REDLANDS – Jay Johnstone, a two-time World Series winner and former Los Angeles Dodger, will throw out the opening pitch for Redlands Baseball for Youth on Feb. 25.
In Game Four of the 1981 World Series, Johnstone pinch-hit a two-run homer against the New York Yankees. That home run, which rallied the Dodgers from a 6-3 deficit into an 8-7 win, was a key play in the Dodgers defeating the Yankees in six games.
Opening Day ceremonies are a tradition in Redlands. More than 1,000 people and players attend the event.
This year’s opening pitch on Feb. 25 is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. at Community Park, on the corner of East San Bernardino Avenue and Church Street in North Redlands.
Also that morning, a two-hour pancake breakfast begins at 7 a.m. All proceeds will benefit the athletic programs of the Redlands Unified School district.
Johnstone said Friday that he’s looking forward to his first pitch.
“I aim for the umpire,” Johnstone joked. “I tell him to put a mask on. I get looks from umpires when I do that.”
Johnstone was a prolific prankster during his 22 years in the Major Leagues. While with the Dodgers, he once dressed up as a groundskeeper between innings. One of his favorite pranks included putting a brownie in Steve Garvey’s glove. His antics are detailed in Temporary Insanity, his 1985 best seller.
David Eason, an RBY board member for 34 years, said he believes Feb. 25 will be the first time a major league player has ever thrown out the first pitch during opening day.
RBY spokesman Rod Torres said “it’s a huge honor to have an ex-major leaguer there.”
Johnstone played for eight teams and on four World Series teams. He won rings while playing with the New York Yankees in 1978 and the Dodgers in 1981. He played outfield, but was known primarily as a pinch hitter. He completed his career with 102 home runs, 531 runs batted in, and a .267 batting average.
Since retiring in 1985, Johnstone worked as a broadcaster and book author. He even played a cameo role as a batter with the Seattle Mariners in The Naked Gun, a 1988 comedy. But his primary passion has been traveling the world to teach baseball as well as supporting veterans.
Johnstone, a US Marine Corps veteran, now works to raise money for Wounded Warriors. On Opening Day, Johnstone will host a table with baseball memorabilia near the snack bar at Community Field. All proceeds will benefit Fisher House, which provides free lodging for families of wounded veterans in treatment in San Diego.
Johnstone is also known for having one of the most iconic baseball cards.
In 1984, Fleer released a card that featured a sweaty and unsuspecting Johnstone wearing an umbrella-like hat called a “Brockarella” while he played for the Chicago Cubs. That card is now considered a prize among collectors.
“Lou Brock gave me that hat,” Johnstone said of the famed base stealer for the St. Louis Cardinals. “He gave it because I was hot and sweaty – it was an ‘unfoldable’ hat he designed.”
On Friday, Johnstone said he would bring the now famed “Brockarella” to Redlands.
In 2016, John Berry, an RBY baseball manager and self-described “baseball card nut,” drove to Los Angeles to get Johnstone to sign his famed card. During the autograph session, Johnstone agreed to throw out the first pitch for RBY.
In addition, Johnstone, who lives in Pasadena, drove to Redlands later in 2016 to give a private batting lesson to Berry’s baseball team of 11-and 12-year-old boys.
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SOURCE: Redlands Baseball for Youth
For more information, call RBY spokesman Rod Torres at 909-327-6220
