Oh Brother Where Art Thou?

Dodgers and Angels Need Brother Antonine's Divine Intervention

By Mike Takeuchi

Anaheim-With both Los Angeles teams on the brink of elimination, the Dodgers and the Angels may want to call upon some divine intervention from Brother Antonine Correa. The former porter at the Old Mission, who passed away 15 years ago, was an avid Dodger fan and was friends with Angels manager Mike Scioscia during his playing days as the Dodgers catcher.

If he is looking down from up above, he may have enjoyed seeing his favorite team and favorite player managing another being so closed to a trip the World Series. But with the current state of both, he may be fretting as he once did in front of the television at the Old Mission.

As a child, I knew Brother Antonine, who was this writer's art teacher at San Roque School in the mid-1970's, quite well. He was a man with great passion who bluntly recognized this writer's lack of future as an artist at an early age. Yet he still left me with a fondness for him because he was the first adult outside of my own parents to give it to me straight.

And boy, did he love his baseball.

"I remember meeting him when we came up to Santa Barbara with our Dodger Caravans (a traveling group that included players and then manager Tommy Lasorda to communities outside of Los Angeles) ," Scioscia said. "And each time he would come up, he made sure to stop by and talk about the team. He really knew his baseball."

His longtime colleague, Brother Timothy Arthur chuckled at the recollection of his friend planted in front of the television during baseball season.

"I don't think he missed many Dodgers games on television," Brother Timothy said. "I remember him always saying that although he couldn't play the game, it didn't stop him from loving it."

Although he did not have an acumen for baseball, he was multi-talented according to Father Maurus Kelly, a priest at the Old Mission.

"As porter at the Mission, Antonine was tremendous," Father Kelly said. "Whenever we had visiting clergy come, he went out of his way to schedule activities and outings for them and took care of the logistics. But his biggest talent was art..

"He did a lot of stitchery here and became quite reknown for it. His art is hanging in churches across the country and around the world. He also made vestments for the priests here and abroad. Eventually he started making vestments for certain bishops to wear. He was really unselfish when doing this. Antonine was more than willing to commit himself to anyone that needed any help."

And that included the Dodgers. After several visits with Scioscia via the Caravan and on his own, the two traded notes and Scioscia sent pictures and Dodgers memorabilia. Brother Antonine responded by making Scioscia tapestries.

"When he gave me the first cloth, I was literally blown away," Scioscia said. "I was amazed at his talent, but really touched that he took the time to make them for us. I still have them."

Scioscia said the two then talked about the commonality of the beauty of sport and art. Over the years, Brother Antonine made more of his artwork and gave them to the Dodgers players.

"Antonine was able to combine two of his passions and bring joy to others by sharing them," Brother Timothy said.

And now that the Dodgers and Angels are one albeit troublesome round away, would he have changed his allegiances to the Angels for Scioscia?

"I don't know, but I hope so," Scioscia said.

His old friend was more certain.

"I think he would have been happy either way," Brother Timothy said.