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Guy Lemmon, founder of the Ryan Lemon Foundation (center) with board members Dick Owens (left) and Rex Lyon at Ryan Lemmon Stadium in Irvine, where a statue of the former baseball player is located. (Photo: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
56th annual game moves to Great Park Stadium in May.
Orange County’s annual all-star baseball game, which has been sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Greater Anaheim since 1968, will now be run by the Ryan Lemmon Foundation at the Great Park beginning this season, Guy Lemmon, founder of the organization, said Wednesday.
The 56th annual game will be held Wednesday, May 29 at the Great Park Stadium in Irvine. Tentative starting time is 6:30 p.m. Jake Haney (Crean Lutheran) will coach the South and Josh Kliner (El Modena) the North. Assistant coaches will be named later, Lemon said.
Most of the previous games have been held at Glover Stadium at La Palma Park. There was no game in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Officials from the Kiwanis Club said they were unable to continue sponsoring the game, Lemmon said, adding that the club’s board approved of Ryan Lemmon Foundation taking over running the game. Steve Fryer of OC Varsity published the initial story that the Kiwanis Club was looking for another organization to take over the game.
The game will once again match the top all-stars from the South vs. the top all-stars from the North. More than 150 all-stars have gone on to play in the Major Leagues, according to the Kiwanis Club tournament program. Among them are Freddie Freeman, Patrick Sandoval, Tim Wallach, Mike Witt and Jared Wright.
“We’ve relocated the venue, it’s our hope to continue with the legacy of the 55 years that the Kiwanians created,” Lemmon said. “It’s the biggest event of the year for high school baseball in Orange County, we want to continue the legacy for as long as we all can.
“We think the Great Park is a great venue, we have some plans to do things differently and involve the kids throughout the day with in a more college experience. We’re contemplating a home run derby.
“It’s a really good facility, good parking, close to the freeway, great sound system, full size video board, locker-rooms for the kids, coaches and trainers.”
Kiwanis Club officials approached Scott Pickler, current assistant coach at Cypress College and former head coach.
“His father (Irv Pickler) started the Kiwanis Game and Scott’s family has been involved in the game for decades, so when the Kiwanis (Club) realized they were unable to continue doing it, their first call went to Scott Pickler, and Scott Pickler’s first call went to the Ryan Lemmon Foundation.”
“Scott thought if anybody was going to be able to continue it, the Ryan Lemmon Foundation was the group to be able to do it.”
Ryan Lemmon Foundation members Dick Owens, who has been the tournament director for the group’s baseball events (executive director of the foundation) and Rex Lyon, will play primary roles in the group staging the all-star game, Lemmon said.
For years, the Ryan Lemmon Foundation has run both the Ryan Lemmon Showcase for graduating seniors and the Ryan Lemmon Spring Invitational Tournament, which ran last year along with some off-season programs. Those events will continue, he said.
Guy Lemmon said the Great Park Stadium has been secured for the OC all-star game.
“We have to rent the stadium, the only revenue source right now is ticket sales, we hope to get sponsors, we’re working on that, otherwise the Ryan Lemmon Foundation is going to underwrite it, but we hope to get sponsors because we’re a modest non-profit that spends all our money on the different programs we do,” he said.
“The Ryan Lemmon Foundation, in its existence, has had approaching 25,000 young men go through our program, all high school baseball players, and our desire is to continue to do that. We have a fall program, a winter program, a spring tournament and a showcase that involves 200 men at the end of the year.
“All the money we gather is to make those other events happen.”
One of the players was Ryan Lemmon, Guy Lemmon’s son, who died in a traffic accident Sept. 18, 1994. He played in the OC all-star game in 1993. Ryan Lemmon was a former Woodbridge baseball star, who was all-CIF and all-county and was expected to continue his success at Rancho Santiago College.
“Some of the board members sons have played in it in the past, we knew it was a neat experience for them to culminate their high school careers,” Lemmon said. “My son, a quote that I liked, I remember him telling me 35 years ago, they had a practice and he didn’t know anything about the event, he got called, he went to the practice and he said, ‘wow, dad these guys are good.’
“As a dad watching, it was a neat experience. The way they ran it I thought was neat. When my son died in ’94 I wanted to give back to high school baseball and wanted to have an event that honored kids at the end of the year and that’s how we came up with the showcase that honors 220 kids.”
Rex Lyon’s son Jackson, also played in the event in 2018 played for Cal State Fullerton and was signed by the New York Yankees organization.
Haney, who led Crean Lutheran to the CIF finals last year, said he’s excited about coaching.
“It’s really an honor to be named to coach in the OC All-Star Game because there are a lot of great coaches out there,” Haney said Wednesday. “Also, the history of great players and coaches that have participated in the game in the past is prestigious. More than anything, I just feel blessed to have been doing this long enough to have a chance to earn this opportunity.”
Joe Dale has been the director of the game. OC Sports Zone has reached out to him for comment but did not hear back as of publication time.
Ticket information for the OC all-star game will be announced later, Lemmon said.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
