From time to time, we want to let you know about cool Long Beach sports stories we find around the nation, and today we’re going to start with this article from the New York Times.

The article is about James McDonald, Dodgers reliever, and Chase Utley, Phillies superstar and bane of all Dodgers fans’ existence.  While you know they have one thing in common (the NLCS), you may not know that both players are alumni of Long Beach Poly.  The article talks at length about their experiences at the school (though it fails to mention that Utley once smashed a home run over the scoreboard at Blair, if you can believe it), and how it’s shaped their careers.  With Longoria’s Rays up 3-1, and these two guys in the NLCS, it looks very likely we’re going to have two teams with Long Beach players in the World Series.  I’d say that’s amazing, but given that we had 16 athletes in the Olympics, and a Millikan football product on the Super Bowl champion Giants, I guess it’s to be expected.

Have a link you’d like to see posted in this series?  Email Mike at Mike@LBPOSTSports.com.