Magennis, My Bff: Best Friend Forever

By Robert Quinlan

This is a story of two Irish Roman Catholic guys from Boston who met in California in 1984 and developed a friendship for thirty-one years that endured through divorces and even the death of a son, until Magennis passed away in 2015.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984555786

Robert Quinlan

He worked at the post offi ce for two years and then joined the Manhattan Beach Police Dept and even wrote a book about his career CODE 7 MBPD and his connection to Charles Manson and the OJ Simpson pursuit while he was driving in front of OJ in his 88 Honda civic?? He now enjoys retirement playing softball and golfi ng plus babysitting his eleven grandchildren.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Magennis My BFF

On the 18th of December 2015 I buried my best friend John Magennis. It was 31 years ago that I first met John at St Pius Church in Buena Park Calif. It was around 3pm when my wife Debbie Dube (really) was picking up our kids from school. We had a VW SQ Back and it was covered with bumper stickers with Go Go Red Sox I don’t break for Yankee fans Go Bruins Celtic Pride etc.

Well John with his sharp eyesight noticed this and approached my wife to see if she was from Boston. She stated no but my husband is and he will be at the church tonite around 7pm for the Christmas Party. Debbie told John that I would be wearing a Boston Celtic jacket to piss off all the Faker fans (Lakers) at the school. The Celtics had just won the championship earlier in the year over the Fakers too.

I met John around 730 and then began our great friendship for 31 years until the good Lord took him from me. John was 11 years older than me but we were kids when it came to sports and arguring about the Boston Braves and Tommy Holmes (Johns idol) see I was a Red Sox fan and my idol beside my dad was Ted Williams.

John was born is Wessley Mass on June 15th 1928 one of three children during the depression but his dad was a postal worker so things werent that bad for the family. John played mostly baseball and was good friends with Jack Sanford who pitched in the Majors for the Phillies and Giants. John could also play basketball but hated hockey with a passion just the opposite of me.

I would always bug John about his idol Tommy Holmes who while everyone was in world war two he was playing baseball vs one legged pitchers and Pete Gray who only had one arm and a high school pitcher who was 15 years old (Joe Nuxhull) while Ted Williams was in the war. See Tommy Holmes had a 344 BA while the war was going on but when it ended his career did too. John would always say My boy Tommy but he heard him one day on the radio and said he sounded like a little girl??

John joined the army when he was 18 yeards old but by then the war was over. He was stationed in Japan for two years and his main job was to blow the bugle to wake everyone up in the morning so you could say he pissed off a lot of people in a short time. One such person was a Mr Luis Calderon who I met in 2014 in Arizona during a bseball game (see Chp 12). I would always bug John about getting the full benefits from the military after the war was over and he would just laught while other guys were fighting the Germans and Japanesse.

Chapter 2

Bad Times Before The Good Times

Magennis (the bad times before the good times) Magennis was going thru a divorce and he had eight kids at the time. Most of the kids were grown and out of the house by now. He had six boys and two beautiful daughters (Mary and Erin). One of his sons was in rehab for drugs so he and I spent some time talking about the problems he would face down the road. I checked with my police dept for any info I could pass on to John that might help his son. Sadly within six months his son overdosed and died.

During lunch time at the school I would volunteer for noon duty which was actually time for me to relive my childhood since I still havent grown up…so the kids would play softball where I would be the pitcher and umpire and Magennis was always on the other team. This was a great deal for Magennis since he was being paid to be a custodian at the school but always had the other parents do electrical work or some plumbing and he had the kids take out the trash too. We also played one on one basketball in front of the kids where John always lost since we were using a Larry Bird Basketball

When talking to John he told me he use to play softball at one time but was getting too old for the game. Well I informed him that I had formed a softball tea,m from the parents at St Pius V and he was welcomed to join (this was the turning point in his life). Well John was a good player and helped us win the league title his first year. Then he got his son Steve on the team and we won again but when he tried to get his beautiful daughter on the team I said no no no we ant going coed. Shortly after that we had Erins husband Jack on the team when some of the guys were worried that the name of the team would go from St. Pius V to the Maggenis band??

Johns life was starting to change now as he had sports and his family was involved once more in his life. John claimed to be a great golfer?? So I now had him playing golf every Friday in Cerritos plus softball games and pratice you could say he was active once more. Remember what they say An ideal mind is the devils workshop well this wasn’t the case any more in Johns life. It was May 29 1985 when I am on the tee box about to take on the 1st hole and Ironwood Golf Course. We have about 20 women behind us who are in a tournament starting at 8am. John hates women golfers but for some strange reason he was making fun of my legs and had the women laughing. Well a hit a 110 yard drive that was headed for the sand box when it hit a portable water sprinkler and rolled down the hill into the hole!!! Hole in one right?? I was so cool as all