LOS ANGELES — Well, I’ll say. Sometimes the Ghosts of Christmas Future can run a good gambit, every so often blindside us with a beyond-our-wildest-dreams plot twist.
Other times, fate ain’t fooling anybody.
So, yes, they knew. Of course they knew!
Everybody in Orange County knew. Everyone in the Valley knew.
Gerrit Cole was going places. Giancarlo – or Mike, then – Stanton was going far.
And if you knew them then, you too might have guessed that their road might point to this – a Southern California showcase of a World Series between the Dodgers and Yankees, starting Friday at Dodger Stadium.
It’s got managers from UCLA and USC in Dave Roberts and Aaron Boone. Dodgers contributors from Burbank and Fountain Valley, in Jack Flaherty and Freddie Freeman.
And, in the clubhouse across the way, reliever Tim Hill, of Granada Hills Charter High School. And Stanton and Cole – just a couple of supremely talented Southern California dudes paying a visit home, hoping to rain on their friends’ parade plans.
Stanton storming in as the American League Championship Series MVP after hitting four home runs to vanquish the Cleveland Guardians. Cole – also a former Bruin – taking the mound to start Game 1: “A dream come true,” the lifelong Yankees fan called it Thursday.
What could have possibly given it away about those two back in the 2000s?
Obviously, the power. The power!!
Now the New Yankees’ ace, Cole was once Orange Lutheran’s big arm, blowing away scouts with his upper-90s fastball that could touch 101 and would leave catchers’ hands stinging so much they can just about feel it today. “That’s what I think about most often: ‘How did our catchers catch him?’” said Willie Shaw, a Nashville-based singer who was a sophomore shortstop when Cole was a senior.
Now a bona fide Bronx bomber and one of five batters who have hit a ball out of Dodger Stadium, Stanton started as a Tujunga Little Leaguer hitting home runs clear over the fence and the wash at…
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