SPORTS HISTORY • SAN FERNANDO VALLEY
A trading card may be only a few inches tall, but it can hold an unexpectedly large piece of local history. Look beyond the uniform and statistics and some cards lead back to San Fernando Valley high schools, neighborhood leagues, family homes and fields where a professional career first began to take shape.
That idea inspired the SFV Sports Legends & Trading Cards Directory, a growing SFValleyBlog project documenting athletes with meaningful Valley connections. The current directory brings together 55 names from baseball, football and basketball, with research links to representative cards.
Explore the complete SFV Sports Legends directory →
Before the pros, there was the Valley
The names cover different generations and different corners of sports history. Baseball Hall of Famers Don Drysdale and Robin Yount appear alongside award winners Bret Saberhagen and Jack McDowell and more recent stars such as Giancarlo Stanton, Max Fried, Jack Flaherty and Hunter Greene. Football is represented by Hall of Fame quarterbacks John Elway and Bob Waterfield, Heisman Trophy winner Charles White and a longer line of Valley-connected professionals. Basketball runs from Hall of Famer Gail Goodrich to Gilbert Arenas, Jordan Farmar, Jrue Holiday and other familiar names.
The cards make those careers tangible, but the local connections are the real story. Schools including Taft, Granada Hills, Kennedy, Notre Dame, Crespi, Harvard-Westlake and Campbell Hall recur across generations. Families also emerge as part of the record: Jrue, Justin and Aaron Holiday; twins Jason and Jarron Collins; and Gary Matthews Sr. and Gary Matthews Jr.
Larry Dierker: Reseda, Woodland Hills and a fast track to the majors
Larry Dierker offers a particularly vivid Valley story. His family lived in Reseda before moving to Woodland Hills while he was in seventh grade. He developed as a pitcher in West Valley Little League and later played varsity baseball at Taft High School.
Dierker was still 17 when he signed with the Houston Colt .45s. He went on to pitch for 14 major-league seasons, primarily with the Houston organization, then became an Astros broadcaster and manager. A card bearing his name is therefore more than a baseball collectible: it is a small doorway into the youth leagues and school fields of the West Valley.
Research: Larry Dierker biography and the Los Angeles Times profile of the Taft High product.
Pete Crow-Armstrong: Harvard-Westlake to Wrigley Field
Pete Crow-Armstrong brings the directory into a new generation of Valley baseball. Born in Sherman Oaks, he attended Harvard-Westlake, the Studio City program that also produced major-league pitchers Max Fried, Jack Flaherty and Lucas Giolito. The New York Mets selected the center fielder with the 19th overall pick in the 2020 MLB Draft.
His route to Chicago came through one of the Cubs' most consequential rebuilding trades. In 2021, the Mets sent Crow-Armstrong to the Cubs in the deal for Javier Báez and Trevor Williams. He reached the major leagues in September 2023, bringing the speed and center-field defense that had distinguished him since his high-school years.
By 2025, Crow-Armstrong had become an All-Star starter, a Gold Glove winner and only the second player in Cubs history to record 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases in one season. In 2026, he became the first Cub to produce consecutive 30–30 seasons. His rise gives the Valley archive a living connection between Harvard-Westlake baseball and one of the most dynamic young careers in the majors.
Research: Mets 2020 Draft announcement, official MLB player biography and MLB's report on his second consecutive 30–30 season.
Hall of Fame careers with Valley roots
The directory is anchored by athletes whose careers reached their sports' highest halls of honor. Don Drysdale's pitching legacy includes a then-record 58⅔ consecutive scoreless innings in 1968. Robin Yount spent his entire 20-year major-league career with Milwaukee, collected more than 3,000 hits and won American League Most Valuable Player honors at two positions.
John Elway and Bob Waterfield are enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Waterfield was also one of the early Los Angeles Rams' most versatile stars. In basketball, Gail Goodrich followed his local beginnings with national championships at UCLA, an NBA championship with the Lakers and induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
These celebrated careers sit beside dozens of others in the collection. Together they show that Valley sports history is not one story or one era. It is a network of schools, coaches, leagues, siblings, teammates and neighborhoods.
Why trading cards belong in a local-history archive
A card records a particular moment: a team, a season, a uniform, a photograph and often a compact statistical biography. When that object is paired with local research, it becomes an index card for a much larger story.
The goal of this project is not to rank athletes or establish card values. It is to preserve and organize the Valley connections that can otherwise become scattered across biographies, school histories, newspaper archives and collectors' listings. The card is the starting point, not the finish line.
A living collection
The current directory includes 30 baseball players, 11 football players and 14 basketball players. It will continue to grow as new names, cards and stronger sources are found. Existing entries may also be expanded when readers share photographs, yearbooks, programs or personal recollections.
Help expand the archive
Do you know of another professional athlete with a San Fernando Valley school, neighborhood or youth-sports connection? Share the athlete's name and any supporting source. Card discoveries and corrections are welcome too.
View all 55 athletes in the SFV Sports Legends & Trading Cards Directory →
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