He was one of the top pitchers in MLB in the 2019 season. He also pitched for the Baltimore Orioles prior to signing as a free agent with the Tigers prior to the 2024 season.
In the 2013 CIFSS D1 title game played at Dodger Stadium that we covered in person, Flaherty was a junior at the time and pitched a shutout with eight strikeouts and drove in the game’s only run in a 1-0 win for Harvard-Westlake over Marina of Huntington Beach. He was later named State Junior of the Year and Mr. Baseball State Player of the Year. Flaherty also appears in the Cal-Hi Sports state records in several categories, including most consecutive pitching wins (24), best two-season pitching record (23-0) and best three-season pitching record (29-1).
Here’s a complete list of this year’s other World Series Alums:
Austin Barnes (Poly, Riverside)
High school teammate of recent World Series alum Jake Marisnick, Austin also was the back-up catcher to Will Smith for the Dodgers when they won their most recent World Series in 2020. Riverside Poly has a great list of MLB alums, led by Bobby Bonds (San Francisco Giants) and including Darrell Miller (brother of basketball’s Reggie and Cheryl Miller). Jacob Webb of Riverside Poly was in the World Series in 2021 for the Atlanta Braves.
Gerrit Cole (Lutheran, Orange)
He’s also on the all-time state list of those who’ve been No. 1 in the annual MLB Draft. For Cole, that was in 2011 by the Pittsburgh Pirates coming out of UCLA. He was traded to the Houston Astros later on and started in two games for them in the 2019 World Series when they lost to the Washington Nationals.
The Dodgers may not be popular in the San Diego area, but La Jolla Country Day sure is proud of alum Tommy Edman. Photo: ljcds.org.
Tommy Edman (La Jolla Country Day)
Former all-state small schools player in 2013 has been a revelation for the Dodgers since they traded for him earlier this season from the St. Louis Cardinals. Edman had the first four RBI for the team in its NLCS series-clinching win over the New York Mets and he was named NLCS MVP. He ended the series with 11 RBI to tie a Dodgers’ record set in 2020 by Corey Seager.
Freddie Freeman (El Modena, Orange)
We were just at Freeman’s alma-mater on Thursday night since it is where Fred Kelley Stadium in located it’s where the Orange Unified School District has its game. El Modena wasn’t playing, but nearby Villa Park was playing San Juan Hills. Freeman was Orange County Player of the Year and 2007 all-state at El Modena. He’s been one of the best players in baseball for about the last 10 years. He was World Series MVP in 2021 for the Atlanta Braves and was MVP of the National League in 2020.
Tim Hill (Granada Hills)
What a story of survival and an unlikely path to the World Series that Hill can tell. He’s been a valuable member of the Yankees’ bullpen this season. It is the earlier years prior to his MLB debut for the Kansas City Royals in 2018 where Hill’s story is so inspirational. He was undrafted and unknown coming out of high school, then went to Palomar College near San Diego and then Bacone College, a small private former Indian university in Oklahoma. In 2015, Hill also survived a Stage 3 battle with colon cancer, the same disease that claimed his father’ life in 2006.
Giancarlo Stanton (Notre Dame, Sherman Oaks)
He’s been the highest honored when in high school among any of those from California in this year’s World Series. Like teammate Aaron Judge, Stanton (known as Mike when he was at Notre Dame from 2003 to 2007) was once an all-state first team Grid-Hooper. But for 2006-07 he also was named as the Cal-Hi Sports State Boys Athlete of the Year. He averaged 21 ppg in baskeball and was a wide receiver in football. He came up in baseball with the Miami Marlins and has been a five-time All-Star and he has hit more than 400 career homers with the Marlins and Yankees. In the just concluded ALCS, Stanton was the Yankees’ MVP with four homers, including a big one in their last win over the Cleveland Guardians.
Alex Vesia (Steele Canyon, Spring Valley)
Waiting until a few hours before Game 1 to do all of our alumni writeups when the final 26-man rosters are announced by both teams was again proven to be a good idea this year. Vesia did not pitch in the NLCS with a rib cage injury but did pitch in the NLDS. He reportedly pitched in a simulated game on Wednesday and was deemed healthy enough to be added to the final roster on Friday. Vesia’s addition also pushed the California high school alumni total from eight to nine. The Dodgers also made two other changes to their final roster while the Yankees made one. The other two Dodger adds are from Venezuela. The Yankees added pitcher Nestor Cortes (Florida high school) and dropped Jon Berti (Michigan). Vesia also is from Cal State East Bay.
Managers:
Dave Roberts (Rancho Buena Vista, Vista)
& Aaron Boone (Villa Park)
Our records for World Series alums go back to 1968 and since then there’s never been a World Series in which both managers are from California. There’s sure been a lot of them, including Torey Lovullo (Montclair Prep) of the DBacks just last year and Dusty Baker (Fair Oaks Del Campo) in 2022. We just don’t have a year in which both managers are from our state. Roberts has been the Dodgers’ manager since 2015 and was their manager for the 2020 World Series (won against Tampa Bay), 2018 (lost to the Boston Red Sox) and 2017 (lost to the Houston Astros). At Rancho Buena Vista High, he was more known by us for being the triple-option QB for one the most prolific rushing attacks in state history. Boone is in the World Series for the first time as a manager. He played for the Yankees in 2003 when they lost to the Florida Marlins. Aaron has been manager of the Yankees since 2018.
Notes:
*California’s total of nine players this year in the World Series is back to normal after five last year and six in 2022. Our research doesn’t go back for 100 years, but currently back to 1968. Texas had six alums last year and has six again, but this time it is second to California and not first. All of the international players have dropped the totals of all U.S. states in recent years. This year, though, California has more than the Dominican Republic (four) and Venezuela (four). Florida has three this year after two for last year.
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports
