Angels celebrate Skaggs’ life at memorial service
SANTA MONICA – The tears flowed first, and then the words. Speaking would not come easily for Andrew Heaney on this day. There are mercifully few baseball players practiced in the art of eulogizing a teammate.
But there are few Tyler Skaggs stories that can be told without a smile or a laugh, or both. So Heaney talked about the one day this spring when Skaggs revved up his monster F-250 truck, and he jumped in for a ride.
Skaggs, who died July 1, was the resident disc jockey in the Los Angeles Angels’ clubhouse, always trying to discover the newest, latest and loudest in music. As the two pitchers rolled along, a soft piano intro somehow made its way through the speakers.
The song was “Tiny Dancer” by Elton John, recorded two decades before Skaggs’
birth.
“He had this look on his face,” Heaney said, “this little grin.”
Skaggs cranked up the volume, and the two sang loud, and off key.
“Just living in such a moment of joyous freedom,” Heaney said. “He was never afraid to truly be himself.”
Heaney was one of 14 speakers to remember Skaggs on Monday at St. Monica’s Catholic Church in Santa Monica at a memorial service led by the priest who gave Skaggs his first communion. The 900 seats in the church were full.
The entire Angels team arrived on three buses. Other mourners included Angels owner Arte Moreno, former Angels manager Mike Scioscia, former teammates David Freese, Jered Weaver and C.J. Wilson, and current major leaguers and fellow Southern California natives Ryan Braun (Milwaukee Brewers) and Jack Flaherty (St. Louis Cardinals). The speakers included longtime Angels executive Tim Mead, the new president of the Hall of Fame, who flew across the country after overseeing Sunday’s induction ceremony in Cooperstown, N.Y.
The last of the speakers, unplanned, was Skaggs’ wife, Carli. The couple had married just last December and had planned on trying to start a family this winter.
“Last minute decision to speak,” she said. “I didn’t think I’d be able to do it. Tyler gave me some strength.”
She spoke tenderly of sharing true love. She also shared the traditions the couple had embraced, including “dinner at Benihana’s, daily Jacuzzi, and late-night runs to In-n-out.”
After the two-hour service concluded, an In-n-out catering truck was on site, serving double-doubles at the reception.
Skaggs, an Angels starting pitcher, was 27 when he was found dead July 1 in a hotel room the day after the Angels traveled to Texas to begin consecutive series against the Rangers and Houston Astros. Authorities ruled out suicide and foul play and have said they expect to complete laboratory testing and announce a cause of death in October.
Skaggs wore No. 45 as an Angel. Two floral arrangements graced the church, each with 45 in red flowers amid a backdrop of white flowers. As mourners entered the church, they could reach into a basket for a memorial pin, with “SKAGGS” and “45” in red letters on a white
background.
The Major League Baseball Players Association announced a $45,000 donation to the Tyler Skaggs Baseball Foundation, established to support youth sports and other community programs that “make a real difference in the lives of kids and families every day.”
However, of the first four photos mourners could see as they entered the church, none pictured him as a baseball player. One featured him as a newlywed, with his wife, in matching white clothes. One showed him wearing a Los Angeles Lakers jersey, one pictured him wearing a Mike Tyson T-shirt, and one captured him as a young boy, smiling with his eyes closed, sitting upon and embracing a giant stuffed lion.
That lion belonged to his aunt, Dianna Heikkila. She and her husband made a last-minute trip to St. Louis – booking the tickets on a Saturday, for a game the next day – for the chance to see Skaggs pitch and hit in a National League ballpark.
“We figured the opportunity to see Tyler pitch at Busch Stadium would only happen once in a lifetime,” she said.
That turned out to be the final road game Skaggs would pitch. After the game, Heikkila recalled how she told Skaggs that giant stuffed lion would be waiting for him, and for the child he and Carli hoped soon to have.