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Baseball: Legendary coach John Stevenson dies

Los Angeles Times staff writer Ben Bolch
By Ben Bolch
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John Stevenson, the winningest coach in California high school baseball history who recently completed his 50th season at El Segundo, has died from an apparent heart attack, according to a report on CalHiSports. He was 76.

Stevenson coached George Brett and a handful of other major leaguers. His wife, Gail, died in September at age 68 after a 4 1/2-year battle with ovarian cancer.

Stevenson led the Eagles to the playoffs for the 42nd time last spring.

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We will have more on this story later.

UPDATE: Stevenson died after suffering the heart attack while driving Monday night in the Marina del Rey area, longtime assistant coach Craig Cousins said. Cousins will take over the coaching duties on an interim basis. A memorial will be held for Stevenson on Jan. 23 in the El Segundo High auditorium. We will print a full obituary in the A section of Wednesday’s Times.

--Ben Bolch

Varsity Times Insider
Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.

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