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The Los Angeles Dodgers have won five World Series championships in the last five decades thanks to contributions from a broad range of star players.
Contemporary legends like Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani have led the more recent charges, but the team’s 1981 and 1988 titles saw their fair share of star performances as well. Key players like Fernando Valenzuela and Pedro Guerrero helped capture the team’s first championship of that decade, while stars like Orel Hershiser and Kirk Gibson led the team to the second.
And baserunning standout Steve Sax was a member of both championship teams, earning the titles as part of a 14-year big-league career that also included a Rookie of the Year Award in 1982 and four All-Star nods.
Los Angeles Dodgers 2-Time Champion Steve Sax Builds Legacy After Son’s Tragic Death
Though Sax is best remembered by Dodgers fans for his elite baserunning skills, the former player is looking to build a new legacy following a personal tragedy.
In 2022, Sax’s son, John, died in a military aircraft accident while serving as a captain in the Marine Corps. In a new interview detailing the work of the foundation he formed in his son’s memory, Sax offered his response to the loss.
“You just try to move forward,” Sax explained, according to MLB.com’s Manny Randhawa.
For the two-time Dodgers World Series champion, that has meant channeling the loss into the Steve Sax Family Foundation, a charity focused on sharing his son’s passions for aviation and physical fitness. The foundation’s latest fundraising effort is the creation of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) based on a painting that Sax identified in 2008.
Sax has teamed up with the artist, Opie Otterstad, to offer interactive NFTs based on the painting “Babe and the Kids,” which depicts legendary slugger Babe Ruth with dozens of fellow Hall of Famers depicted as children. The digital versions offered by the foundation integrate videos about the careers of the depicted players and holders will be invited to annual events.
Los Angeles Dodgers Star Steve Sax Looks To ‘Honor My Son’ After Tragic Military Accident
For Sax, putting time and effort into a foundation meant to honor his late son by helping others seems to be a natural way of moving forward in the wake of the loss.
“When you have a passion for something, it gets you through the downtimes,” Sax told Randhawa. “It gets you through the struggles. And that’s what I saw in John.”
By offering an avenue for donors to enjoy some unique baseball history through Otterstad’s work and directly participate in his family foundation moving forward, the former infielder is turning the tragic loss into an opportunity for positive change.
“This is how we can honor my son,” Sax added, per Randhawa. “And that is so important to me.”
