Still pitching at 90 -- it's Bob Brazelton

How about those Dodgers?

“Well,” said Bob Brazelton, still pitching words of wisdom at 90, “they folded. That’s the game. You win a few, you lose a few.”

And that calm equanimity might be the secret to Bob’s longevity. That and regular exercise. As Joe Lumsdaine said in the first toast of many of the afternoon, “Bob’s a man of intelligence. He speaks his mind, but he speaks it softly.”

Bob’s six children gave him a 90th birthday party at the Rio Hondo Event Center for 80 of his family and closest friends. Pediatrician son Michael from Littleton, Colo., resplendent in Bermuda shorts and snappy socks, wore an apron that said, “Who Invited All These Tacky People.”

Mike had it almost right. The real question was, how did they pare down the guest list? Bob knows so many people and has touched so many lives. Family outnumbered friends, and we were all mixed together. I can’t remember everyone, and I’m a little fuzzy on the grandkids’ names, but 40 was the number of Brazelton progeny. The rest, mostly Downeyites.

Former Downey mayor Bob Brazelton recently celebrated his 90th birthday. Photo by Lorine Parks

Whose idea was the party, Bob’s or his children? Son Kevin, a teacher from San Jose, said, “We all wanted to celebrate Dad’s 90th birthday. But it was my older sister Anne who did the organizing.”

Lawyer son Steven from Reno agreed. “I did it electronically,” said Anne, who lives in nearby Riverside. “Lots of emails, so everyone had their input.”

Baseball was the theme of the day. Bob was a world class pitcher from high school days on, and was nicknamed “Bean Head” for his ability to brush back the batter by throwing the ball just under the chin. Where was Bob and his control when the Dodgers needed him!

Each table sported a real baseball especially ordered by Anne with the words Bean Head 2019 Happy Birthday. Each guest also received a gauze bag filled with miniature foil-covered - you guessed it – chocolate baseballs.

Table charts showed guests assigned to positions on the diamond. I was seated at first to the Umpire Table but that turned out to be for the grandkids, so Anne moved me up to the Infield, at the Second Base Table, where I now sat with Anne and husband Alex Tenango, and Anne’s brother who is son Bob. Bob’s wife Julie brought the delicious cupcakes from Hapa’s Bakery in Brea, and the cake from Ralphs, with the figure of a pitcher brushing back the big numerals 90.

We were joined by first grandchild Jordan, who has her Master’s in visual communication. “She broke out of the family’s teacher–lawyer mold,” said Julie. Jordan wants to go back to visit Japan where she first went as a high schooler to see the animé studios in Tokyo.

Also on Second Base with me were son Steven and his wife Nathalie. Their daughter, Jade, was seated with the other grandkids and Jasmine was in Maastricht, the Netherlands, studying neurons.

At First Base were seated Jim and Stella Derry. Jim gave a rousing toast praising Bob for all he has done and is still doing for the Downey Family YMCA where Bob is on the Board of Managers. Fellow Kiwanian Larry Lewis and wife, Marge, and Mike and Joyce Prokop joined them, with Dan and Josete Antonelli and Connie and Ernie Navar.

Karol and Hop Morrison were at the Pitcher’s Table with Bob, and Joe and Dianne Lumsdaine. Monseigneurs Lorenzo Miranda and Gary Bauler from Our Lady of Perpetual Help joined them, along with Adele Alexander, Mary Felix and Vicki Carnevale.

Third Base, the Hot Corner, was Mike Brazelton’ table, with wife Charlotte, and assorted children, and other happy celebrants. Joe Commodore was at Short Stop, with Kevin and Karen Brazelton.

Another table, Catcher, completed the battery and featured Hal and Carolyn Nelson, Bill and Katie Hare, and Joanne and Bob Earl.

“I remember my dad coaching me in baseball for the Sting Rays, the YMCA’s Gra-Y program,” said “young” Bob, reaching back 50 years as easily as if it were yesterday (it was, wasn’t it?). “Somehow he got a big sheet of rubber from the Firestone factory in South Gate. It was about 10 feet by 10 feet, and he put it on a wooden frame and painted a square on it. Every day I would throw the ball across the backyard at that target. I bet he still goes out and practices there today.”

Daughter Katie MacFarland, an educator in Vail, Colo., took turns with her siblings as emcee. She was wearing a lovely pearl-cluster pendant and earrings. “My mother Jean’s,” said Katie. “I try to keep her near me every day.” Katie also remembered being coached by her dad every day, not just in baseball but football too.

Why didn’t Bob pursue a pitching career? “I played semi-pro minor league ball in 1951,” Bob said. “For the Yuma Panthers, the Tucson Cowboys and the Mexicali Eagles. We were traveling all the time from game to game, and we stayed in crummy hotels. In the off-time there was nothing to do but play cards.”

Bob decided against famed coach Rod Dedeaux’s offer of a pitching scholarship at USC and chose Loyola and family values instead.

Bob served as a Marine in the Korean Conflict, War, and after the Armistice he became the player-manager of the Marine Corps baseball team that won the Far East service championship. Back home, he pursued his college career and law degree at Loyola.

Jean, a lively school teacher from Minnesota, and Bob got married in 1957, and settled in Downey, eventually raising six children and 12 grandchildren and staying active in the community. Bob had an impressive career as an attorney, and now practices business and estate planning law from his home.

Bob chaired the committee that drafted the Downey City Charter.

Downey calls Bob “Mr. Mayor,” and he served from 1993-94. Jim Derry called him “the most impressive man I know.” He received the Exceptional Service Award, the highest award given by the Downey Family YMCA.

But the lovingly bestowed soubriquet “Bean Head,” that’s the name everyone called him today.