The Rams have been loading up the vans to maneuver to St. Louis in June 1995, and The Instances wanted a reporter to hustle out to Anaheim Stadium to seize the staff’s closing moments in Orange County.
Chris Foster, who was masking highschool sports activities for the Orange County version of the paper, didn’t merely increase his hand. “He jumped,” former Instances O.C. sports activities editor Keith Thursby mentioned.
A typical scene-setting story, this wasn’t. With some digging, Foster found that stadium officers had twice turned away movers making an attempt to pilfer 63 cubicles — which value $400 apiece — from the Rams’ locker room earlier than altering the locks on the doorways.
“It was traditional Chris,” Thursby recalled. “No matter you requested him to do, he did to the nth diploma. I used to be getting hourly updates of what was occurring. He may have filed 10 tales that day.”
Former Instances sports activities reporter Chris Foster, proper, stands beside his spouse, Homosexual, and son, Mark, in Paris in 2021.
(Courtesy of the Foster household)
Foster, who parlayed his work ethic, reporting and writing chops right into a prolific 28-year profession that produced some 7,500 articles for The Instances, died Wednesday at his Cerritos residence after a 16-month battle with pancreatic most cancers. He turned 65 on Tuesday.
“He was the final word beat individual, the final word backup, the final word teammate, the final word good friend,” Instances sports activities columnist Invoice Plaschke mentioned. “If he thought a author had been wronged, he would loudly stick up for them. If he thought ethics had been breached, he would work to restore that breach.
“If he thought a supply was avoiding answering an applicable query, he would stand chin to chin with that supply till accountability appeared and transparency occurred.”
A 1977 graduate of San Clemente Excessive Faculty, Foster attended Cal State Fullerton from 1981 to 1984. He spent eight years (1979-87) masking sports activities for the Fullerton Information Tribune and Anaheim Bulletin earlier than becoming a member of The Instances as a highschool sports activities reporter in 1987.
He began his Instances profession holding highly effective coaches resembling Mater Dei’s Bruce Rollinson and Gary McKnight to account and completed it in 2015 because the UCLA beat author, bedeviling soccer coach Jim Mora and basketball coaches Ben Howland and Steve Alford.
In between, Foster lined nearly every thing else, spending time as a UC Irvine beat author, a backup Angels author and a hockey beat author — he lined the Stanley Cup runs of the Geese in 2007 and Kings in 2012.
“Chris was an amazing teammate and an unmatched position mannequin in regard to bulldog beat reporting,” Rams beat author Gary Klein mentioned. “He was molded from masking preps, junior faculties, faculties and the professionals, and he approached all of these assignments like they have been crucial to The Instances.”
Living proof: On the top of the newspaper conflict between The Instances O.C. version and the Orange County Register, Foster lined UCI as intensely as anybody lined any beat.
“The 2 phrases I bear in mind most about Chris: ‘Deep Zot.’ That was his nickname for his favourite supply within the UCI athletic division,” Instances columnist Invoice Shaikin mentioned. “I do not know who Deep Zot was. However the truth that Chris had a Deep Zot needs to be an inspiration to us all.”
Whereas identified largely for his tenacious reporting, Foster was a gifted storyteller who wrote with authority and readability and had a knack for capturing the human situation.
Amongst his most notable items have been a 2013 appreciation of Nick Pasquale, the 20-year-old UCLA soccer participant who was killed after being struck by a car in San Clemente; a 2008 profile of Jack Yoshihara, a Japanese American and sophomore reserve on Oregon State’s 1941 soccer staff who was despatched to an internment camp in Idaho; and a 1992 profile of former Angels pitcher/playboy Bo Belinsky, who discovered a brand new lifetime of sobriety and serenity in Las Vegas.
“He was always developing with nice concepts — I imply, who would pitch a visit to Detroit to speak to Alex Johnson?” Thursby mentioned, referring to the notoriously gruff former Angels batting champion. “He had that nice mixture of labor ethic and storytelling, and each probability he obtained, he obtained higher.”
Foster retired in 2015 alongside the late faculty sports activities columnist Chris Dufresne. As devoted as he was to his work, Foster was extra dedicated to his household and associates.
He helped so many associates and colleagues transfer from one residence or home to the subsequent, all the time prepared to do the heavy lifting, that he was nicknamed “the human hand truck.” Want a journey residence from LAX at some odd hour? Foster was there.
He stored in touch together with his favourite highschool trainer. Amongst his common hospital guests in November was Mark Howmann, a lifelong good friend since elementary faculty. Foster organized campfires in entrance of his home to construct nearer bonds between his neighbors.
“We went on common walks, however they weren’t actually walks,” mentioned Homosexual Arakawa, his spouse of 34 years, “as a result of Chris would cease to speak to everyone.”
After I moved from the Angels beat to the Dodgers in 2002, former Instances sports activities editor Invoice Dwyre pegged Foster to cowl the Angels. Foster thought the extreme journey of the baseball beat would put an excessive amount of of a pressure on his spouse and son, Mark, who was 7 on the time.
It was in all probability the one time Foster turned down an task. He missed the possibility to cowl the Angels’ dramatic run to their solely World Sequence title in 2002, however Foster didn’t care. He was all the time a “we” man, not a “me” man, which partially explains why, after his most cancers prognosis in August 2022, he informed solely relations and some shut associates about his sickness.
“I believe he simply didn’t need individuals to really feel sorry for him or deal with him in another way as a result of he was sick,” Homosexual mentioned. “Sooner or later, he knew he needed to inform some extra individuals.”
When phrase started to flow into that Foster got here residence for hospice care on Dec. 1, “the road of parents dashing to see him was out the door,” Plaschke mentioned. Plaschke was amongst these guests final weekend.
“Invoice began crying,” Homosexual mentioned, “and Chris was making an attempt to cheer Invoice up.”
Typical Foster. Selfless. Compassionate. A loyal good friend to the top.
Foster is survived by his spouse, Homosexual, son Mark, sisters Sweet Foster and Camilla Blea, nieces Carissa and Nicole Blea and nephew Josh Blea. Companies are pending. Donations in his identify could be made to the Chris Dufresne Sports activities Journalism Scholarship Fund at Cal State Fullerton and Particular Olympics of Southern California.
