Life is normal for Kellen Whelan. At least today, it is. Just another Saturday morning on the baseball field, his cleats digging into the dirt at shortstop, the weight of his body resting on the balls of his feet. His dad, Brian, sits on an upside-down ball-bucket in his Red Sox overalls, his coaching attire.
Kellen crouches in a three-point stance as his teammate Tyler Ruckinelli winds up to throw the game’s opening pitch.
“I got it. I got it. I got it.”
Kellen springs into action as an infield fly heads his way. With his heels on the outfield’s grass, he corrals the pop-up. A smile almost creeps onto his face, but it’s gone in an instant, because he’s been here before. He’s a ball-player and this is just another Saturday morning.
Except, it’s not.
This isn’t his home field, the kids behind him playing left and center field aren’t supposed to be on his team and are filling in as substitutes. The back of his jersey is deprived of the name of one of the local stores that always sponsor teams.
On Jan. 7, flames engulfed the Pacific Palisades and Malibu and swept away Kellen’s community, his friends’ community, his dad’s community, in an instant. His dad relocated to Beverly Hills. His mom’s now in Manhattan Beach. His friend, Will, playing left field, is in Studio City, another friend, Blake, player center field, is in Encino.
But in this moment — on this Saturday — they’re all at Rancho Park in Cheviot Hills for Palisades Pony Baseball Association’s opening day.
They ate at the Pancake Breakfast. Kellen’s older sister, Reagen, sang the national anthem. Everyone cheered on L.A. City Councilwoman Traci Park as she threw the honorary first pitch. Kids whose games start later played catch in foul territory.
Smiles are omnipresent, like the brief one on Kellen’s face after making that catch. They’re a result of the tireless effort Brian Whelan and fellow board members put forth toward restoring PPBA Little League in the days and weeks following the fire.
“My motivation,” Brian Whelan told the Southern California News Group on Saturday, “was to give the kids something to look forward to, and a way to see their friends.”
Bob Benton, who has served as the commissioner of PPBA and the head of its board for over 20 years, owned a sporting goods store on Swarthmore in the Palisades Village up until Rick Caruso bought it out when he was building his shopping mall. Benton’s first concern, during the fire, was his two homes in the Alphabet Streets neighborhood. His second thought was his beloved PPBA, and restoring a sense of normalcy for the kids.
“The kids have lost their school, their friends, their house, their belongings, and they’ve lost their sense of community,” Benton said. “PPBA brings back kids to meet some of the other kids that they missed, and talk about their schools and try to bond.”
The toughest thing, Benton said, was figuring out the logistics and numbers as numerous families had moved out of the city, the state, and even the country.
PPBA had 450 kids registered prior to the fire and was left with 300 kids across five leagues, including Shetland (6- and 7-year-olds), Pinto (8 and 9), Mustang (10 and 11), Bronco (12 and 13), and Pony (14). The Pinto, Mustang and Bronco leagues are all playing at Rancho Park in Cheviot Hills while the Shetland and Pony are at Los Amigos Park in Santa Monica.
Pinto was the only league that held tryouts and all drafts were conducted remotely.
“It wasn’t a normal process,” Benton said. “But nothing about this is normal.”
Across the county, while the Eaton fire may have destroyed the baseball diamond at Farnsworth Park in Altadena, the spirit of teamwork was tangible as opening day ceremonies were held Saturday morning at Robinson Park Recreation Center in Pasadena.
Central Altadena Little League had held its first round of tryouts the weekend of Jan. 4, and were set to hold the second round starting on Jan. 11. But the Eaton fire, which like the Palisades blaze, began on Jan. 7, devastated their town and burned through Farnsworth park, the home of their league.
The organizers, comprised of unpaid volunteers, banded together to continue the league. West Pasadena Little League welcomed Central Altadena Little League into its fold for the season. The second round of tryouts was rescheduled for Feb. 8. Two-hundred total kids signed up, which was an increase in numbers from 2024.
“West Pasadena Little League invited us to join them here,” Lacey Holmquist, a board member, told the Southern California News Group. “We’re just all sharing this field and we’re so grateful to be able to do that.”
“We started practice this last week,” she said, “and it’s been really fun to see the kids running and playing, and the parents gathering and chatting, and just being able to bring the community together.”
For John Tyberg, a coach and Altadena board member who himself grew up in Altadena, the fire stole not only his house, but the comfortingly familiar place that he and his kids knew so well.
“That’s where I grew up playing. That’s where we spent time as a family … It’s like an old friend that I miss,” he said of Farnsworth Park.
Yet, he noted that rather than just join up with the nearby Little League team in Arcadia, driving farther to be with the West Pasadena group reunites more friends and families together from the common community.
Preceded by a pancake breakfast, the opening ceremony, which included visits from Dodger greats Manny Mota and Dennis Powell, as well as the Dodger mascot, was a spirited affair.
Support has come in so many faces, and from so many angles, since Jan. 7.
Harvard-Westlake School reached out to Central Altadena’s Little League to plan a fundraiser. After a double-header, high-schoolers passed out backpacks, Dodgers shirts, gloves, balls, water bottles to kids. Yankees pitcher Max Fried, who attended Harvard-Westlake, came back for the event. The Dodgers’ World Series trophy was there for kids to snap photos with.
PPBA, too, held an event prior to the season in which Justin Turner, Ryan Braun, David Wright, Nomar Garciaparra and other current and former MLB players came to sign autographs. Easton and Rawlings drove trucks full of equipment from St. Louis to give to children.
“Everything was new, gloves, and bats, things that the kids wanted,” Blake Tucker, a PPBA parent and the coach of the Bronco Cardinals, said.
Tucker’s home was on Las Casas Place. On Saturday, he watched baseball with his friend and fellow PPBA coach, David Hoffman, whose home, on Las Lomas Avenue, was one of the first burned down by the Palisades fire.
“The Palisades was the most incredible community,” Hoffman said, “and it will be again.”
In fact, it still is. It exists in bits and pieces.
“If you want to see the Palisades community,” Brian Whelan said, “we’ll be here, at Rancho Park, playing baseball every Saturday.”
Regardless of where families have relocated, on Saturday mornings in Cheviot Hills a sense of normalcy exists. Dirk Robinson, who’s called balls and strikes for 22 years, is still umping pinto games. Carter Bergman is still the starting pitcher for the mustang Tigers. His little brother, Spencer, is still behind him at shortstop. Jagger Step is at first base. Charlie Morici is behind the plate at catcher.
Parents are still heavily involved, for better or worse, arguing calls, rushing their children from field to field with no complaints.
Schools have relocated, houses are gone, physical communities cease to exist. But that hasn’t stopped Brian Whelan from imploring his son Kellen to run through first base to beat out a ground ball.
“Baseball,” he said “is the only thing anchoring us.”
Heisen and Liotta are correspondents who report and write for the Southern California News Group.