Sunday, August 17

ANAHEIM -- It started last season, when Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe thought it would be fun to have patients from Miller Children's & Women's Hospital Long Beach sign his chest protector and wear it as part of MLB Players’ Weekend.

It went so well that O’Hoppe did it again, meeting with roughly a dozen patients on Aug. 5 and having nine of them draw pictures on his gray-colored chest protector. He’ll wear it when MLB again celebrates Players’ Weekend this weekend when the Angels play the Athletics.

“It was great,” O’Hoppe said. “It was similar to last year. I think it came out better. I think just going there more makes you know what to expect from a personal standpoint. But I thought the kids were more engaged compared to last year, so it was pretty cool.”

O’Hoppe had the children draw freehand or use stencils provided by the Angels. There’s a drawing of O’Hoppe in red batting at the plate as well as illustrations of butterflies, birds, flowers, an owl, a lion and a cat.

“It’s a bunch of different pictures and whatever they were feeling,” O’Hoppe said. “Some of the kids were saying, ‘I'm not a good drawer,’ but I didn't want it perfect. The messier, the better. So it worked out pretty good.”

Spending time with hospital patients is something that’s near and dear to O’Hoppe, as his father, Michael, was diagnosed with Stage 4 Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma (ALCL), a rare and aggressive form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma on Aug. 2, 2021.

But after receiving treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering under the care of Dr. Oscar Lahoud, Michael's cancer went into remission in 2022 after a stem-cell transplant.

The family celebrated the two-year anniversary of his cancer going into remission last year at Yankee Stadium on Aug. 7. O’Hoppe, a native of Long Island, N.Y., had more than 350 friends and family members at the game to commemorate the milestone.

“It was great,” O’Hoppe said. “We enjoyed it a lot. It was a day we won’t forget, obviously. And hopefully we don't have any more to celebrate, you know what I mean? But I’m happy we had that moment as a family.”

O’Hoppe is active with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as a result and participated in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) "Light The Night" walk in Westbury, N.Y., on Oct. 19.

O’Hoppe also dealt with the death of his close friend and former fellow Phillies Minor Leaguer Corey Phelan, who was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in 2022 and passed away just six months after his diagnosis on Oct. 13, 2022. O’Hoppe remains active with Corey’s Promise, which helps families affected by pediatric cancer.

“My buddy, Corey, I never got to see him in the hospital, so that's been something that’s stuck with me,” O’Hoppe said. “And that's a big reason why I go do [hospital visits]. I feel like I can pay just a little of it back. So it’s super important to me.”

O’Hoppe, 25, carries himself with both maturity and a sense of self-confidence that has made him a leader with the Angels despite his youth and inexperience. This season has been another learning experience for O’Hoppe, who has had his ups and downs both offensively and defensively.

But even when things go wrong on or off the field, O’Hoppe knows there are more pressing issues in the grand scheme of everything, which is why the hospital visits mean so much to him.

“Just bringing light to a dark time for those kids,” O’Hoppe said. “I don't know directly what they're going through, but obviously, the last couple of years with my family and friends, I understand what they’re going through to a certain extent. So it’s really good.”

O’Hoppe added that he’s pleased that MLB brought back Players' Weekend for a second consecutive year after it was also previously held from 2017-19. It allows players to highlight causes that are important to them while also showing off their personality. On a lighter side, O’Hoppe had a custom bat made based on the musical Wicked.

“It's a great outlet for us,” O’Hoppe said. “I'm really grateful we have it and happy the league has put that in place for us to utilize it and enjoy it, obviously, too. It’s a pretty cool thing the league has done, and I hope they keep doing it for a while.”

The Angels completed their second Freeway Series sweep of the season, winning all three games against the Dodgers to go 6-0 against their rivals for the first time in a season in franchise history.

The series had plenty of memorable moments from Zach Neto’s big night on Monday, a triple play turned against former Angels star Shohei Ohtani on Tuesday, a walk-off single from Jo Adell on Tuesday and O’Hoppe’s go-ahead two-run single in the eighth on Wednesday.­­­

"They still won the World Series, but for us, it was awesome for us to be able to do this against them,” Taylor Ward said. “I’m excited for our group. And I’m looking forward to us building on it going forward.”

Who is the only Angels player to play in 162 games twice with the franchise?

A) Sandy Alomar Sr.

B) Don Baylor

C) Jim Fregosi

D) Bobby Knoop

Violinist Sean Mackin of the rock band Yellowcard performed a rousing rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner with his violin before Tuesday’s game against the Dodgers. Mackin is a devoted Angels fan who also performed the national anthem before a game last season while Yellowcard was on tour.

“My wife's family has season tickets, so our second date, we actually sat right here behind home plate,” Mackin said. “And so it's a love story for us. But in the Mackin family, we definitely have some Angels fans, but we live in Texas now. We're a little farther away, so it's harder to catch the home games, but happy to be here and play some violin.”

A) Alomar, in 1970 and ’71.

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