Maurice Red Guyer

They called Maurice (Red) Guyer the Laguna Legend, mainly because that's what he was. The name fit and so it stuck. Not that Guyer, who will be inducted Sunday into the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame, ever noticed such things. He was too busy being the Laguna Legend to stop and think about what it meant. To pause to reflect would have shown a lack of commitment, a sign of weakness Guyer simply couldn't afford. Forget how it would look to others.

"I never had a job; all I did was play." Hal Sherbeck said it with the straightest of faces Sunday, but the standing-room-only crowd witnessing the 13th Orange County Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony Sunday outside the Hall's new museum at Anaheim Stadium knew exactly what the retired Fullerton College football coach was all about. Sherbeck had made it a habit of beginning his "play days" at Fullerton at 5:30 a.m.

"I never had a job; all I did was play." Hal Sherbeck said it with the straightest of faces Sunday, but the standing-room-only crowd witnessing the 13th Orange County Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony Sunday outside the Hall's new museum at Anaheim Stadium knew exactly what the retired Fullerton College football coach was all about. Sherbeck had made it a habit of beginning his "play days" at Fullerton at 5:30 a.m.

They called Maurice (Red) Guyer the Laguna Legend, mainly because that's what he was. The name fit and so it stuck. Not that Guyer, who will be inducted Sunday into the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame, ever noticed such things. He was too busy being the Laguna Legend to stop and think about what it meant. To pause to reflect would have shown a lack of commitment, a sign of weakness Guyer simply couldn't afford. Forget how it would look to others.

Membership in the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame will grow to 67 today when six men are inducted in a ceremony beginning at 11 a.m. outside of the new Hall of Fame museum adjacent to Gate 6 at Anaheim Stadium. Major League Baseball's Bert Blyleven and Gary Carter, community college football coaching legend Hal Sherbeck, former football stars Ray Willsey and Jerry Shipkey and former standout track athlete and coach Maurice (Red) Guyer compose the Hall's 13th class.

Former Angel pitcher Bert Blyleven and former Dodger catcher Gary Carter are among six people to be inducted into the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame, the Orange County Sports Assn. announced Tuesday. Joining Blyleven and Carter as inductees are Hal Sherbeck, Ray Willsey, Jerry Shipkey and Maurice (Red) Guyer. Blyleven, a graduate of Santiago High, posted 287 victories during a 22-year major league career with the Twins, Pirates, Rangers, Indians and Angels.

Maurice T. (Red) Guyer, a former coach at Laguna Beach High School, has died of cancer at his Laguna Niguel home. He was 80. Guyer coached track at Laguna Beach High in 1934-69. His teams won 15 league championships, compiling a record of 100-47-8. Early in his career, he also coached football, basketball and baseball at the school. His football teams won eight Orange League titles and a Southern Section Lower Division title in 1946.

If a classic is defined by simplicity, staying-power and admiring imitators, then Maurice "Red" Guyer surely qualifies. Though Guyer, 76, hasn't coached a sport in 19 years, his reputation shines more brightly around Laguna Beach with each passing season. Many residents view Guyer as one of the few surviving symbols of the years when Laguna Beach High School was the home of an athletic program to be reckoned with.

Hal Sherbeck had a simple plan when it came to coaching. The approach was formulated as he grew up in Big Sandy, Mont., and refined while he was a three-sport standout at Montana in 1951 and 1952. He first put his approach to work when he coached football, basketball and baseball at Missoula County High School and then as an assistant at Montana. He maintained the method from the first day he was at Fullerton College in July 1961 through his final season in 1991.

Gary Carter could have hung on for another season, extended his National League games-caught record, added a few more hits, homers and runs batted in to make his portfolio a little more attractive to Hall of Fame voters. And as August was about to turn to September in 1992, Carter, who had returned to the Montreal Expos for his 18th major league season, had thoughts of a 19th tour of duty. Then his wife, Sandy, was broadsided by a driver who ran a stop sign near their home in Palm Beach, Fla.

Cal Coach Pappy Waldorf used to call him "my defensive brain on the field," one of those slightly back-handed compliments coaches reserve for over-achievers who usually aren't the fastest or strongest. But on this day, defensive back Ray Willsey turned into an offensive whiz kid. It was the 1952 Big Game, Cal vs. Stanford, and for senior Willsey, it became the biggest game. With Billy Mais sidelined because of a dislocated thumb, Waldorf named Willsey the starting quarterback.

So what do we make of Bert Blyleven now that his baseball career is over, now that he's focused on home improvements and vacation plans? It isn't an easy assignment, all those contradictory bits of evidence make judgment tricky in Blyleven's case. Looking back, it's difficult to typecast him. There is no easy summary to the man, or his 23-year career in the majors. Just when you thought you had him pegged, he threw you another one of those biting curves.