On his way to Cooperstown, Pat Gillick’s journey was Southern California centric

Gary Lane and Ron Mertus already have a small claim to fame - they can boast of having played together on the same Van Nuys High varsity baseball team with Don Drysdale nearly 60 years ago.

“He started off as a second baseman, and we called him ‘Porky,’” said Lane of the Dodgers’ eventual Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher.

Pat Gillick didn’t have any kind of similar nickname when Lane and Mertus hung out with him growing up in the San Fernando Valley.

“I know they called him ‘Yellow Pages Pat’ because he had this incredible memory for phone numbers,” said Mertus.

But after Sunday, these two Gillick boyhood friends will be calling him a Hall of Famer as well.

Great backgrounder on Pat Gillick, from the L.A. Daily News.  I especially like the anecdote about Dave Winfield.

Stories like this are pure gold for fans—and the reason we absolutely need local papers and beat reporters.