Adrian Gonzalez: Living a SoCal Walter Mitty life

For all of us who played Little League, Senior League and high school baseball in Southern California, Adrian Gonzalez is living the Walter Mitty life we always dreamed about.

Gonzalez was born in San Diego, moved to Tijuana, Mexico at the age of one and returned to San Diego when he was 13.

His older brother Edgar made the big leagues and even played alongside Gonzalez for the Padres. His father David played amateur ball in Mexico and was a first baseman on the Mexican national team.

Gonzalez batted .566 as a junior and hit .645 with 13 homers as a senior at Eastlake High School in Chula Vista. He was named the CIF Player of the Year and San Diego Union-Tribune Player of the Year as a senior in 2000.

He is a career .294 hitter in his 10 major league seasons with 235 home runs. Has been selected to four All-Star teams (2008-11), earned three Rawlings Gold Glove Awards at first base (2008, 2009 and 2011) and took home a Silver Slugger Award in 2011 with Boston.

He drove in at least 100 RBI six times in the last seven seasons, one of only three major leaguers to do so, joining Miguel Cabrera (7) and Prince Fielder (6).

In 2012 Gonzalez helped renovate a Little League field in Tijuana and continues to financially support two baseball fields at Campo Adrian Gonzalez en la Liga Municipal de Tijuana.

Baseball was woven deep into the tapestry of my life as well. Two older brothers, Danny and Mike, were mainstays at Laguna Park (now Ruben Salazar Park) in East Los Angeles before we moved to Bell Gardens when I was seven years old. I was a batboy before a player and have loved the game as long I can remember.

I remember Danny hitting a grand slam against a Mexican all-star team and my father standing in the bleachers and proclaiming, “that’s my boy”.

Last night Adrian Gonzalez went yard and knocked in five runs, going 3-for-4 and pacing the Dodgers to a 6-0 win over Arizona in Phoenix.

I was soon transported back to fond memories of Laguna Park, the Little League field in Bell Gardens next to the oil tanks and the first time I walked up the stairs in the left field bleachers at Dodger Stadium to set my eyes on the greenest grass I had ever seen.

Go Adrian. Go Dodgers.