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Before He Was Famous
updated: Mar 21, 2013, 7:43 PM

By Edhat Subscriber

I was reading about the famous Major League baseball player Eddie Mathews growing up in Santa Barbara. Did anyone know he or his family, or does anyone have any neat stories to share about him?

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

BEACHBIKER	2013-03-21 08:34 PM
SBHS baseball field is named after this famous alumnus.
COMMENT 388061	2013-03-21 08:57 PM
Hs cousin(?) Gene, also a former ballplayer, lives in San Roque, near the golf course.
COMMENT 388097	2013-03-22 06:23 AM
Eddie and my dad became best friends in high school at SBHS and stayed the best of friends throughout life. My dad had Eddies memorial at his house after Eddie's death. My dad has some fantastic stories of the two of them raising hell in this town, and Eddies ball playing days.My favorite story was when the two of them decided to inlist it was either going to be the coast gaurd for two years or the navy for four years the coast guard would mean a trip to San Francisco, the Navy a trip to San Diego. They joined the Navy because San Diego was closer! As soon as the MLB found out Eddie joined, they han him pulled out, and off my dad went by himself.
COMMENT 388114	2013-03-22 07:06 AM
Had the honor of buying Eddie a beer 15 or so years ago at Don's John. An honor to meet and talk to a MLB Hall Of Famer!
COMMENT 388120	2013-03-22 07:21 AM
I have heard that he lived near my mother's old family home on Gillespie.
COMMENT 388124	2013-03-22 07:22 AM
I once hit a baseball into the swimming pool. The feat was later matched when Peter Dalton was pitching and threw a goose egg to a batter from Newbury Park who hit it just as far.
COMMENT 388137P	2013-03-22 07:53 AM
He lived in two different houses on the 1400 block of Chino, then at 802 W. Micheltorena (or at least his parents did) according to the Ancestry.com. His Dad worked for Western Union as a telegraph operator. He is buried at the Santa Barbara cemetery with a very modest marker. I wonder what other famous people had their childhood homes right here in town.
FLICKA	2013-03-22 08:01 AM
137P, The famous Martha Graham (modern dance) lived on Fig Ave as a child, next door to my grandma (also a kid), early 1900s. Movie actress Barbara Rush and another actress (don't remember her name) who was in "Giant", but killed young (car accident?). Of course, we all know about Katy Perry growing up here too.
COMMENT 388156	2013-03-22 08:14 AM
John K. "Jack" Northrop, founder of Northrop Corp in 1939 (later became Northrop Grumman), grew up in SB (on Mission Street), ultimately buried in SB Cemetery.
COMMENT 388160	2013-03-22 08:16 AM
Interesting that Eddie Mathews lived on the 1400 block of Chino. When Ted Williams was a kid he used to visit his grandparents on the 1000 block of Chino.
COMMENT 388161	2013-03-22 08:17 AM
He could hit the ball a ton! Often reached the pines that were back of left and center field by the road into the gym.
COMMENT 388181	2013-03-22 08:41 AM
Who's Katy Perry?
COMMENT 388195	2013-03-22 08:52 AM
Interesting that Eddie Mathews didn't bother to even show up when they named the SBHS field after him. They should've named it for the living legend Coach Fred Warrecker, who has been the baseball coach at SBHS for at least the last 40 years. He's been an amazing positive influence on literally 3 generations of young people who've grown up in SB, including myself. I didn't even play baseball when I went to SBHS, but I find myself thinking of life lessons learned from Coach back when I was a teenager.
COMMENT 388212	2013-03-22 09:21 AM
Back in the day when I went to La Cumbre and SB High the upper west side around San Andres from 101 (it was a highway then not a freeway) and over to Mountain drive was one of the nicest areas to live in with clean neatly kept homes. Many of my friends and classmates lived in that neighborhood.
COMMENT 388249	2013-03-22 10:27 AM
It's Mountain Ave on the westside.
COMMENT 388416	2013-03-22 02:29 PM
Met Eddie Mathews at some event years ago at De La Guerra Plaza and he was friendly. After Ted Williams died, his Santa Barbara relatives arranged for Mass to be said at Our Lady of Sorrows Church for the repose of his soul. Notre Dame football star Jack Elder lived here; he played under Knute Rockne, and his most famous of many big plays was his 100-yard interception return at Yankee Stadium in 1929 that gave Notre Dame a 7-0 win over Army and clinched the national championship for the Fighting Irish. Mr. Elder's Mass of Christian Burial was at the Old Mission in 1992.

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