By John Murphy
It is now September 10. It’s been two weeks since I learned of Adrian Cruz’s passing. How sad. A gut-punch to us all.
Though it’s been a while since I saw Adrian, I remember him well.
I recall him most from the then-new San Bernardino Sun office near University Avenue. It was a fancy building. The sports department had a large picture window overlooking, ironically, the train tracks and not-so-fancy Muscoy. It was there that the gang gathered – the writers like Michelle Gardner, T.J. Berka, Clay Fowler, JP Hoornstra and me; the sports editor Louis Brewster; the deskies Jacob Pomrenke and Brian Goff; and the agateers such as Marc Garcia, Dennis Pope and Adrian. A rouges’ gallery, to be sure.
Paul Oberjuerge by that time was fired. A victim of politics. It was too bad because for a long time, he was the Sun sports department. But I digress.
More than a decade since, I gaze at Adrian’s photo and I see a young man who was wise beyond his years. An old soul. Someone even an old guy like me could vent to and he’d listen. He had empathy. Not judgmental. But you knew that behind that poker face, he was sizing things up and forming his own conclusions. He was just too polite to call anybody on their own shit.
In writing my tribute to Adrian in the newspaper, there was a culture gap. I don’t know Seventh-Day Adventists from Martians. Now if Adrian were Catholic, I could tell all kinds of tales cuz everyone knows Catholics got vices. But SDA’s, hmmm, not so sure.
Anyway, seems the lad fancied a wager now and then. And he was good at it. Poker. Ball games. Maybe even a horse race or two. Said Garcia:
“We went to Vegas a few times in the fall at 1 a.m. on a Friday, just to blow off steam. Sometimes we went to San Manuel. Once I gave him my last $50 to hold and he took it and won $300, plus his own winnings. He was good at poker. And he taught me how it’s a different beast in the casino, than playing with your friends.”
Too much. I didn’t know SDA’s had that much going on. They could be honorary Catholics. Honorary Irish-Catholics even … according to, well, the Pope himself.
Said Dennis Pope, “Adrian still owes me a drink. In 2008 I was working on the news desk but everyone in sports was going to the Falconer in Redlands after work. I was going to get there late and Adrian said he’d buy me a drink. Well, I did get there late but I purchased my own drink before Adrian could get me one. It happened a few more times in other places, too, and before long it became a running gag between us. So he still owes me a drink.”
It’s coming, Dennis.
+++
Adrian was known for his basketball ability. He starred at Arrowhead Christian Academy and hoisted up shots in UC-Riverside intramurals. But mostly he was famous for his selfless ways on the court. And that bled over into his coaching.
His love of hoops and kids, and knack for keeping things in perspective is eloquently stated here — a Facebook post Adrian made after a bitter coaching loss:
“Today was one of the most heartbreaking days I have had in recent memory … but not due to a death or an illness. Final buzzer, JUST short. Today, I witnessed 16 little pairs of eyes swell with the sadness of falling just short of their year-long goal of winning a basketball championship. As their coach, I stood there with my own eyes tearing up, but not with regret or anger…. but rather with a sense of pride.
“I remembered the summer practices, Sunday drills, kids throwing up from running, countless bruises, numerous pushups. … I stood there, looking at silent, red-eyed emotion, and gathered them together one last time. With crooked smiles (and some sniffles), we huddled one last time… Go Bulldogs!”
Main Street Dog 