Mark Langill’s misfortune has once again reinforced his belief that he’s led a charmed life.
He had two brain tumors removed — one cancerous — and now faces six weeks of radiation, five days a week, and chemotherapy beginning July 8.
But, while waiting for the surgery, Langill felt nothing but gratitude that he has already fulfilled a dream of being the team historian for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Langill may have had the tumors removed, but the process hasn’t taken his memories of the Dodgers that he’s followed since he saw his first game at Dodger Stadium.
“It was July 15, 1972. I remember it like it was yesterday,” said Langill, who grew up in South Pasadena and is a member of the SPHS Class of 1983. “It was Box Seat 44, Row M. Seat 1. When you are 7 years old, it had to seem like one of the greatest places in the world.
“And I was right. That’s exactly what it is.”
Langill, who still lives in South Pasadena and continues to revel in the community, was at Dodger Stadium as always on April 25 giving tours when he began to feel lightheaded. He said he’d never noticed any previous symptoms. His nephew came and had him checked out and by that evening, he was at Huntington Hospital, being told he had two brain tumors.
“I was totally at peace. It was something I couldn’t control and I wasn’t in any pain,” Langill said. “In that moment, you realize how lucky a life you’d had. I felt gratitude for the last 59 years.”
Langill’s comments were reminiscent of his favorite movie, “Pride of the Yankees,” when New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig, facing a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, tells a crowd at Yankee Stadium: “I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”
After the surgery to remove the tumors, which combined to make the size of a large lemon, he had 28 staples in the back of his head. He spent 17 days in the hospital. One of the things Langill missed in recovery was watching the Dodgers on TV; the hospital didn’t have the team’s channel, so he listened to the games on a transistor radio just like he did when he was a boy.
“Those radio broadcasts were my only sense of normalcy,” Langill said. “I’m thinking, ‘I’m a fan listening to a Dodgers game.’ For nine innings, I didn’t feel like a patient. I was able to feel like a fan.”
He had a journal and he took lots of notes that he’d review during the day. Even during physical therapy, he found a way to remind himself about the Dodgers.
“The baseball stuff never left. Nothing involving baseball was touched. That’s the crazy part,” Langill said over the course of two phone conversations.
As he got better, he began to become even more aware of the things he once took for granted, especially when he was presented with two sandwiches.
“That tasted to me like caviar,” he said. “It’s amazing how happy a sandwich can make you when you haven’t had one like that in weeks.”
When he got out of the hospital, one of the things he most craved was a Greek omelet from Hi-Life, the restaurant on Fair Oaks Avenue in South Pasadena; and also going to browse through the bargain books at the city’s public library. He takes his exercise by walking between his favorite places, and said his memory started coming back after a few “groggy days” following surgery. He had to undergo physical and occupational therapy because it was hard to walk for a time after the procedure.
What was especially hard was missing the Dodgers and Dodger Stadium, which he described as his other family and home.
“It’s tough when you can’t be there,” he said. “I close my eyes and imagine the faces and people I’ve known, some of them for 30 years.”
Langill was a sportswriter before he went to the Dodgers’ front office and for the last 23 years, he has been the team’s official historian. The Dodgers were the first major league team to have an official historian.
He has written six books and helped with numerous documentaries, and he said that each day in his job is different, from writing to organizing programs to moderating panels.
Langill was able to get back to work by June 17, in time for Shohei Ohtani’s first series against his former team, the Angels. Langill’s goal is to continue his job at the stadium he loves best.
The club historian didn’t hesitate when asked the person from the Dodgers who had affected him most, personally and professionally.
Vin Scully, he replied.
“When I was a kid, I was drawn into the stories and his personality. And I was lucky enough to know him as an adult. People sometimes say, ‘Be careful about meeting your hero,’” Langill said. “Well, my hero couldn’t have been greater. He was a tremendous person and friend.”
Langill picked something that seemed simple for “his shining moment,” considering that he has seen so many exciting moments in his job with the Dodgers.
“I guess my favorite moment was my granddaughter from Hawaii going to her first baseball game when she was 2,” Langill said. “I was sitting there thinking, ‘I hope that she can find something that will bring her half the enjoyment that I get from the Dodgers.’
“I hope you can find something that is as meaningful and entertaining and fulfilling as what I’ve found. It turns out I hit the bull’s-eye.”
First published in the June 28 print issue of the South Pasadena Review.
