"When people go on vacations they go to the beach, so it's a great deal to live in a vacation place," said Dodger pitcher Derek Lowe.
Former Kings defenseman Rob Blake, who just signed with the San Jose Sharks, said that in the off-season, five or six hockey players will get together to surf in the morning before heading to Venice to work out. Blake, whom a Kings spokesman referred to as "Mr. Manhattan Beach," often plays in weekend volleyball tournaments, the equivalent of pickup basketball.
In August, he and a group of players enter the annual six-man tournament near the pier. His team may be filled with pro athletes, but he acknowledges that their expertise is skating, not spiking.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday, July 22, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 42 words Type of Material: Correction
Athletes in Manhattan Beach: An article in Sunday's Section A about the unusually large number of professional athletes living in Manhattan Beach gave the wrong first name for a member of the New York Rangers. He is Chris Drury, not Rob Drury.
"It's a way to get a workout in on the weekend without going to the gym," he said.
A sprinkling of athletes has lived in Manhattan Beach for many years. Retired Dodger first baseman Eric Karros said he started hanging out in the city while attending UCLA in the mid-1980s. When he was called up to the Dodgers in 1991, he moved in with a friend already living there and never left, eventually bringing fellow Dodger Mike Piazza with him.
Manhattan Beach in those days was more of a bar town, and Piazza, a drummer, would sometimes sit in with different bands. "It was a great place to be a single guy, 22 or 23, playing for the Dodgers," Karros said.
As the years passed, Manhattan Beach was transformed from something of a funky beach town where much of the population depended on the defense and aerospace industries into a city with multimillion-dollar homes.
When the Toyota Sports Center in neighboring El Segundo opened in 2000, providing practice facilities for the Lakers and Kings -- along with a short trek to Los Angeles International Airport for road trips -- it just added to Manhattan Beach's convenience.
"It's nice to drive 10 minutes and go to practice and not have to get stressed out," Kings goalie Jason LaBarbera said. "There's nothing worse as a player than showing up late for practice."
Jeff Moeller, the Kings' senior director of communications, estimated that 75% of the 23-member team lives in Manhattan Beach. "You can get to Hollywood, to Beverly Hills for shopping but get back and still have a casual lifestyle at the beach," Blake said.
LaBarbera was hooked shortly after he joined the team. Reaching the top of a hill on Manhattan Beach Boulevard, he spotted the ocean. "Oh, my god," he thought. "This is perfect."
