On a quiet January day in 1959, the Donbass III crossed the entrance of Humboldt Bay outbound. There were a few interested people watching as two tugs guided the vessel, one towing and the other running alongside. When they reached the open sea, the second tug would return the bar pilot to Eureka. Looking closer, observers noticed the ship was proceeding under tow, but backing. Why, and for what distance?

Watching with keen interest, in addition to the Coast Guard, were several persons on one of the jetties. An observer might have seen among them Tom Jenkins, Division Manager for Pacific Gas & Electric Company. And high on Humboldt Hill, where he could command a view of the entrance and a broad expanse of the Pacific to the south, stood George J. Rynecki.

Before learning why there appeared to be an air of excitement about Ryneki and others, we should note a few details of the ship that was starting on its final voyage. Construction of the ship was done in the Swan Island shipyard, Portland, Oregon, in late 1944. She was designed as a tanker of the T2-SE-A1 type, one of many that the USA had built for the war effort. At her christening, she was named the Beacon Rock, a turboelectric ship with a name that was to be hers for only one year.

The War Shipping Administration was acting as owners and operators of our Merchant Marine fleet and under terms of the Lend-Lease program the Beacon Rock was turned over to Russia. They changed her name to Donbass III. (This was the third ship the Russians named honoring the coal basin of the River Don.) The Russians put her to work importing U.S. war material from West Coast ports.

It was in February, 1946, that the Donbass, bound for Vladivostok, encountered a violent storm. The Russian seamen know these waters well and how wild the icy seas can be but there seemed to be more than the elements stacked against them on this fateful day. The decks were loaded with planes and tanks and the cargo holds bulged with aviation gasoline and fuel oil. They had reached a point off the northern chain of the Aleutians, where seas were running high and it was a bitter, cold, foggy day. Experienced sailors agreed they had never encountered such a vicious clash of the elements. Each hour brought an increase in the storm’s tempo.

(Murl Harpham, writing for Humboldt readers, in a local newspaper, described the way the ocean hurled the Donbass’ 10,000 tons of deadweight around that day,…”like a redwood chip in the maelstrom of Ishi Pishi Falls.”)

There was no mercy given the ship. She was being brutally tossed in all directions — a ship nearly the length of two football fields! Her boilers were still generating steam but the question was, how much longer could she continue taking such punishment in such a mean storm.

The sequence of events of the next few hours is unclear. However, when the battering ended and the sea subsided 48 hours later, there was only one half of the ship afloat. The 280-foot-bow section, cargo. Captain and over a dozen crew members had been claimed by the sea.

Several theories were postulated regarding the cause of the disaster. There were suggestions that varied from an explosion of a floating mine to a rupture of the ship’s seams due to the twisting of the vessel during the storm. We know the condition of the seas she had gone through and of the possibility that she may have been overloaded. It is acknowledged this was not the first ship to suffer a like casualty.

The late Humboldt County historian, Andrew Genzoli, gleaned the following for his column, RFD: “Days later (following the storm) crewmen of another U.S. tanker, the Puente Hills, sighted the floating stern section and took it in tow. For 21 days they battled stormy seas to bring their prize to port. Their claim of salvage was upheld. The Shipping War Administration, owner of both ships, paid $110,000 to buy back what was left of the Donbass III” (About fifty persons were rescued from the broken ship.)

At the close of W.W. II, population growth was particularly noticeable on the West Coast. Power companies were hard-pressed for additional power to meet the demand for the industrial boom and Humboldt County was no exception. There were thirty or more industries needing electric power near Humboldt Bay and several hundred throughout the county. One possibility explored involved bringing to Eureka a gigantic “Mountain-type” locomotive to power a generator for additional electrical energy. But this proved out of the question because the Fort Seward tunnel was too small for the locomotive.

Eureka had an immediate need for additional emergency power. Winter gales had been causing frequent interruptions of service. During those years there was only one line over the mountains from the Cottonwood Substation. News of a half ship that had been towed into Seattle, Washington, suggested a solution to the problem. A bid of $125,000 was submitted by P.G. & E. at a Maritime Commission sale. Immediately upon notification of their successful bid, arrangements were made to get the ship to Eureka.

It certainly seemed the ill-fated ship had an affinity for storms. Two tugs started out from Seattle with her. They were only as far south as Umatilla light when they were hit by a windstorm that threw their towing apparatus into what first appeared to be an impossible situation. The tugs were successful, however, in getting their tow into the harbor at Port Angeles where repairs were made. Following improvement in the weather and a change in luck, they were able to reach Humboldt Bay on November 3, 1946. Six days later the ship was nestled into her position at the foot of Washington Street. Within a few weeks she was ready for steam-up and for her huge generator to feed power into the P.G.&E. system, a job it performed for the next ten years.

Before getting into operation, a number of things needed to be accomplished. The ship had to be secured so storms would not disturb any connections of the heavy duty conductors that were brought up through the ventilator, over the side and then tied into the system. PG&E Life, a magazine for men and women of that power company, reported that:

… the cargo tanks were filled with oil to supply the nearby Eureka Station B and the Donbass III herself. The added weight grounded the ship in the mud, an ignoble end to a once proud vessel. But her usefulness to P.G. & E. was just commencing.

The engine room was given a thorough overhaul, both boilers and her immense generator. Normal full load was 4,800 kw, which could be raised to 5,500 kw during periods of emergency. Over the years many workers served faithfully in that engine room. A few of those employees of P.G. & E. known to the author were: Howard Taylor, Red McCormick, Jim McMillen, Barney Koli and Ed Weeks, who went from there to eventually head up the electrical engineering at Humboldt Bay power plant. (It is reported that some of the men, leaving the engine room to go topside on a cloudy, moonlit night, experienced the feeling of actually being at sea. The same feelings were felt on a stormy night when they climbed up from the engine room to go ashore.)

After ten years, the advent of more and better electrical facilities in the Humboldt area made the Donbass again ‘war surplus.’ Before the ship was sold, the main generator was rebuilt and shipped by P.G. & E. to Vallecitos. There in the land-locked hills of Livermore, it turned out the first privately financed atomic electric power in the nation. Thus, the least of all P.G. & E.’s steam units became the bellweather of a new era in power production.

Marine historian Wallace Martin has an advertisement in his file that appeared in “The Marine Digest” early in 1957 in which it states that Captain H.A. Jeans & Associates, Marine surveyors of San Pedro, were offering the ship for sale. But ships and portions of ships were plentiful, so the Donbass III was to sit many months until the company decided to offer the ship as scrap. Contacts were made with several firms on the Pacific coast, suggesting they might consider entering a bid. One of these was George Rynecki of the local firm of G. & R. Metals.

When George Rynecki learned of the ship auction, he debated about making a bid. He concluded that this would be a project of such magnitude it would be best to contact a specialist in scrapping ships. Perhaps after consultation, a partnership could be arranged. In our interview with Rynecki, he explained there were several firms that made a specialty of dismantling ships for scrap, so he searched them out.

An agreement was reached with the National Metal Company of San Pedro to join in the purchase of the tanker Donbass III. In their agreement, the responsibilities for Rynecki were to enter the bid, refloat the ship, make it seaworthy, make any minor salvage at Eureka that seemed wise and expedite the towing arrangements for transport of the ship to San Pedro, where the major salvage would take place.

Simple and straightforward as the foregoing sounds, it was one problem after another that had to be resolved. Power had been disconnected, so G. & R. Metals hooked up a diesel-powered generator that was tied into the ship’s own lighting system. Climbing up and down five or more decks to work was not practical, so a door and passageway was cut through the hull. Several tanks were loaded with seawater that would have to be pumped out to free the ship — later they were to find that an opening the size of a large door had been cut through a hull section below the waterline. They were unaware of this for some time, therefore pumping was futile and the opening had to be located and sealed.

Not every problem was discouraging. They found several diesel engines that they were able to start with remarkable ease and these could be used for generating power for such chores as lifting,, lights, welding and cutting. Arrangements were made to have P.G. & E. bring electricity to the ship, thereby allowing the G. & R. Metal crew to bring in several large pumps that Rynecki owned. These were used for pumping seawater back and forth, to aid in freeing the ship and later for the transfer of ballast in trimming the ship so that she would maintain an even keel for the impending sea voyage.

Rynecki expressed admiration for the job that his foreman, Louis Thomas, did in the preparation of the vessel for sea. Thomas was experienced in salvage and understood working with various metals and had a “take-charge” attitude.

As the ship was prepared for the trip, minor salvage was done, but Rynecki was pushing his men to reach a deadline. He learned that one of the highest tides of the year was to happen soon. Inasmuch as the ship had not been free of the bottom for many years, help from the elements was welcome. The best tides were around year end. They missed the first one, but were ready for number two. Work went along at an eager pace. The plan was to tow the ship from her comfortable berth to a neighboring dock. Rynecki had arranged with Coggshell Company to have two of their boats on hand at the appointed time.

The moment of truth arrived. The tugs were on the scene and a small line was thrown to the ship so that Louie Thomas, who was waiting on the deck, could pull the towing cable and make it fast to the ship. On shore, a D-8 Caterpillar tractor was hooked up ready to pull its winchline simultaneously with the tugs when the signal was given. There were still unanswered questions: When it got loose from the bottom, how would it ride? Would it be heavy on bow or stern? How high in the water would she be?, etc.

Rynecki surveyed the preparations and gave the prearranged signal for taking up slack and to standby. Was it imagination? The ship seemed to be ready to move! This was the moment, pull! The tugs dug in and the “cat” roared. With hardly a shudder, the ship was free and riding remarkably well. A real cheer was given by workmen as the ship moved into the bay on the 31st day of December 1959.

New Year’s morning Rynecki drove to the dock to see how the Donbass III had weathered the night. From a distance she looked in good shape but on closer examination Rynecki was horrified. The ship was riding with a list. Was this something that might get worse? Would it be a gamble to assume there would be no change in the status quo for another twenty-four hours? The wise move seemed to be to locate Foreman Louis and ask him to spend a few hours of his holiday trying to trim the ship. Things worked out well that day, but it turned out to be a pattern that had to be followed each day, even though there was steady improvement in the attitude of the ship. Advice from one who was seasoned in such things was to load ballast, thereby lowering the freeboard to improve her ride. This suggestion proved to be sound, but it took time with the equipment that was available. Finally the call was given for the sea-going tug to come to Eureka.

A very powerful tug with an experienced crew arrived to move the ship to Terminal Island, Los Angeles Harbor. The transit was accomplished with no problem. There the massive boilers, her shaft and other large machinery were salvaged before the complete dismantling took place.

George Rynecki said, “That part was not my worry, I had to get her safely out in the ocean. What a relief that was to see her cross the bar so smoothly!”

Since that day, there have been at least two occasions elsewhere in the world when a ship’s power plant has been used as emergency power for a seaside community. However, we are certain nothing can match the record of the Donbass III, while anchored at Humboldt Bay.

###

The story above was originally printed in the November-December 1986 issue of the Humboldt Historian, a journal of the Humboldt County Historical Society. It is reprinted here with permission. The Humboldt County Historical Society is a nonprofit organization devoted to archiving, preserving and sharing Humboldt County’s rich history. You can become a member and receive a year’s worth of new issues of The Humboldt Historian at this link.

Despite the will of a narrow majority of Arcata voters, the city can’t legally fly an Earth flag above the stars and bars stripes on its municipal flagpole.

This according to a ruling issued Tuesday by Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Timothy Canning. 

Canning’s decision, first reported by the North Coast Journal, says that since both California government code and Military and Veterans Code employ the word “shall” in describing the U.S. flag’s designated position of supremacy, the City of Arcata’s hands are tied.

“The Court finds that the plain language of both statutes does not allow the City to exercise any discretion as to the placement of flags,” the ruling states, adding that federal Flag Code, in contrast, uses the discretionary term “should.”

As a general law city created by the state, Arcata must comply with such mandatory provisions of state law, even if voters say otherwise, according to Canning. The public certainly has the right to change or modify laws by initiative, referendum or proposition, he notes, but such reforms must be accomplished at a statewide level, not within individual cities.

Otherwise, he reasons, voters in general law cities could decide to exempt their jurisdictions from other statewide rules, like those in the Brown Open Meetings Act or the Public Records Act.

Proponents of Measure M, including former Arcata City Councilmember Dave Meserve, argued that its passage represents a lawful expression of Arcata citizens’ free speech rights, but Canning finds that the measure actually “compels speech by the City,” and government speech falls outside the purview of the First Amendment.

Meserve and his fellow backers of Measure M have argued that the initiative was meant to express a message of global unity and communal responsibility for the planet’s wellbeing, rather than signaling any disrespect to veterans or the nation. 

Meserve told the Journal that he’s disappointed by the ruling and has asked the city council to keep the Earth flag flying atop the pole while he and his fellow Measure M backers consider whether or not to appeal.

###

PREVIOUSLY

• ‘Flying the Earth Flag at the Top is Only Logical’: Arcata City Council To Consider Earth Flag Initiative to Either Adopt or Submit to November Ballot
• The Final Results of the November 6 Election Are In, and The Results Are What You Now Expect Them to Be
• Humboldt Court Considers the Legality of Arcata’s Voter-Approved Initiative to Fly the Earth Flag Above the U.S. Flag

PREVIOUSLY:

• Sheriff Declares Local Emergency Due to Weekend Floods, Asks Public to Submit Damage Reports

###

Press release from the Humboldt County Office Emergency Services:

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services has been informed that the reported damages related to the January 2024 flooding events did not meet the high federal requirements for individual or financial assistance, which may have provided various funding opportunities for services like home repairs.

Individuals who experienced flood damage to their home or business are strongly encouraged to work with their insurance provider(s) to file a claim for repairs if they have delayed doing so.

Background

Federal disaster assistance is crucial to local communities like Humboldt County. When a natural disaster strikes and the damage exceeds the capabilities of the county or the state to respond, the state may ask the federal government to declare a disaster. A federal disaster declaration helps the impacted community qualify for federal aid programs, including funding from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). One critical disaster assistance program is FEMA’s Individual and Households Program (IHP), which provides financial and direct services to eligible individuals or households.

The threshold for a federal disaster declaration in California is approximately $74 million, or roughly 1,200 homes destroyed or with major damage. The state’s threshold is exceedingly high because of the high economic value of the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Area regions and of the state’s tech industry. As a result, small and/or rural communities throughout the state are unable to qualify for federal assistance and are deprived of an equitable opportunity for disaster recovery. Until regulatory changes are made in Washington DC, this critical assistance remains out of reach for rural communities like Humboldt County.

Additionally, certain criteria must also be met in order to qualify for low-interest federal disaster loans like loans provided by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). To meet the one threshold to qualify for an SBA federal disaster assistance loan, at least 25 homes or 25 businesses, or a combination of at least 25 homes, businesses or other eligible properties, each must sustain uninsured losses of 40 percent or more of the estimated fair replacement value or pre-disaster fair market value of the damaged property, whichever is lower. Humboldt County’s reported damages related to the January 2024 floods did not qualify the county for federal loan assistance.

Be Prepared

The Office of Emergency Services encourages residents to work with an insurance provider to obtain homeowners or renters insurance if you do not have them. Insuring your home, business or property is the best way to make sure you will have the necessary financial resources to help you repair, rebuild or replace whatever is damaged in the event of a natural disaster.

If you have insurance is important to review your policy to make sure the amount and types of coverage you have meets the requirements for all possible hazards. Homeowners insurance does not typically cover all types of disasters, so you may need to purchase insurance from another provider. For more tips on how to prepare your finances for natural disasters, please visit ready.gov/financial-preparedness.

For more information or to find the latest updates from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services, please go to humboldtsheriff.org/emergency and visit @HumCoOES on Facebook and Twitter.

Not filling open positions in state government, cutting welfare programs that serve tens of thousands of families, delaying funding for public transit — these are some of the first steps that California officials plan to take to deal with a looming multibillion-dollar budget deficit.

Facing a shortfall estimated at somewhere between $38 billion and $73 billion next year, Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders yesterday announced an “early action” plan to tackle part of that gap before the regular budget process later this spring.

The $17.3 billion package includes some program cuts, but mostly relies on new revenue, internal borrowing and funding delays and shifts for savings. It is expected to come up for a vote in the Legislature next week.

“I thank our legislative leaders for their partnership in taking this major step to address the shortfall with a balanced approach that meets the needs of Californians and maintains a strong fiscal foundation for the state’s future,” Newsom, who has been calling for early budget action since January, said in a statement.

Newsom, Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire of Santa Rosa and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas of Salinas, all Democrats, signaled two weeks ago that they planned to take this step, but continued to negotiate the details. Cuts to housing and homeless programs that Assembly Democrats objected to were recently removed.

Among the major proposals are a nearly $4 billion expansion of a tax on health insurance plans that allows the state to draw matching federal funds; delaying $1 billion for transit infrastructure and $550 million for preschool, transitional kindergarten and full-day kindergarten facilities; shifting $1.8 billion of cap-and-trade revenue, intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to backfill other programs; and leaving vacant state jobs, an expected savings of more than $760 million, while deferring another $1.6 billion in pay.

The strategy faces criticism from Republicans, who called it “gimmicky,” though they do not have the votes to block the plan, which requires only a simple majority.

“This deal is a swing and a miss from Democrats. California’s budget has major league problems and Newsom is proposing JV solutions,” Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher of Chico said in a statement. “With a $73 billion deficit, this gimmicky agreement is not the homerun Gavin thinks it is.”

Under the early action plan, a school facilities program and several climate initiatives will be cut, as will about $337 million in remaining funding for two welfare services that subsidize employment and that provide cash assistance, transitional housing and counseling to families in crisis.

It also includes language to freeze one-time funding from past years and an agreement to tap into half of the state’s reserves in the upcoming budget.

“We are all committed to delivering an on-time balanced budget and this early action agreement is a critical first step to shrink the state’s shortfall,” McGuire said in a statement.

They are far from finished. Next up, Newsom will present his revised budget proposal in May. That will kick off a month of deliberation with the Legislature, which must pass a balanced budget by June 15 or forgo its pay.

“We expect the Governor to deliver challenging budget proposals next month to reduce the deficit in the long-term, and we’ll consider them carefully,” Rivas said in a statement. “Together, we can deliver real solutions for hard-working Californians.”

###

CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

For their 2004 home opener, the San Francisco Giants invited a special guest to throw the ceremonial first pitch: Gavin Newsom, then just a few months into his first term as mayor of San Francisco.

As Newsom took the pitcher’s mound, wearing dress shoes and a button-down shirt underneath his custom Giants jersey, the announcer informed the crowd that “he played first base for the University of Santa Clara and was drafted by the Texas Rangers.”

The introduction was quickly overshadowed by Newsom nearly hitting a photographer with the ball. But it left a lasting impact on a few attendees that day — a group of former Santa Clara University baseball players who were struck by the glowing treatment of Newsom’s resume.

“It’s kind of the standing joke that Newsom played on the team,” said Vince Machi, who arrived at Santa Clara in 1985, the same year as Newsom, and played baseball for three years. “There’s always been kind of a joke between the guys who stay in touch.”

Twenty years later, as the Giants kick off their latest home season Friday, Newsom is now a national political figure — not just an outspoken champion of the Democratic Party but a potential future presidential contender. He regularly appears on cable news to discuss California policies and attack Republicans. Lately he has traveled the country as a leading surrogate for President Biden’s re-election campaign.

Through his rise over the intervening two decades, his baseball career has provided Newsom a triumphant narrative to push back on the perception that his upbringing was privileged and easy: The high school standout scouted by the major leagues, who overcame his dyslexia and academic shortcomings to earn a partial scholarship to Santa Clara University before an injury forced him to find a new purpose.

It has become so closely associated with Newsom that “Saturday Night Live” opened a show in March with a sketch where the Democratic governor, portrayed by Michael Longfellow, defends President Biden’s mental fitness by recounting: “The other day he was taking a nap and I whipped a baseball at him and he caught it like De Niro in ‘Awakenings.’”

Newsom told the story himself again in January on the podcast Pod Save America: Because of poor test scores, he was headed to community college until he got a call from the Santa Clara University baseball coaches. “It was literally the ticket to a four-year university. It changed my life, my trajectory,” he said.

But former coaches and teammates said that biography, repeated again and again through interviews and glossy magazine profiles and coverage of his 2021 baseball-themed children’s book on overcoming dyslexia, has inflated Newsom’s baseball credentials, giving the impression that he was a more accomplished player than he was.

Most notably, Newsom never played an official game for Santa Clara University; he was a junior varsity recruit who played only during the fall tryouts his freshman and sophomore years, then left the baseball program before the regular season began. He does not appear on the Broncos’ all-time roster or in media guides published by the athletic department to preview the upcoming season.

Gov. Gavin Newsom tosses a snowball after the California Department of Water Resources conducted a media snow survey at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada on April 2, 2024. Photo by Fred Greaves, California Department of Water Resources

A deeper look at his recruitment also reveals that Newsom’s admission to Santa Clara University — like so many of his formative opportunities — was substantially boosted by friends and acquaintances of his father, William Newsom, a San Francisco judge and financial adviser to the Gettys, the wealthy oil family. One associate connected Newsom to the baseball program when he was in high school, while his father’s best friend, then a member of the university’s board of regents, wrote him a letter of recommendation.

Mike Cummins, the assistant coach at Santa Clara while Newsom was there, said the governor has “embellished his baseball career a little bit at times.”

“He never played in a varsity game. He may have played in some scrimmages,” said Cummins, who is now the head baseball coach at California State University, East Bay. “He’s embellished it. It’s half-truths. He was recruited to Santa Clara, he was there in the fall, but he never played. He didn’t have a varsity career there.”

The misconception has been propelled as much by what Newsom doesn’t say as what he does — a polished sweep over his time at Santa Clara University that rarely gets more detailed than, “I played a little baseball. Just my first and second year,” as he told The Santa Clara, the student newspaper, in a 2008 interview.

Not for the first time in his career, Newsom has allowed a more flattering version of events to develop in the public discourse while being slow to clear up the inaccuracies. During his first gubernatorial campaign in 2018, he acknowledged that he never attended rehab, as was widely reported more than a decade earlier after he pledged to seek treatment for problems with alcohol.

Some Broncos players from the era, who said they still regularly get asked about Newsom when people find out they played baseball at Santa Clara, wanted to correct the record.

“He didn’t earn it. He didn’t earn the right to say it,” said Kevin Schneider, who pitched for two seasons and now runs a pitching academy in San Francisco. “I worked my ass off. So did everyone else on that team. For him to just go all these years, to say he did something he didn’t that takes not just talent but also dedication and effort and sacrifice, it’s not right.”

Spokespeople for Newsom rejected multiple requests to interview the governor about his baseball career. They said Newsom had never exaggerated his experience at Santa Clara University and that it was not his job to fix whatever mistaken assumptions the public may have developed.

“He’s been very honest and consistent about what happened to him in college and more personable than you would get from most politicians,” spokesperson Bob Salladay said. “He is not responsible for other people’s impressions or interpretations of him and his life. He is doing his job, and he cannot spend his entire day correcting people when they make errors about him. He’s moved on.”

Newsom speaks about his baseball journey with “emotional, real truth that is visceral to him,” said Nathan Click, another spokesperson for the governor. “We all go through life and remember the emotions we feel about things, not, you know, facts.”

“He chooses to talk about the emotional side of it, because he thinks that is the place that young people in particular, who are going through struggles, people with dyslexia, can find themselves in his story,” Click said. “That matters way more than, you know, whether he was a rostered player or what his stats were in the fall ball, JV, freshman year, Santa Clara University season.”

From high school standout to Santa Clara University

By all accounts, Newsom was a talented baseball player at Redwood High School in Marin County, where he was also a star on the basketball team before graduating in 1985. His name appears in the San Francisco Examiner’s prep coverage from the time — banging home runs, hitting a game-winning single in the Marin County Athletic League championship his senior year and being named to the all-league first team.

Publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times, the Marin Independent Journal and Men’s Journal have reported over the years that the Texas Rangers drafted, recruited or showed interest in Newsom in high school. In 2009, a Newsom spokesperson clarified to the San Francisco Chronicle that he had merely been scouted, not drafted.

Newsom was among the hundreds of high school players across the country whom the Rangers organization looked at while preparing for the annual amateur draft, according to a spokesperson for the team.

Spokesperson John Blake wrote in an email that the Rangers’ chief California scout from the time “said that we did watch Governor Newsom play in high school, but he doesn’t remember us specially scouting him.” He said major league teams are very thorough in scouting California and “it is likely there were several players on this particular high school team that our scouts had interest in seeing, including Governor Newsom.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom played baseball and graduated from Redwood High School in 1985. Photo via Gavin Newsom’s social media

Newsom spokesperson Click said the governor received business cards from those scouts after they watched him play, which he has spoken about in past interviews. “They made a point to come up to him and introduce themselves, which means something,” Click said.

Newsom headed down the Peninsula to Santa Clara University, a private Jesuit college where he was a freshman in the fall of 1985. Having struggled in high school, with a reported SAT score of 960 out of 1600, Newsom has long credited baseball with securing his admission.

“I had a pretty severe learning disability, dyslexia, struggled academically, and the only reason Santa Clara University would have ever accepted me was because I was a left-handed first baseman who could hit fairly well,” he told The New York Times in 2019.

Newsom also had help from several well-connected alumni.

Bill Connolly, a San Francisco investment banker and associate of William Newsom who played baseball at Santa Clara in the 1960s, put the younger Newsom on the team’s radar, according to Cummins, the former assistant coach. Connolly died in 2017, and his widow could not be reached for comment.

Connolly “was a very good supporter of us at the time, money-wise,” Cummins said, and pushed the coaches to check Newsom out. “That was pretty normal at the time,” Cummins said, especially in a pre-internet era when recruiting was more regional and word-of-mouth. He said the baseball team was not a “backdoor” to admit Newsom into the university.

Click said Newsom does not remember his family asking Connolly to recommend him to Santa Clara University “and if it’s true, it would be news to him.”

A series of newspaper clippings that highlight Newsom’s baseball accomplishments during high school. Illustration by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters

Alongside then-head coach John Oldham, who died in February, Cummins eventually visited Newsom at home and recruited him to Santa Clara. The team had a junior varsity squad at the time, which it used as a “minor league,” Cummins said, so Newsom had a guaranteed spot in the program, but would have to perform well enough to play in varsity games.

He was offered a scholarship of $500 in October 1985, during fall quarter of his freshman year, according to a photograph of a section of the paperwork provided by Click, though it’s unclear if that’s the only payment he received. Click said Newsom was unable to locate the original document. The cost of attendance for Santa Clara University that year was $10,251, including tuition, room and board.

Eager to ensure his spot, Newsom’s family also solicited letters of recommendation from former Gov. Jerry Brown, who attended Santa Clara University for one year and appointed William Newsom to the Superior Court and the state Court of Appeal during his first term as governor, and from John Mallen, an attorney who served on Santa Clara’s board of regents at the time.

Mallen, who described William Newsom as “my best friend for 75 years,” said he did not frequently write letters of recommendation for applicants while he was on the board.

“In fact, I may not have helped anybody else get in,” Mallen said.

Though he does not have a copy of the letter anymore, Mallen said it was probably addressed to the president of the university and would have been a character reference for the younger Newsom.

“I mean, I’d known him since birth,” Mallen said. “He was a good athlete. That I remember.”

Mallen said it “absolutely” would have been “hugely influential” in helping Newsom gain admission to Santa Clara: “I think it was a big help.”

Click denied that the letters of recommendations played any role in Newsom’s acceptance.

“Baseball was the reason he got into university and the partial baseball scholarship shows it,” Click said.

College baseball cut short by elbow injury

Newsom has previously said he played baseball his first two years at Santa Clara University before injuring his throwing arm and reevaluating his path, a timeline repeated in major profiles of Newsom, most recently by Los Angeles Magazine in 2021.

“Ultimately, I had an ulnar nerve issue and threw out my arm and had a surgery and really didn’t come back,” he told WBUR, a Boston public radio station, in 2019. “And then I had to make that tough choice of, ‘What the hell do I do with my life?’ Because I was just so consumed by baseball.”

To report this story, CalMatters reached out to coaches and teammates listed on the Broncos rosters for the 1986 and 1987 seasons. They said Newsom played only during the fall tryout periods of his freshman and sophomore years, when prospective players trained and rotated into practice games against other local universities, and no official statistics were kept.

Several people recalled that Newsom was around for just the first few weeks, perhaps as much as six weeks, as a freshman. He did not make the 1986 roster, as reflected in the game program and media guide “The Boys of Spring.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom does not appear on the 1986 Santa Clara University baseball roster. Illustration by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters

Newsom was not one of the standout prospects that year — “We would have known he was a big scholarship player who crapped out,” said Jim Flynn, who was a freshman pitcher — but no one interviewed by CalMatters disputes his athletic ability.

Victor Cole, a freshman in the 1986 season who split his time pitching and playing outfield for the varsity team and playing outfield for the junior varsity team, said Newsom “was a good athlete” and “he looked like somebody who could play college ball.”

“Everyone who was recruited had talent. So he had talent,” said Cole, who briefly played for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1992 and now coaches at Christian Brothers University in Memphis.

Machi, who also arrived in 1985, said Newsom caught his attention because they were competing for the same spot, playing first base.

“I do recall him being a fairly athletic guy. It wasn’t like he was a fish out of water,” Machi said. “As a competitor, you’re always looking around.”

But within a few weeks, Newsom had “just disappeared,” Machi said. “He didn’t have any accolades on the field.”

Struggling with pain in his left elbow, Newsom underwent ulnar nerve surgery in late 1985 and took the rest of the season off, Click said. Dr. Michael Dillingham, an orthopedic surgeon in Daly City who was the team doctor at the time, confirmed to CalMatters that he performed the operation.

After the surgery, however, Newsom did not rehabilitate his arm through the Santa Clara baseball program, recalled Larry Donahe, then a freshman pitcher who also sat out the 1986 season recovering from an elbow operation for the same injury as Newsom.

“If he had a bad elbow and was hurt and was doing any sort of rehab, I probably would have seen him,” said Donahe, who had a full-ride scholarship and continued to play for the Broncos through other surgeries his sophomore and junior years. “He never came into the training room.”

Click said Newsom was in a cast and then physical therapy for several months and did not begin training seriously to return to baseball until the summer.

He tried out for the Broncos again in fall 1986 as a sophomore but “couldn’t make it work” because of continued elbow pain, Click said. Before the regular season began, Newsom gave up his beloved sport for good.

Players said Newsom was not particularly close to his teammates and they were uncertain of the circumstances of his departure. Many wondered if he lost interest in baseball because of the fierce demands of Santa Clara’s program.

Because the NCAA had not yet established limits on student-athletes’ time, players described the team in that era as a full-time job, even during fall tryouts: multiple games each week; practices that ran from the early afternoon until after the dining hall stopped serving dinner and all day on the weekends; extra training including 5 a.m. workouts; and vision strengthening and success visualization classes, where players laid on the floor with their eyes closed and imagined how to improve their technique.

“If you had a life, you chose to do something else. If you were a baseball lifer you loved it,” Matt Toole, who played baseball at Santa Clara from 1985 to 1989 and then two seasons in the minor leagues, wrote in an email.

Newsom “actually played well enough to make our team both years,” he wrote. “He had a lot of potential but he chose not to play.”

A young Gavin Newsom in a baseball uniform.

Click said Newsom may not have felt comfortable sharing his injury publicly at the time because he was ashamed not to live up to the success he experienced earlier in his baseball career.

“It was really a crushing moment for him,” Click said, “especially somebody who had been really hyped up by everyone around him in Little League, in high school.”

But the legend of Newsom’s feats on the diamond endured. In a 2010 story previewing the Giants-Rangers World Series, The New York Times contrasted the baseball careers of the mayors for the two teams.

Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert joked about his brief stint playing junior varsity at Claremont McKenna College: “They put me in when it was time for the outfielders to do wind sprints.”

The Times called Newsom “more serious about the game,” noting the then-San Francisco mayor played for two years at Santa Clara University.

“I was your standard 6-foot-3-inch first baseman,” Newsom told the paper.

###

CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Richard Patrick (Pat) Greene
October 31, 1935- March 28, 2024

It is with heavy hearts that we announce that Richard Patrick (Pat) Greene passed away peacefully in his home with his wife and daughter by his side on March 28, 2024.

Pat was born on October 31, 1935 in Bremerton, Washington to Naval Captain Richard (Dick) and Josene Greene. Two years later, his sister Sharon came along. Due to their father’s naval job, the family moved around throughout his childhood from the Pacific Northwest, to Florida, to Maryland. It was during these early years that Pat’s love of nature and adventure was born. He grew up fishing, rock hunting, and always learning.

Pat followed in his dad’s footsteps and attended the Naval Academy at Annapolis from 1954-1958 alongside future Senator John McCain. Upon graduation from the Naval Academy, he served overseas in the Pacific. While onboard, he served as the Recreation Director, an early indicator of his active personality and ability to form community everywhere he went.

After serving overseas in the Navy, he returned to the West Coast where he met his future wife, Mary, at an Officer’s Club dance in Long Beach. Pat was immediately smitten and insisted within a couple of weeks that she marry him. They tied the knot on October 27, 1962 and moved to Hawaii for an extended honeymoon where Pat enjoyed the beautiful beaches and lots of surfing.

Pat and Mary moved back to Oxnard where they welcomed their daughter Alisa to the family. Pat attended Ventura Junior College and lifeguarded over the summers while earning enough credits to transfer to UC Santa Barbara to get his master’s degree in Geology.

Now with two degrees to his name, Pat got a job with the Canadian Survey Company and his family moved in with his parents in Bremerton, Washington in 1965. It was here where their son, Tom, was born and completed their family of four. Pat worked for a few years in the oil industry in Alaska and Texas before deciding to move back to California and pursue his true passion- teaching.

After scouting out colleges across California, Pat decided to join the newly established College of the Redwoods in Eureka, where he was the first geology instructor. He taught geology, oceanography, rocks and minerals, math, and more over his 25 year career.

After a few years living in Eureka, the family decided to move further south to sunnier Fortuna. They first lived on Holly Lane near Alisa and Tom’s elementary school until they came across the perfect piece of land at the end of Newburg Road on one of their many family bike rides. On their fondly named “Funny Farm,” they tended to an orchard, garden, menagerie of farm animals, and planted what would 50 years later become a redwood forest.

Pat was a devoted father and attended Alisa and Tom’s many extracurricular sports, including Tom’s cross country races and Alisa’s gymnastic meets. Pat even learned the rules of soccer so he could coach a co-ed youth soccer team when the sport was just starting out in Humboldt County. Pat and Mary took the family on many beach adventures, camping trips in the redwoods, swimming at the local river bar and rock hunting in the desert.

After retiring from College of the Redwoods in 1994, Pat and Mary split their time between Humboldt County, CA and Tucson, where they took on the new role of grandparents to Marissa and Clara. Pat spent many hours reading them books, including the entire Wizard of Oz series, playing board games, riding bicycles, playing music, and going on many family adventures. Pat and Mary ran “Funny Farm Summer Camp” for the girls and shared their love of the outdoors and the Humboldt County Fair.

When not busy with his family, Pat was devoted to a myriad of old and new activities and clubs: bicycling, hiking, volleyball, golfing, swimming, rock hunting, jewelry making, playing cards, painting, and lots and lots of music. Pat played with many musical groups such as the Cat Mountain Jamboree in Tucson and the Deb Woods Band and the Ukelelians in Fortuna.

Pat and Mary were fully engaged with the Fortuna Senior Center and never shied away from taking on a leadership role. In Tucson he was the President of the Gem and Mineral Society and led hikes out into the desert. In Fortuna he led the Senior Bike Group and organized various music groups. He loved staying up to date with the latest technology and taught himself how to set up email groups, zoom links, and coordinate between the members of his clubs.

Throughout his life, Pat sought out adventure and learning new things. His infectious laughter and warm smile brought joy to countless gatherings and he will be dearly missed by all.

He is survived by his wife Mary of almost 62 years, daughter Alisa (Neil) MacAvoy of Redwood City, Calif., son Tom (Cindy) Greene of Culver City, Calif. and two granddaughters — Marissa and Clara Greene MacAvoy of San Francisco. He is also survived by his sister Sharon Hope (children Duster, Rick, Kathy) of San Diego, and many sister and brother in laws and nieces and nephews. Pat loved animals and always had a dog (current Buddy) and cat (current Stretch).

In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests that donations be made to your local school’s music program or that you plant a tree in his memory.

With love and gratitude, Mary Greene and Greene/MacAvoy families.

###

The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Pat Greene’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.

PREVIOUSLY:

• In Open Letter to the City, Eureka Police Department Rank-and-File Ask For Public’s Understanding and Help in Face of Severe Understaffing

###

Press release from the Eureka Police Officers Association, the bargaining union representing Eureka cops:

Eureka Police Department along with the Eureka Police Department Administrative staff, City Manager, City Council and other City Hall Administrative staff have been working in partnership to address staffing needs. Ultimately, the needs of the Citizens of Eureka are, and always have been, at the forefront of every EPD employee.

To that end, the EPOA and the City of Eureka underwent contract negotiations during the months of January and February. During these negotiations, it was apparent that the City Council, City Manager and other City Hall Administrative staff support and value EPD personnel and the critical public safety services that we provide to the community. At the conclusion of the negotiation process, an agreement was made on a favorable contract that should not only help with recruiting qualified officers, but also in supporting current officers and professional staff. This year’s negotiation process made it clear that there is a positive working relationship between the EPOA and City of Eureka Administration, and we look forward to this continued partnership.

With that being said, the Eureka Police Department is continuing to work relentlessly each and every day. The mission of the Eureka Police Department continues to be providing the City of Eureka with the best service possible, which every citizen deserves.

The EPOA continues to call upon our community to actively support our efforts to increase the number of Police Officers to a fully operational level at the Eureka Police Department. The EPOA would like to thank everyone who supports the Eureka Police Department, and would also like to urge anyone who is considering a career in public safety, to please join our ranks!