While the Dodgers have already begun celebrating their 50th anniversary of playing baseball in Los Angeles, and later this year, have plans for the 20th anniversary of their last World Series championship, here are at “The Peanut Gallery,” we have some anniversaries to acknowledge as well.

In a previous entry, It’s A Numbers Game, I pointed out some of Roger’s accomplishments in the last 50 years with the Dodgers, both at the Coliseum and at Dodger Stadium.

But even though Dodger fans might know these things, there is a good chance many aren’t aware of some anniversaries in his personal life, unless they’ve read “The Perfect Pitch” by now.

It was 60 years ago that Roger’s uncle, Jack Owens, wrote and recorded, for independent label Tower Records, the most famous pop hit of his colorful singing and songwriting career, The Hukilau Song.
Popular with Hawaiians, kids, hula dancers, and just about everybody, The Hukilau Song will pull you in with its catchy arrangement and memorable lyrics.

Jack Owens was also a big part of the success, as a regularly featured vocalist, of The Breakfast Club With Don McNeill, the longest running network radio show of all time. It aired from 1933 to 1968. While Jack Owens left the show around 1950 to start his own television program, The Jack Owens Show, there was an unforgettable connection between him and the Golden Age of radio and the show itself, even by the time Paul Harvey recalled in Aug., 1968 on KABC radio the memories and importance of The Breakfast Club With Don McNeill.

In addition to the 40th anniversary of the end of The Breakfast Club, there is the 40th anniversary of the “miracle in Compton” also covered by Paul Harvey on air in Nov., 1968. Roger’s father was an ordained Baptist minister and was caught in a holdup in Compton, CA and was shot at point blank range in 1968. He survived with nothing more than a large bruise since a large wad of Gospel tracts had been stuffed previously in his front coat pocket. For more detail, read the “The Perfect Pitch.”

And next year, it will be the 40th anniversary of Roger’s near-fatal military jeep accident while serving in the California Army National Guard. While he lost his sense of smell ever since then, he amazed the attending surgeons and physicians and went on to be the most acclaimed vendor ever, now celebrating his 50th anniversary with the Dodgers.

And he just turned 65 on Valentine’s Day.

What does he think of that??

Find out here.